With Diwali around the corner and amid the ongoing deadlock over the Virtual Print Fee (VPF) between the Tamil Film Active Producers’ Association (TFAPA) and service producers, Tamil Nadu Theatre Owners Association president Tiruppur Subramaniam on Saturday assured that theatres will reopen as planned on November 10.
“The producers and service providers are still in talks regarding the VPF issue. They will come to a decision today. Theatres will definitely reopen on November 10. There are no issues between the producers and us. We have a smooth relationship with them. So there are no problems and the theatres will reopen on Nov 10. I am sure they will come to a good decision that favours both sides,” he told Silverscreen India.
Qube Cinema co-founder Senthil Kumar told Silverscreen India that “intermediaries are trying hard to resolve the matter”.
TFAPA head Bharathiraja announced on Monday that no new Tamil films will be released until the deadlock over VPF charges was resolved by theatre owners.
In a press release, Bharathiraja had said that producers had come to this decision after service providers did not pay heed to five requests made by the TFAPA. He said that producers have agreed to pay only the one-time charge, which includes mastering, cloning and delivering.
Among the five requests made, the TFAPA said that they were unwilling to bear the VPF to service providers Qube Cinema and UFO Moviez, which they had been doing for the last 10 years.
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Last month, Qube Cinema put out a statement stating that they had temporarily reduced VPF by 50% from the current price list for digital cinema initiatives and e-cinema, to help producers release more films in theatres.
After a lull of almost seven months, theatres and multiplexes in Tamil Nadu are gearing up to reopen on November 10. Regarding the same, the state government released a set of standard operating procedures for cinema halls on Tuesday. The guidelines include 50% capacity, touch-free sanitisers, mandatory masks and thermal scanners, among other things.