The Telangana High Court passed an interim order on Wednesday allowing theatres to increase the ticket prices for the upcoming Telugu films RRR, Bheemla Nayak, Pushpa, Akhanda, and Radhe Shyam.
According to a Deccan Chronicle report, the interim order is applicable to the theatres that had applied to the police and the state government for permission to hike the prices by at least 50% for all classes of tickets.
Justice B Vijaysen Reddy passed the order after a batch of petitions were filed by the theatre owners claiming that their applications were not attended to by the officials.
Counsel Durga Prasad, who argued for the petitioners, said that due to “non-implementation of GO75 issued in 2017,” ticket prices could not be increased.
Meanwhile, the counsel for the cinema-goers association, GL Narasimha Rao, argued that he had filed a counter petition against the exhibitors’ request, on behalf of the audience. However, the justice said that this implead petition may be heard later and directed the police and state government to allow the ticket price hikes for the new films.
Speaking to Silverscreen India, Anupam Reddy, an executive committee member of the Telangana State Film Chamber of Commerce and owner of Sudha Multiplex in Hyderabad, said, “This order is only for certain big movies that are coming up. For the past one year, we have been requesting the government to increase the rates and the chief minister had said he would look into it.”
He added that the new ticket prices for Akhanda would be fixed at Rs 150 in single screens and Rs 200 in multiplexes. Tickets for Pushpa, meanwhile, will be Rs 200 in single screens and Rs 250 in multiplexes.
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Reddy further said that Bheemla Nayak and Radhe Shyam would also tentatively have the same prices as Pushpa, while for RRR, it would be Rs 250 for single screens and Rs 300 for multiplexes.
“As of now, the prices for Pushpa and Akhanda are clear, while for the others, the court has asked the government to file a counter within four weeks, which will be heard later,” he added.
While Akhanda was released in theatres on Thursday, Pushpa is scheduled to release on December 17. RRR, Radhe Shyam and Bheemla Nayak will hit the big screens in January.