Bollywood, multiplexes end stand-off

Bollywood producers and multiplex owners have ended a crippling two-month-old stand-off over revenue sharing and reached a deal last night, sources at the Indian Motion Picture Producers Association said.

Film producers had demanded that multiplex owners share collections with them on a 50:50 bais, which the latter rejected. Film producers and distributors then stopped releasing films at the multiplexes and multiplex owners in turn stopped screening films.

A deal was reached in Mumbai late last night after a marathon 12-hour talks between Indian Motion Picture Producers Association and the multiplex owners at the Yash Raj Studios in Mumbai.

Multiplexes will start screening movies form 12 July, Mukesh Bhatt, president of the Indian Motion Picture Producers Association said.

The final settlement allows for a 50, 42, 35 and 30 per cent share for the film producers for the first, second, third and fourth week, respectively, for all movies and 52, 45, 38 and 30 per cent respectively for all blockbuster movies that manage to collect more than Rs17.5 crore.

The two parties had been at loggerheads over revenue sharing for over four months after the producers demanded a 50:50 revenue sharing.

Multiplex owners had not screened any new movies, nor had the producers released any new movies at the multiplexes since 4 April. Only small budget movies were released at single screens during the summer vacation.

Multiplexes mostly cater to cinegoers in the metros and other big cities and have also helped film producers to make low-budget films.

The cine entertainment sector in India is estimated at about $2.2 billion, is projected to grow at over 9 per cent a year over the next five years. Theatre collection in the country are still less than 10 per cent of Hollywood's because of low ticket prices.