No headway in producer, multiplex talks

From June onwards, millions of Bollywood buffs may now have to watch the new Hindi films at the 8,000-plus single-screen theatres across the country and not in multiplexes. This is because the talks between Bollywood producers and multiplex owners have broken down over sharp differences in the terms and conditions of the proposed revenue sharing agreements.

“Our talks have stalled. Multiplexes have come back with the same formula they had proposed in January 2009, with absolutely no change,” said Mukesh Bhatt, film producer and spokesperson for the Bollywood producers and distributors forum.

When contacted, most of the leading multiplex chains like PVR, Big Cinema, Inox and Cinemax, among others, refused to comment on the matter. “We are not meeting again, not at least in the near future,” Bhatt said.

As the talks between both the parties have hit a dead end, over 250 multiplexes in the country may now have to shut shop, as they will not be able to release any new Bollywood film in the near future. Already, the combined losses of the multiplexes are estimated to have crossed Rs 250 crore in the last month, due to sharp decline in theatre occupancy.

The main demand of the film producers has been a flat 50:50 revenue sharing agreement for all weeks with the multiplex chains, while multiplexes have been asking for a performance-linked arrangement where the majority share of the revenue comes to them.

As a result of a month-long stand-off, the multiplexes saw a huge dip in the average theatre occupancy across the country. For the last week, the average occupancy stood at about 10 per cent, which was a historic low for any multiplex chain, said a top executive of a leading exhibitor.