Tamil, Telugu film industries outshine Bollywood

Hindi movie industry may be far ahead in coming out with big budget flicks, but when it comes to the occupancy rate in theatres, the number of movie theatres and the movies released in a year, Tamil and Telugu film industries fare better than Bollywood.

Deepak Asher, director, Inox Leisure, said that occupancy rates in South Indian movie theatres are about 50 to 60 per cent compared to 35 to 40 per cent in other parts of the country. He was speaking on the sidelines of a press conference here to announce the initial public offer of the company.

According to CII-KPMG report 2005, there are about 12,900 screens in the country, out of which, 95 per cent are single screens. Put together, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh have 5,160 theatres while Karnataka and Kerala have 2,451 theatres.

In 2003, the country's film industry produced 877 films, of which the majority were made in South Indian languages. Telugu accounted for 155 films and 151 films were made in Tamil, compared to 246 films released in Hindi. Kannada and Malayalam contributed about 109 films and 64 films respectively, while the number of other language films was 152.

There are 73 multiplexes operating in India with the Western region having 42 multiplexes, followed by Northern region having 23 and South and East having five and three respectively.

A large number of multiplexes are concentrated in Northern and Western India as the state governments in these regions were the first ones to announce entertainment tax exemptions on multiplexes.

Entertainment tax is one of the largest costs borne by theatre owners, except in cases where the entertainment tax rebate is available. The rebate is available in certain states on fulfilment of certain conditions. In case, the rebate is available, the entire rebate adds to the profit of the multiplex operator.

Exemption from income-tax to the extent of 50 per cent of profits enjoyed by Inox on its own and operated multiplexes in Pune and Vadodara will expire in 2006-07.

Inox Leisure operates a chain of eight multiplexes in seven cities. Inox Leisure is entering the capital market with a public issue of 16.5 million equity shares of Rs 10 each for cash, to be decided through the book-building process.

The price band for the issue has been fixed between Rs 100 and Rs 120. The issue opens for subscription from January 27 - February 2, 2006.