MUMBAI: After a cold last week, a meeting between the film producers and the multiplex operators is scheduled to take place on 3 June.
Confirming the news to indiantelevision.com, Mukesh Bhatt averred, “No, we are not meeting today as was previously determined. But as many of our members are out of town, we had to postpone the meet. We will now be meeting tomorrow to take a decision.”
Reliance Big Entertainment Chairman Amit Khanna also affirmed that the United Producers and Distributors Forum (UPDF) would meet at 8 pm on Wednesday.
It is interesting to note that while Big Cinemas, in principle, has reached a middle-path with producers and distributors, none of the other multiplex chains seem to find this acceptable.
“It was being speculated since yesterday that PVR Cinemas was supposed to agree to the terms today but since the meeting is not happening, things are in a quandary. Inox is also not in agreement with these terms,” says analyst NP Yadav.
PVR Cinemas and Inox Leisure jointly control 53 multiplexes with a total of 202 screens spread across India. Big Cinemas, on the other hand, has 78 properties with 198 screens.
At present, there are approximately 850 screens in India and releasing movies in single-screens along with the Big Cinemas chain is not likely to be commercially viable.
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