Will do justice to big and small budget films: Jagan

Film industry urged to shift to Visakhapatnam

Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy on Thursday said the government contemplated to bring a policy that would protect the interests of both big and small budget films, and claimed that the cinema ticket prices that werefixed after a comprehensive study,would do justice to all.He stated that the rates were so modified that they would be affordable for the cine-goers and also help the industry grow. In doing so, the requests of multiplexes were duly considered.

Besides, he called upon the Tollywood bigwigs to gradually shift film-making from Hyderabad to Visakhapatnam, insisting that the port city had the scope to compete with cities like Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad in the medium to long term. He pointed out that the contribution of Andhra Pradesh to Telugu film industry was higher (60%) than that of Telangana (40%) in terms of revenue.Addressing a meeting with Chiranjeevi, Mahesh Babu, Prabhas, S.S. Rajamouli, Koratala Siva and others at his camp office, Mr. Jagan said it was felt that movies done with budgets exceeding ₹100 crore deserved to be given a separate treatment and freedom should be given to fix special ticket rates for a week from the date of their release. Otherwise, no one would come forward to make such movies involving advanced technology and huge investments.Big budget films made without factoring in the remunerations of the heroes and heroines and directors fall in that category.The Chief Minister further said ways to strike a balance between the ticket prices and the stiff competition posed by OTT platforms were thought about previously and a decision in this regard would be taken soon.It was planned to stipulate that at least 20% of movies should be shot in Andhra Pradesh in order to promote shootings, he said and called upon Tollywood bigwigs to shift to Visakhapatnam.