No superstar has raised a voice of support for theatres to re-open, laments producer

The continuing stalemate with regard to opening of cinema theatres in the country has obviously upset the exhibitor fraternity all over India. With the latest advisory from the Centre extending the ban till September 30, it would be a good six months and more since people have been barred from entering their favourite cinema halls for their three-hour entertainment programmes.

Mukesh Mehta, who has been a multi-lingual producer with films in Tamil and Malayalam in his tweet has criticized the superstars of all the major film industries for maintaining a studied silence on the issue of theatre re-opening. 'They seem to have forgotten that they have reached their peaks only because of the crowds that thronged the theatres' he commented.

Already, the producer fraternity had made statements that were reported in the media that they would want the stars to reduce their remunerations by a significant percentage to enable them to stay afloat, paying interest on the locked-up investments running into hundreds of crores, only in south India. It has gone unnoticed by the leading stars, with a few of them making critical comments on this approach being sought.

Interestingly, there were reactions floated by film pundits that even if the stars reduced their remunerations, will the producer tell the theatre owners to reduce the ticket prices for enabling the fans also to benefit from this exercise? This is something that none expects as by playing victims, the producers seem to have conveyed the impression that they only want to maximize their profit margins on their investments, not bothering too much about the paying public.