Nandamuri Balakrishna has been vocally against ticket rate hikes for his and others' movies, an industry elder revealed at a presser on Friday. Ahead of the elections to the Telugu Film Chamber of Commerce on December 28th, the Telugu film industry stands divided into two camps, one of which (comprising C Kalyan, Chadalavada Srinivasa Rao, and a few others - known as the Mana Panel) is against hikes.
"Balakrishna feels that there is no need to seek hikes in the age of the pan-Indian market and non-theatrical sources of revenue. Back in the day, the likes of NTR, ANR, Krishna, Krishnam Raju and Sobhan Babu made successful movies with just the Telugu market. Balakrishna feels that we shouldn't burden the audience with increased prices when seniors didn't," a producer said.
This Mana Panel wants Tollywood to put an end to surge-pricing. "Other States don't have this problem. In Karnataka, there is a proposal to put a ceiling of Rs 200 on all ticket prices. Tamil Nadu and Kerala have reasonable ticket rates," he added.
