Notwithstanding the 28 percent tax that will come into effect on cinema tickets in the newly introduced GST scheme, Telangana government is planning to allow producers/exhibitors to decide the ticket price of their movies.

Newly appointed chairman of Telangana State Film Development Corporation, P Ram Mohan Rao said that flexi-pricing for cinema tickets will soon be permitted in theatres across Telangana. Explaining the need of having flexible pricing for movie tickets, he said, “a producer making a film with a high budget may want to price the ticket high in order to recover his investment, and that is completely justified. On the other hand, makers of small films can have lower prices for tickets, its a win-win situation for all. Audiences can decide whether they want to watch a film despite the high price or not, its not like we are enforcing high rates on them,” he said.

He also added that all theatres in the state will very soon have online ticket-booking facility. “The advantage of online booking is that a distributor and exhibitor will have official figures about the number of ticket sold. The number is also important for the government since tax is to be paid by an exhibitor based on the number of tickets sold,” he added.

Ram Mohan Rao further divulged about the efforts of the state govt. to make Hyderabad the film capital of India. He said that land had been identified at three places for studios to be set up under the PPP model.