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Chennai, July 3: The theatre owners in Tamil Nadu are on an indefinite strike from Monday and nearly 1,000 theatres across the state will remain shut. The protest is against the state’s imposition of 30 per cent entertainment tax with an addition of the 28 per cent Goods and Services Tax (GST) on film trade. This means curtains off in theatres at least for ten Tamil films that released two weeks back in Tamil Nadu. It is the only state that has announced a separate tax in addition to GST.
The producers did try to resolve the impasse and tried to persuade these cinema hall owners not to go on a strike, however, that didn’t help. Abirami Ramanathan, president of Tamil Nadu Cinema Theatre Owners Federation announced on Sunday evening, that theatre owners would go ahead with the strike – to the agony of the producers of recently released films, reported TOI. Tamil Films Producers Council President Vishal is batting for the producers who are affected by the theatre strike in the state. On Sunday, he asked the theatre owners to call off the strike or at least to defer it by a week.
On Saturday, Ivan Thanthiran director R Kannan posted a message that his film that had hit the theatres on Friday will suffer a huge loss if theatre owners go on a strike. He said, “They announced the strike without prior notice. How will I pay back loans I took to make this film?
Ramanathan, on the other hand, said, “We have heard the pleas of the affected producers. We will discuss what needs to be done”. He further said they had to take the decision of strike as the theatre owners were kept in dark about the double taxation until 5 pm on Friday. He adds, “A government order was passed on Friday, declaring that in addition to GST, the state will levy 30% entertainment tax which will be collected by local bodies.”
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