A meeting of the executive committee of the Central Circuit Cine Association (CCCA) was held on 12th November at the IMPPA office in Bombay. It was presided over by CCCA president Lokendra Jain who welcomed the producer-members of the IMPPA. He said that the need of the hour was for producers to make good content-driven entertaining films with good music. He rued the fact that a large number of single-screen cinemas were shutting shop because of the unaffordable high content delivery charges levied by digital players, and high MG royalties paid by distributors, both of which made exhibition a loss-making business.
O.P. Goyal emphasised the need for having regular joint meetings of producers, distributors and exhibitors to take corrective measures so that single-screen cinemas and small production houses don’t close down. Aditya Chowksey said that one of the main reasons for the closure of many single-screen cinemas was their poor maintenance and upkeep. He underlined that such joint meetings at the IMPPA office should become a regular feature to solve the myriad problems of the industry.
Producer Kumar Adarsh said that the time had come to form an all-India joint committee of producers, distributors and exhibitors. He added that new technology needed to be introduced for delivery of content to cinemas so that the Virtual Print Fee (VPF) or Content Delivery Charges (CDC) could be a thing of the past. This, he explained, would prompt the closed cinemas to reopen. He also mentioned that financial agencies should be approached for funding for renovation and revival of closed cinemas.
Producer Sushama Shiromanee agreed that the problems of the film industry need to be tackled sooner than later. IMPPA secretary Anil Nagrath assured the full support of the IMPPA for the survival of single-screen cinemas and small independent film producers.
CCCA president Lokendra Jain thanked the IMPPA for supporting the CCCA and standing with it for solving the problems of the film industry.
Seen in the picture on the top are (l. to r.) producer D.N. Joshi, CCCA president Lokendra Jain, C.I. exhibitor Rajiv Tolani, Aditya Chowksey, exhibitor Sanjay Tolani and O.P. Goyal.