It is not rare to hear members of the public complaining about high ticket prices. Oftentimes, admission rates pinch the public so much that people prefer to watch films when they stream on OTT platforms rather than in cinemas.
Well, for such people who’ve felt, cinema ticket prices are beyond a common man’s reach, today’s release, Sky Force, has come as a welcome change. Believe it or not but those booking tickets for the Akshay Kumar starrer on bookmyshow.com are being given a refund of Rs. 250 per ticket. That means, if you book two tickets of Sky Force for Rs. 700 (at Rs. 350 per ticket), you immediately get a refund of Rs. 500 (at Rs. 250 per ticket). In other words, you have effectively paid Rs. 200 for the two tickets or, put differently, Rs. 100 per ticket.
One doesn’t know whether it is the film’s producers who are behind this exercise or an actor of the film. Whoever it may be, this is another low for the film trade which has been doing all under its control to attract the audience to the cinemas.
PVR Inox Pictures, the distributors of Sky Force, are also ‘tearing’ tickets of the film in cinemas across India. One cinema owner telephoned Information to spill the beans on this tactic to inflate the first-day collections of the film. Said he, “We’ve sold barely 50 tickets but we are putting up the housefull board because all the balance tickets have been ‘sold’ to PVR Inox.” This would mean an almost empty cinema hall but a housefull board outside.
What is more disgusting — buying one’s own tickets or refunding 60-80% of the ticket price? According to us, both are equally disturbing and deplorable. For, the impression being created in public minds about the functioning of the film industry is truly pathetic. Films are supposed to transport the viewers into a make-believe world, but here, even the business of films is a world of make-believe.
Shame!
P.S.: So if the producers tomorrow announce that Sky Force has collected Rs. 18 or 20 crore on the first day, discount that figure by 60-70% to arrive at the honest collection figure.