In a candid and frank press meet held at the film chamber today afternoon, noted Producer D.Suresh Babu clarified a lot of issues surrounding the reports that came out yesterday with respect to dubbed films.
“A lot of information was floating around saying that we have banned dubbed films during festival seasons and other such things. First, let me clarify expressly that no resolution has been passed. It was just a subcommittee meeting which was held to sort out internal problems in the film industry. We discussed the problems facing producers of low budget and small cinemas.”, said Suresh Babu.
“India is a free country. No one can ban any language film from being exhibited anywhere. However, we can take some steps to protect the interests of Telugu Cinema and we will do that. One such decision is to limit the number of screens available to dubbed films during major Telugu Film releases. Another decision is to prevent dubbed films from releasing during festival times when Telugu Films are in the fray. If no Telugu film is ready to release during a festival, then automatically we will allow dubbed films to release.”, said Mr. Suresh.
The committee said that “The major complaint we are receiving from makers of low budget movies today is the non availability of enough screens. We are trying to address that issue and we have put forward some requests to the Government.
1.To allow 5th show in theaters so that small films can be screened along with big releases simultaneously.
2.To allow flexible admission rates from a lower limit of Rs/- 35 to upper limit of Rs 100/- which will give more freedom to the producer and exhibitor as well as the viewer
3.Dubbing films should have the same Entertainment Tax on reciprocatory basis. (Eg: the same tax which a Telugu cinema pays in Tamil Nadu should be applicable for a Tamil dubbed film in Telugu)
Apart from these issues, the committee will also be looking into ways to protect everyone in the film industry. If a small film which is doing well needs to be protected during some big releases, the committee will look into it and try to make some screens available for it. This is an ongoing process and we are working out the best way for everyone concerned “.