Theatre owners withdraw strike in TN!
All theatres in the state will open as usual from tomorrow.
Theatre owners in Tamil Nadu on Thursday announced that they were withdrawing their ongoing strike to protest the imposition of an Entertainment tax by the state government over and above the GST.
Abirami Ramanathan, President of the Tamil Nadu Cinema Theatre Owners Federation, made this announcement after a delegation from the film industry met representatives from the state government.
Talking to reporters, Abirami Ramanathan said, “I wish to thank the public for their patience and co-operation.
Theatres in the state remained shut for the fourth consecutive day today and as a result, there has been a loss of around Rs 20 crore. Under these circumstances, talks were happening between the film industry and the government at various stages. Ministers including Jayakumar, Veeramani, Velumani and Kadambur Raji and government officials understood our difficulties.
“What we have decided is that there will be a committee that will be formed with representatives from both the film industry and the government to decide if there should be an Entertainment Tax at all. From our side, there will be eight representatives. We believe the decision this committee takes will be in our favour. Therefore, we have decided to open theatres from tomorrow.”
The news brought cheer to scores of producers, distributors, directors and those associated with the film industry along with film buffs as business had taken a pounding with theatres being shut for the fourth consecutive day.
However, industry experts aren’t celebrating just yet. They point out that the contentious issue hasn’t still been resolved.
For now, peace has been bought and the question is how long will it last.
