Film Exhibitors Strike in Kerala Called Off

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:
The Malayalam Film Exhibitors Federation today called off their one-month long Cinema theatre strike, a day after Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan asked them to withdraw the agitation to end the crisis in the industry.
Federation President, Liberty Basheer said they were calling off their unilateral strike in view of Chief Minister’s appeal and assurance.
“The strike has been called off and it would start functioning today,” Basheer said.
In his Facebook post, Vijayan had said that it was the unilateral stand of the Exhibitors Federation that stood as the hurdle for ending the stalemate in the sector and not the government’s attitude.
“The Government stand was that it was not proper for Exhibitors to go on strike unilaterally.
But, the Federation went ahead with its strike plan ignoring the government approach,” Vijayan had said.
They should call off the strike first,” he added.
The decision of the Federation, with members of ‘A’ class theatres, comes in the wake of the move by noted Malayalam actor Dileep to form a parallel Association of theatre owners in the state to find a solution to the present issue.
A total of 350 cinemas in Kerala have been remained closed for nearly o
ne month as part of Federation’s call for a strike over sharing of theatre collection between them and film producers.
The crisis had begun when talks between representatives of theatre owners and producers and distributors over the percentage of box-office collection failed to reach a consensus last month.
According to industry sources, producers and distributors did not accept theatre owners’ demand for 50 per cent share of theatre revenue.