After the talks between the south Indian film industries and Digital Service Providers (DSPs) failing, no new south Indian film will release from 1 March. They are certain to go in for a shutdown from next week in protest against DSPs and their monopolistic ways. This will be the third time in less than a year that we will witness the Tamil film industry go on strike.
The south Indian film industries have claimed that the Visual Projection Fee demanded by DSPs like Qube and UFO are too high and eat into their profits. Talks between digital service providers (DSPs) and the south Indian film industries in Bengaluru failed yesterday. However, the crisis was not resolved and no new south Indian film will release from 1 March. Jayendra, co-founder of Qube Cinema, a leading DSP, tweeted that despite providing multiple price options and a cost reduction from Rs 22,000 to 14,000 per screening, all offers had been turned down. The strike will slow down production and alter release date schedules.
Some of the movies that would face the heat include Rangasthalam in Telugu, over a dozen movies in Kollywood including Vishal’s Irumbu Thirai and Sai Pallavi's Karu, Malayalam industry has films like Prithviraj's Detroit Crossing and Mammootty's Bilal and the Kannada remake of Dhanush's Pa Paandi among others.
New Tamil movie release stopped from March 1