Delhi hunts for the cheapest shows as halls to charge 40% ent tax from Monday

With an entertainment tax of 40% being levied on movie tickets from Monday, Delhi is looking at morning shows and Noida, Gurgaon for cheaper showsand Noida, Gurgaon for cheaper shows.
READ: Salman Khan: 'Bajrangi Bhaijaan' has left people speechless
How Delhi plans to find the cheapest shows
Go for morning ‘student’ shows Trip to Noida and Gurgaon No more weekend shows Choose offers & competitions offering free tickets
Delhi gets no tax exemption
We met the CM and he said, ‘Hum aapko khatam nahin hone denge’. But now we have received a notice for increased tax.Maharashtra has zero tax for Marathi films. All we have is Bollywood, so our loss is higher– Shashank Raizada, President, National Association of Motion Pictures Exhibitors.
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Last week, we told you how Delhi’s cinema hall owners are expecting huge profits and 100% occupancy with Salman Khan’s Bajrangi Bhaijaan being released. But now, with the Delhi government issuing a notice about charging 40% entertainment tax instead of 20% from Monday, all their jubilation has been washed away. While industry reps say that their meeting with the CM didn’t have the desired effect, Delhi moviegoers are finding different ways to deal with this jump in ticket rates. From giving up weekend shows to going for morning ‘student’ shows, the hunt for the cheapest show is on for Delhiites.
Go for morning ‘student’ show
Faced with increased prices, many Delhiites are planning to go for morning shows, also called ‘students’ shows’ because of cheaper tickets.
Priyanka Shah, a software engineer who lives near Akshardham, says, “Movies are an affordable form of entertainment for people like me. But now, with increasing rates, we won’t even feel like taking a break with a movie. I think I’ll go for morning shows instead of the weekend evening shows.” Suhani Taneja, an IT employee who says she didn’t expect the hike to be implemented so early, says, “Who says only commercial entities think of making a profit and not the government? They have imposed the tax right when a major movie is being released because theatres will be packed. To save money, I am thinking of going for morning shows rather than the after-office evening shows.”
No more weekend shows
Since weekend shows are more expensive, moviegoers are now thinking of switching to those on the weekday. Indrajeet Sinha, an entrepreneur who lives in Pitampura, says, “First restaurants and now cinemas, what is going on? Aam aadmi kya filmein nahin dekhta? We can’t stop watching films, even if they increase the ticket rates by `100. My idea of the perfect weekend used to be going for a movie, but now, I will go on the weekdays. I can’t abandon my pastime. Cinema ticket prices are not like petrol prices, jiske daam badhne se log aag lagayenge ya dharna karenge, so we have no option but to bear the extra cost.”
It’s NCR’s show time
Samiksha Garg, a banker who lives in Vasant Kunj, says, “All this market talk is not my concern – my concern, or, for that matter, the concern of any moviegoer, is whether the movie tickets are cheap or not. Wherever the filmi experience is cheaper, that’s where the people will go. No one goes to watch a film every day and in most cases, not even every week. In that case, even if I have to take a Metro and go to Noida or Gurgaon to catch a film, I will do it.” Divyansh Rai, an assistant manager who lives in Mayur Vihar, says, “In Noida, there are fewer cinema halls, but in Delhi, you have many theatres to go to. With these new prices, however, people will end up going to Noida to catch a movie instead of Delhi.”
Go for free movie tickets
While there’s no such thing as a free lunch, there are free cinema tickets. So if you find the new rates too high, just get tickets for free, advise Delhiites. Madhav Mittal, a freelance photographer who lives in Laxmi Nagar, says, “I think free movie tickets are the best thing to go for. I am going to make a list of all the competitions where they give free movie tickets and I will participate in all of them. On certain sites, you can win tickets if you make purchases using certain banks’ cards and on the radio, there are several competitions where you can win tickets as well. With the increased prices, we have no other options left.”
Increased prices will affect business
Delhi theatre owners say that with the official notice, they have no choice but to increase ticket prices. They add, however, that it will affect their business. Shashank Raizada, president, National Association of Motion Pictures Exhibitors, says, “We met chief minister Arvind Kejriwal 10 days ago and told him about the difficulties faced by cinema proprietors. He told us, ‘Hum aapko khatam nahin hone denge.’ But now, we have received the notification and it says the increased tax will be imposed starting Monday. So, if at a Delite cinema hall, the highest ticket price used to be `130, it will now be `170. Similarly, in multiplexes where the tickets are around `1,000, the audience will additionally have to pay 40% of `1,000. Expensive tickets are not good for the health of the film industry. Cinema owners were given an entertainment tax relief of 10% in 2008-09, but with this increase of 20, audiences will flock to Noida and Gurgaon where tickets are cheaper and often, holiday tax exemptions are available. In Delhi, we don’t have regional cinema like Maharashtra, where there’s zero tax for Marathi films – all we have is Bollywood, and so our losses will be higher.”
Yogesh Raizada, corporate head, Wave Cinemas, says, “In Delhi, our weekend shows were around `300, but now, the same ticket will cost around `320-`330. We are not increasing the ticket rate, but we will add the extra tax. What the government doesn’t understand is that there are only three-four films like Bajrangi Bhaijaan in a year, otherwise business is slow and we don’t make any profit. There are talks going on, but, for now, the audience has to bear with the new prices.”
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