Cheques & card readers debut on theatre stage

PUNE: Come and watch Marathi plays. Pay for tickets by cheques now or in cash a week later.
Hard to believe, but producers and booking agents of several hit Marathi plays have started offering these options to combat the after-effects of demonetization. Theatre groups and producers, who have been rather slow in adopting online payment platforms, have been now pushed to keep even card readers to retain the audience reeling from the cash crunch.Producers of hit Marathi plays like 'Saujanyachi Aishi Taishi' (starring Bharat Jadhav), U Turn (starring Girish Oak and Ila Bhate), Amar Phos to Studio (starring Ameya Wagh) and Katkon Trikon (starring Mohan Agashe), staging shows in the city throughout this week, have issued advertisements stating that they would accept payment for tickets by cheques.
Ajit Bhure, the producer of 'Saujanyachi...', told TOI that for the two shows of the play in Mumbai on Tuesday (Gadkari Rangayatan) and Saturday (Shivaji Mandir), he had arranged for card readers at booking windows to accept payment through credit or debit cards.
“We are offering facility of online booking and cheque payment at the booking window. We have also informed the audience through an advertisement that if they bring their address proof at the time of the show, we shall collect cheques from their residences later,“ he said. Bhure said he issued simir advertisements in local advertisements in local newspapers on Monday for the shows in Pune this week. “On Sunday, we had a show at Balgandharva Rangmandir.About six persons asked us if we shall accept cheques and we readily agreed, though we had not advertised about the cheque payment facility,“ he said.
Bhure said the common people were confused and concerned about the cash crunch and entertainment was last on their minds when it came to using whatever cash they had. “We do not want to lose the audience just because of the currency shortage, said Girish Godbole, who handles bookings for four Marathi plays in the city. “We are steadily losing theatre audience for several reasons. After the demonetization move, there has been a drastic drop in the number of people coming to watch plays. In such a situation, our preference is to retain the audience,“ he said.
Godbole even went to the extent of showing willingness to accept cash payment a week after the show of the play “Amar Photo Studio“. “Some people came with Rs 2,000 notes, but we did not have the change, and some did not wish to issue cheques. So, for the November 19 show, we have offered to collect the cash payment a week later. The theatre audience is a cultured and educated class and we are sure they will pay later,“ he said adding, that his company had also ordered card readers to enable payments through cards for shows slated a couple of weeks later.
Virendra Chitrav, a culture expert and founder of Aashay Sanskrutik, said it was high time theatre groups opted for online payment. “It is a matter of survival and achieving a break even. Dates of plays are booked two months in advance and they have to pay the theatre booking amount and fees of actors even if a show is cancelled. Plays still get good response in Pune and Mumbai, and even actors prefer to give dates for shows in these two cities,“ he added.
Chitrav revealed that for the Pulotsav cultural festival held last week in the memory of humourist P L Deshpande, he could get full houses only because the programmes were free and he had distributed one-and-a-half-time more passes than the seating capacity of the theatres. “We could see people, especially senior citizens, finding it difficult to get autorickshaws because of the currency shortage,“ he said.