High price for 'The Villain' may land producers in soup

The high ticket price for the much-awaited Kannada movie 'The Villain', may land the producers in a spot as officials are set to write to the commercial tax department over the violation of ticket pricing rules.

The movie, starring superstars Shivaraj Kumar and Kiccha Sudeep, has a high ticket price. If the ticket cost is Rs 200 for the single screen (balcony), it's Rs 400 in multiplex theatres, excluding the service tax.

'The Villain' is claimed to be made with the budget of Rs 45 crore and the movie makers have decided to hike the price in a bid to recover this amount.

However, the officials have warned of strict action against those who violate the ticket price rules.

N R Vishu Kumar, director, Kannada and Culture Department, said: “The high price has come to our notice and we will bring this to the notice of the commercial tax department for further action.”

As the movie is releasing over the festive weekend, the makers hope to recover the amount in a short span.

“With the skyrocketing ticket price, the movie can easily mint the money spent to make it if it runs packed houses over the weekend. However, with a huge fan following for both the actors, it's more unlikely to take a toss on the number of people turning up for the movie due to the high price,” said a movie distributor, requesting his anonymity.

Defending the move, Prem, the director of the movie told DH: “People don’t bother to spend Rs 700 – Rs 800 per ticket for Hollywood, Bollywood, Tamil and Telugu films. Our hike is very minimal, and this is with producer’s point of view. I am sure our people will understand the reason behind the hike.”

The advance booking for the film was opened last week, and bookings for most of the shows are done over the first weekend. The online movie ticket booking platform, BookMyShow show 99% ratings for the movie.