Hyderabad: The Andhra Pradesh high court on Tuesday dismissed the state government’s GO No 35 which regulated the prices of movie tickets. This decision implies that ticket rates are going to be priced according to the old system.
This decision is a setback to the efforts of the state government’s policy decision to regulate movie ticket prices. The government in the past had said that it is unfair that ticket prices go up too high when big-budget movies are released and this order was an attempt to keep prices affordable for public.
The petitioners have argued that the theater owners have the right to decide the rates of movie tickets each time a new movie is released, and the court agreed with the argument.
Senior lawyers Adi Narayana Rao and Durga Prasad represented the movie theater owners and put their arguments in front of the court.
Background of the case:
The state government brought in GO No. 35 in the month of April this year, reducing ticket prices. The film fraternity has expressed discontent with the decision and several senior producers and directors from the industry have requested the government to reconsider the issue and explained the situation to chief minister Jagan Mohan Reddy and Information and public relations minister Perni Nani on several occasions.
However, the government did not back down in this regard and Nani explained that ticket rates are going up massively at the time of the release of big movies and that the decision was taken to regulate it.