Hyderabad: Theatres owners in Hyderabad seems to be living the phrase ‘make hay while the sun shines’. With Mahesh Babu’s Maharshi hitting the screens on Thursday, May 9, theatres across Hyderabad have decided to cash in on the craze by hiking the ticket prices by at least 20 per cent.

Despite Telangana Cinematography Minister Talasani Srinivas Yadav warning action against those theatres not toeing the line, owners have decided to go ahead with the increase in the ticket prices. Accordingly, the single screen theatres are likely to increase their Rs 80 ticket to Rs 138 and Rs 138 ticket in multiplexes to be sold at Rs 200. This is likely to be the scenario until the first two weeks after the film’s release.

The theatres cite a 2018 order from the High Court that allows them to hike the prices during the first two weeks after the release of a big film. This is the prerogative of the theatres as there are no guidelines from the government about fixing and hiking prices.

In fact, when theatre owners and government went to the court in 2017, the court asked the government to come up with necessary rules to fix theatre prices. But the government remained unresponsive. As this was the scenario, the High Court said theatres can go ahead with their proposals to increase the prices.

Hiking prices when a big-ticket film releases has been the norm in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana for some time. The theatres owners say this is basically done to offset any damages that they have to pull through when big film does poorly at the box office despite the hype.

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