No new film releases from tomorrow

Film producers will go ahead with their decision to stop release of new films indefinitely from tomorrow as their long-standing deadlock with multiplex owners over revenue-sharing has failed. "Producers and distributors have been compelled to go ahead with the strike with a heavy heart," filmmaker Mukesh Bhatt, who heads the United Producers Distributors Forum, told PTI. While producers are demanding equal share in ticket sales from multiplex owners, the latter want "performance-based" revenue sharing.Bhatt said new films would not be released in single-screen theaters as well as multiplexes. "We have nothing against single-screen theaters and will take a call to release new films there in due course of time," he said adding "the producers will have to plan their marketing strategy for release of films in single screens." "We will give a boost to single screens in the next few months. It is the issue of our survival and multiplex owners are just not ready to understand," Bhatt said. Producers, distributors and exhibitors stand to lose about Rs 100 to 200 crore due this stand-off, Bhatt said. He said the losses could mount to over Rs 500 crore if a solution is not reached at the earliest.