THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:
Kerala Cultural Activists Welfare Fund Board
(KCAWFB) chairman
P Sreekumar
has said that the ongoing crisis in the Malayalam film industry was affecting its welfare schemes.
"The ongoing strike by the
Kerala Film Exhibitors Federation
(KFEF) has seriously affected the smooth functioning of the board as the collection of cess from movie theatres has stopped. We are facing a shortage of adequate funds to give pension, health insurance, and implementing other welfare schemes for cultural activists. The cess is our sole source of income," he said at a news conference on Tuesday.
Sreekumar said that the artists and cultural activists, who are beneficiaries of the schemes, are the ones who bear the brunt of the crisis. "The welfare schemes of KCAWFB are the lifeline for many of the penniless cultural activists. Now, the government decided to double their monthly pension to Rs 2,000. Moreover their health insurance has been increased to Rs 1,75,000 from Rs 75,000. But, none of these will do any good as there is severe fund crunch owing to the strike by exhibitors," he said.
Sreekumar slammed KFEF saying that the federation is destabilizing the Malayalam film industry by unnecessarily hindering the releases of new film.
"The strike by exhibitors cannot be justified. They claim that theatres are running losses and hence they demand more share of the box office collections. But almost all the theatres in the state are running well and it is the producers who are suffering due to the unnecessary strike called by some leaders of the exhibitors group," said Sreekumar.
He alleged that many theatres were amassing money illegally by selling overpriced movie tickets. "The official, who was assigned to collect the cess from Liberty Movie House, Thalassery, was abused by the staff there when he found out that they sold Rs 80 ticket for Rs 100. This happened in October during the release of Pulimurugan. The theatre is owned by KFEF president Liberty Basheer. Likewise many other theatres are earning money through 'fake' ticket price. Then also they claim that theatres are going through financial crises," he added.