'Government may even pay salaries of KSRTC employees using money of theatres'; will not cooperate with 'Ente Show', says FEOUK

KOCHI: FEOUK, the organisation of theatre owners, said that it will not cooperate with the 'Ente Show' mobile app and website designed by the state government for booking movie tickets. Speaking at a press conference, FEOUK president K Vijayakumar said that theatres have the right to decide which system to distribute tickets through. He also said that the organisation will take legal action if the government tries to implement the system forcibly.

"None of the government's projects have been implemented smoothly so far. If the app crashes while people are standing in queues, tickets cannot be issued. The entire ticket amount will go to the agency designated by the government as the service provider. From there, funds will be moved to theatre owners' accounts, including the portion owed to distributors and producers. The service provider gets one and a half rupees from the ticket price. There is no guarantee that the theatres will get the amount from the government on time. With the handling of money coming under the control of the government, the money may even be used to pay the salaries of KSRTC employees. Hence, won't allow to implement the system," Vijayakumar said.

"Let the government test 'Ente Show' in government theatres for a year. Then we can think about other theatres. Big multiplexes in malls are also unlikely to cooperate with this. We had expressed our concern when 'Ente Show' was introduced. There was no move from the government to resolve it," he said.

Vijayakumar said that theatre owners are ready to make accurate revenue information of theatres easily available to producers and the Film Welfare Board. He alleged that some theatres in malls and non-members of FEOUK were the ones who were not paying the welfare fund properly.