Eastern India Motion Picture Association organized a press meet to speak about the service charge issue that is plaguing many single screen cinema halls in Bengal.

The press meet was attended by Arindam Ganguly, Pallavi Chatterjee, Arijit Dutta, Piya Sengupta and other eminent personalities.

Rathindra 2 (Sodepur) and Ellora (Behala) have recently being shut down due to financial constraints. The number of single screens has reduced to 250 from a staggering number of 900 in Bengal.

During the press meet, the members of EIMPA threw light on the fact that after the imposition of GST, the government in the other states gave the hall owners the permission to collect service charges. But that did not happen in Bengal. As a result, it is becoming difficult day by day to run the single screen halls. This service charge will not affect the pricing of the tickets. But even then also, the government has not paid any heed to doing anything for the hall owners.

It was stated that if this is not resolved by the State Government, then the hall owners will not have any other option but to go on a strike-“No Service Charge, No Show” from 19th July onward.

It remains to be seen now what will be the step taken by the State Government to resolve this grave matter.

Priyanka Dutta