Top News

Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Tuesday, January 20, told the state government that any notifications hiking the prices of movie tickets must be issued 90 days before the release of the film.

A single-judge bench of Justice NV Shravan Kumar issued the order while hearing a petition against the fee hike of Chiranjeevi starrer “Mana Shankara Vara Prasad Garu.” He also issued a contempt notice to the Principal Secretary of Home Department, CV Anand, for approving the fee hike for the film despite the court’s earlier order against such actions.

Earlier, on January 9, Justice Kumar had suspended the government order (GO) allowing ticket price hikes for Prabhas starrer “The Raja Saab.” The judge had also noted that the Cinematography Minister Komatireddy Venkat Reddy had himself said that there would be no more price hikes and had appealed to producers not to approach him with such requests.

The petitioners in the current hearing have contended that the price hikes have been granted without any financial disclosures like the film’s budget, source of funds and income and expenditure statements.

The petitioners had argued that price hikes without such disclosures from the movie makers constitute a violation of the public’s right to information. This argument was backed by the court, which asked filmmakers to produce all necessary financial documents before filing for price hikes.