PVR Cinemas did not release three of Ramzan Vishwa’s films and reportedly stopped the screening of earlier Malayalam films.

The Malayalam film industry and multiplex giant PVR Cinemas are on a collision course after the latter refused to release festive season Malayalam films in its screens following a dispute over content distribution.

PVR Cinemas did not release the Fahad Faisal starrer. AveshamVineeth Srinivasan – Director Varshangalko Shesham, And the film starring Ani Mukundan Jai Ganesh, which released in their screens on Thursday. The multiplex major reportedly stopped showing Malayalam films that were released earlier. Primalo, Munjamal BoysAnd Adujeevitham. Officials of PVR Cinemas could not be contacted for a response.

The Kerala Film Producers Association and the Kerala Film Distributors Association in a joint statement issued here said they will not cooperate with PVR cinemas unless the multiplexes release major new films and remove Malayalam. does not compensate producers for loss due to Movies are being shown.

The Kerala Film Producers Association had recently launched PDC (Producers Digital Cinema), a content mastering unit, after producers and distributors realized that the Virtual Print Fee (VPF) of existing content providers such as Cube, UFO , PXD, and TSR are being received. Movies are shown a lot in cinemas. The release said that PDC’s aim is to showcase films at affordable prices.

Currently, the content mastered in PDC is mostly given to theaters, which show movies using their own projectors and servers. An agreement has been reached with other theaters to switch to PDC once their ongoing contracts with other content providers expire. Producers and distributors are still cooperating by paying VPF in excess of the rental limit for projectors provided by content providers, in the hope that a solution will be found in due course, the statement said. .

When PVR Cinemas decided to open nine new screens at the newly opened Forum Mall in Kochi with its own projectors and servers, the producers demanded that Malayalam films be released at a lower VPF using content mastered in the PDC. should be done However, PVR Cinemas insisted that they would release Malayalam films only if the producers agreed to the higher VPF set by Cube.

“When we told them that this was unacceptable, they refused to show three Ramadan-Washu releases on their screens and removed the films already shown,” the statement said.

Anti-competitive

In a statement released on X, PVR officials said that forcing an exhibitor to source Malayalam content from only one source, the content expertise and distribution network run by the Producers Association “Competition is anti-competitive in nature and prohibited under law. As a law-abiding member of the film industry, we are unable to abide by it,” the statement said.

“We will be happy to screen all Malayalam films on PVR Forum Kochi and Kerala as well as pan India. We would like to appeal to all producers and filmmakers to engage constructively with us and grow the Malayalam film industry.” And help us improve.