Cinema theatre owner oppose screening of ‘Balagam’ movie in public in villages
JAGTIAL: A cinema hall owner in Jagtial town raised objections and lodged a complaint with the Jagtial police against the public screening of the popular “Balagam’ movie in the open in the villages.
Over the last few days, the movie has been screened in many villages in the erstwhile Karimnagar district. It was first screened on the occasion of Ugadi festival, at Vattimalla in Konaraopet mandal of Rajanna-Sircilla district. Later, it was screened in Kasaram and Upparamallial of Gangadhar mandal of Karimnagar, Jaggasagar, Metpalli mandal of Jagtial district, Venkatraopet of Konaraopet mandal and other villages.
With public screenings of movies in rural areas being a thing of the past, the movie is bringing back memories of the documentaries that used to be screened via projectors by the government in public spaces to educate the people about government welfare schemes and developmental programmes. But, this time, the village sarpanches were taking initiative for the screening of ‘Balagam’ movie in the villages. The film talks about family relations, human values and ethics, has become quite popular for its touching story and is already being screened in several villages with village sarpanches and local leaders taking the initiative in an attempt to revive strong family connections.
In a complaint lodged to Jagtial SP A Bhaskar on Sunday, Durga Raja Kala Mandir 70mm deluxe manager G Rajesham urged the police authorities to stop the screening of ‘Balagam’ movie in the public on LED screens in the villages as it was affecting their business with no visitors to the cinema halls. The manager urged the SP to instruct the village sarpanches not to screen the ‘Balagam’ movie in the public as it was affecting the revenues of the cinema halls.
Already, the cinema halls were suffering from the film being screened on OTT platform, he said and freshly the public screening of movie would force the cinema halls to down their shutters following no visitors to the theatres. He urged the SP to protect the cinema halls from the closure with the screening of movie in public in the villages.
