House Full --Meesha Madhavan. August 24, 2002.

Large scale black marketing of Cinema Tickets in Gulf Theatres.

'Meesha Madhavan' of Dileep is running houseful in various Gulf film theatres which thrive on the large number of Keralite audience. A number of Keralite families who had assembled in front of a leading theatre in Muscat had a bitter experience. Since the film started showing in the Star Theatre three days ago, it has been very difficult to get a ticket from the counter, because a coterie of people, expatriates and Arabs, have purchased a major chunk of the ticket in advance, creating artificial shortage.

According to many Keralites with families who came from far away places to watch the movie as part of their Onam celebrations said they were asked to pay RO 3 and sometimes more to buy a ticket which normally costs RO 1. 5 The funny part is that some of the theatre staff themselves are associated with this racket of bulk booking at cinema theatres during peak occasions. Whenever a good Malayalam or Hindi movie is running houseful in these theatres, the members of the racket buy the ticket in bulk and open a parallel counter sitting in a restaurant in the theatre complex.

The film Meesha Madhavan, which was released in the first week of July, continues to be a great crowd-puller. The film is reported to be running to full houses in all the 33 centres across the state where it has been released. It has been quite some time since Malayalam cinema has had a hit with so much of initial pull at the box-offic. Due to the popularity of the film and the Onam season, large number of Keralites have come to see the picture. The success of Meesha Madhavan has become real hot news in the Gulf. "Meesha Madha-van, set in a rural background, is a colourful film with songs, dances, humour and sentiments and tells the story of Madhavan, a thief, who is very much loved by the people of his village. The exploits of Madhavan, interspersed with sufficient amount of romance, light-hearted humour and songs and dances, has been worked out in such a manner that it appeals to the audience, especially the family audience and those of the younger generation who form a major part of the fans of Dileep, who has been gaining immense popularity among the masses over the last couple of years," says a film review by Screen.

The Shaiks of film tickets sit and do business openly and apparently even the theatre owners are remaining mute spectators to such a practice. About 1000 seats are available in the Star theatre but eyewitnesses complained that not a single ticket was sold through the counter. Just before the film started the counter staff themselves were selling tickets at black market rate, something unheard of in any other part of the world. "Not even a single ticket was sold through the counter, but the counter staff themselves were asking black market rate for buying ticket from the counter," says Udaya Kumar, a Keralite from the interior, who came with his family to watch the move. "We visit Muscat on such festival occasions like Onam or Christmas. When there are good films, we come all the way from Barka to watch the movie because there is no theatre in that area. The only theatre in Nizwa was closed sometimes back and Keralites who want to see a good movie always come to Muscat.", he says. "Even before the ticket sale starts, the counter staff put a House Full board and start selling tickets in the parallel market," says another Keralite.

The practice is very common in all the theatres in the Gulf and in most cases Keralites who come from far away places just to watch their favourite movies shell out extra bucks to buy ticket from the black market. The margin from one ticket is RO 2, which means by selling say, 750 tickets, the racket will be making roughly RO 1500, which is equivalent to Indian rupees 1,80000! This is just for one show and there are two to three shows per day in one theatre. No wonder the theatre owners themselves are allowing ticket black marketing go unnoticed. If you wish to watch the black market drama going on side by side at the Star, Al Naser or other theatres, just visit these place in the evening or on Thursday and Fridays, when the demand is more. This racket has been taking film fans for a ride by charging two times the original price for tickets. If there is no demand for black market tickets, they will sell the same at a discount!

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