Rachana Dubey (BOMBAY TIMES; March 28, 2019)

If murmurs in the Bollywood power blocs are anything to go by, heads of top studios, production companies and distributors are expected to hold a closed-door meeting today at the Indian Motion Pictures Producers’ Association (IMPPA) office. While it’s said that there are several issues on their agenda, one of the key reasons is Ronnie Screwvala’s battle against multiplex giants and the Multiplex Association of India.

Two weeks ago, Ronnie filed a complaint that highlights five grey areas in the film distribution and exhibition business, before the Competition Commission of India (CCI). While the petition rued the payment of Virtual Print Fee (VPF) to multiplex chains, it also highlighted the fact that the audience is forced to watch excessive amount of ads between films. Another point put forth by Ronnie was that foreign studios are exempted from the payment of VPF, which gives them an edge over domestic films.

Over the last 48 hours, Ronnie has been getting support from other filmmakers like Hansal Mehta, Dinesh Vijan, Ramesh Taurani and Anand Pandit, along with several independent voices on social media applauding his effort. Now, BT has it that various heads of filmmaking companies like Disney/Fox Star, Viacom 18, JIO Studios, T-Series, Zee Studios and Dharma Productions, distributor Anil Thadani, producer Siddharth Roy Kapur (President of the Producers Guild Of India) and producer Mukesh Bhatt (a longtime office-bearer at the Guild) are expected to meet to discuss ways of joining Ronnie’s existing complaint with CCI. Buzz is that some of them want to be appended as a party to the complaint.

We didn’t get a response from Mukesh and Sidharth till we went to press.