Cinema strike ends; films to be released this week

The meeting convened in Kochi on Wednesday to solve the crisis in the cinema field, a day long discussion initiated by the Kerala Film Chamber to disentangle the issues, decided to put an end to a two month long strike. Accordingly all films cleared for release will reach theatres shortly. A thirty member committee will be constituted to study the persisting problems, which led to the strike. A team of ten members each from the organisations of producers, distributors and owners of releasing theatres will be included in the committee. The committee would prepare a report within a period of two months. Final decision will be taken after further discussions based on the report. Status quo will be maintained until then. According to the settlement, all bans imposed by different organisations were withdrawn. The differences by organisations over the issues of hold over, wide release of films and sharing of advertising charges by theatre owners led to the crisis. Film Producers Association president G. Sureshkumar, general secretary Sabu Cherian, treasurer Ayyanchira Sasi, Film Distributors Association president Siyad Kokker, secretary Jose C. Mundadan, Exhibitors Association president Liberty Basheer, secretary M.C. Bobby, Film Chamber general secretary Evershine Mani took part in the discussion.