FilmIndia (Feb-Dec 1949)

II: in a This section is the monopoly of "JUDAS" and he writes what he likes and about things which he likes. The views expressed here are not necessarily ours, but still they carry weight because they are written by a man who knows his job. ICENSING FREEBOOTERS! In response to our comments about the misuse of jmplimentary tickets by the producers, distributors and ichibitors (Bombay Calling, Nov, '48 Number), the overnment of Bombay have issued a draft notification ated the 25th January 1949 under Section 7 of the ombay Entertainment Duty Act of 1923, which states lat: 1. No proprietor of an entertainment shall issue lore than five per cent of the tickets or ten tickets which*er is less for any class of seats for an entertainment complimentary tickets and every proprietor issuing ny such tickets shall submit to the officer prescribed nder Section 10 of the Act within ten days from the date f the performance of the entertainment, a return of jch tickets in form " E ". Such percentage and number f tickets shall be inclusive of the number of complilentary tickets claimed under any lease for the time beig in force in respect of the place where the entertain ient is held. , 2. Every complimentary ticket issued by a prorietor of an entertainment shall have shown thereon, le serial number of the ticket, the name and address of le holder of the ticket and the class of seat and the show nd date for which it is available. 3. No person shall be admitted to, nor shall any erson enter, any place where an entertainment is held >r the purpose of witnessing such entertainment unless e is the holder of a ticket for which payment has been lade or of a complimentary ticket permitted to be isled under these rules. The form " E " calls from the exhibitors details of dmission rates; number of tickets issued at each rate; umber of complimentary tickets issued for each class f seats; the ratio in percentage of complimentary tickets i the actual sales; and the name, place and date of per>rmance. While we compliment the Government of Bombay n their quick action to check their racket of complientary tickets, we must frankly state that we are not all satisfied with the present proposed measure which, say the least, is halfhearted. Even the proposed amendment is rather unhappily orded. 1. The word " ticket " in the proposed amendment in be construed as an admission permit for any number persons. It should therefore be specifically mention1 that a ticket shall not provide admission for more ian one person. This will stop the practice of issuing single complimentary ticket for 2 or 4 persons as is >ne at present. 2. The proposed amendment does not specify wheer percentage of complimentary seats permitted should : a percentage of the actual scalps sold for a certain class in a certain show or a percentage of the usual seating capacity of a certain class irrespective of the actual sale of tickets for a particular show. 3. The form " E " should also insist on the exhibitors mentioning the particular show for which complimentary tickets are issued. At present only the overal! daily report is required which gives the exhibitor a lot of scope for dirty work. Apart from these technical flaws in the proposed restrictions, we do not at all approve of the 5 per cent or 10 seat* per class rule which in our opinion is too generous a license for freebooting. Assuming an average capacity of 700 seats per theatre for the 60 theatres in Greater Bombay, we have a total of 12.000 seats. 5 % of these work out at 2,100 free seats per day per show, i.e., 48,300 free seats for the usual 23 shows of a week. The admission prices range from 5 annas to Rs. 3|10 per person. Calcu lating a minimum average cost of Rs. 1|4 per seat, the total loss in collections would be Rs. 60,375 which means a loss of over Rs. 20,000 in Entertainment Tax Intelligent and charming, Zeb Qnrcislii, plays the lead in " Bhool Bhoolaiyan ", a social story of Ranjit, directed by Tairaur.