Unruly spectators broke glasspanes of the projector and damaged some seats in the SLN Cinema Hall in Tadipatri town of Anantapur district on February 25 when the audio in the morning show of Pavan Kalyan-starrer Bheemla Nayak stopped for some minutes following disturbance in the power connectivity or some technical problem.
Tadipatri Circle Inspector of Police said the police force immediately rushed into the theatre and brought the situation under control, but the cinema hall owners had not lodged any formal complaint. Videos from inside the cinema theatre showed spectators banging the closed doors and hurling objects at the projector window and the screen.
The police said that the morning show continued and was still on and that they had not yet assessed the actual damage as the show was on. “The show stopped only for a few minutes due to the disturbance, but it continued later,” the CI told The Hindu. There were rumours that the tickets were sold for a premium of ₹400 and ₹600 per ticket with an original price of ₹110, but the police denied any such activity taking place.
Meanwhile, at the CTC Theatre in Gorantla town, the Pavan Kalyan fans bought cinema tickets for ₹500 each and criticised Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy government for reducing the ticket price to ₹5. “If you reduce the tickets, we will protect our theatres by buying tickets at a higher price or will donate money for the survival of the thetre,” said Jana Sena Party functionary Suresh.
“If you really care for the people, reduce the price of Bharati Cement, which will help many poor people and not only cinema tickets. You will be hailed as a pro-poor Chief Minister,” said Mr. Suresh before the start of the morning show on Friday.
