


It's official. The stand off between producers and multiplex owners over revenue sharing is finally over.
According to filmmaker Mukesh Bhatt, the breakthrough came late on Friday morning. "Yes, the strike got over at 3am. All the parties agreed to our demand and we all will be releasing films soon.
He refused to give more details.
The meeting that began late Thursday night concluded early Friday morning after multiplex owners agreed to the terms and conditions of the producers.
The first one to give in was Big Cinema who signed on the dotted line. Soon to follow were other multiplex owners like Fame Cinema, Cinemax, Fun Republic, Innox and PVR, who gave their verbal assurance to end the strike.
Asked if the strike was really over, Tushar Dhingra, Chief Operating Officer, BIG Cinemas replies, "Yes, the strike is over."
When further queried whether it was only BIG Cinemas that has agreed to the demands of the producers, Dhingra replied, "All of them."
However, Shravan Shroff of Fame Cinema and Devang Sampat, Senior Vice President of Cinemax did not respond to the calls or smses.
Sources say that they have agreed to the terms and conditions verbally and will soon sign on the dotted line by Saturday.
On April 4 the producers decided to go on a strike after multiplex owners refused to share equal revenue with them. In the last two months the industry has suffered around Rs 60 crore losses as no new films released in the theatres.
The producers had demanded a revenue share of 50:50 ratio from multiplex owners but the latter refused stating they will give 45:55 ratio, and will give 50:50 only if a film is a hit at the box office.
They (multiplex owners) however informed that they would pay 50:50 profit sharing in the first week of the film's release, 42.5 ratio in the second week and 37.5 in the third week.
So, we can expect Kites to release on time i.e. Oct-Nov 2009.

“Kangana was not told to accompany Rakesh Roshan, Hrithik (Roshan) and Anurag Basu although the director is very close to her and in fact, was instrumental in recommending her for the role in ‘Kites’. We believe the team wanted to focus on the Hrithik-Barbara pair to give ‘Kites’ a more international crossover appeal at Cannes,” a source close to Kangana told IANS.
Basu had cast Kangana in films like “Gangster - A Love Story” and “Life In A… Metro”.
Rakesh Roshan, his son Hrithik Roshan and Basu have returned to Mumbai from Cannes while Barbara Mori has gone back to Mexico - all are content with the way the nine-minute trailer of “Kites” has been received at the international jamboree.
But doesn’t it appear strange that the film’s leading lady was left out at such an important event?
When questioned, Rakesh Roshan washed his hands off the matter, saying: “We ourselves were not sure till the last minute who was going or not. Even my brother Rajesh Roshan, who has done the ‘Kites’ music, was left out because of the last-minute flurry. I think our co-producers Big Pictures would be the best people to comment on why Kangana couldn’t go.”
When contacted, a representative of Big Pictures said: “I think Mr. Rakesh Roshan would be able to comment on why Kangana wasn’t at Cannes.”
Now you decide who should comment.
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This blog is about Hrithik Roshan's upcoming film KITES movie.The Movie is slated for release on May 21st, 2010. It will be released in a 120 minute Hindi version in India and a 90 minute English version (edited by Hollywood director Brett Ratner), in the United States and most other countries.