The ongoing row between distributors and exhibitors did not seem to make much headway on Tuesday as the latter took their turn to speak. A group of six representatives from BIG Cinemas, INOX, Fame, Cinemax, Fun Cinemas and Movietime gathered to speak to the media, and the answer was clear — there was little space for compromise: revenue-sharing ratios will be determined purely on the basis of a film’s performance.

“But we are hopeful that we will resolve this dispute before April 4,” said Tushar Dhingra, COO, Big Cinemas, in response to a question about whether multiplexes had begun to calculate losses they may incur in case the United Producers’ Forum went ahead with its threat to hold all releases after April 4 until the dispute is resolved. Meanwhile, the Telugu film industry has threatened to boycott new releases in multiplexes from March 28.

The grievance that has been brewing since late last year revolves around a demand by distributors to exhibitors to share revenue on a 50:50 ratio. “The current revenue share for distributors is 43 per cent, which has been raised from last year’s 42 per cent even though the total revenue we generate from box-office collections is the same as last year,” Dhingra said.

Beginning with a power-point presentation, Shravan Shroff, MD, Fame India Limited, pointed to the rise in revenue generation over the last eight years with the rise of multiplexes. It followed a similar news conference yesterday, where the likes of Siddharth Roy Kapur (UTV Motion Pictures), Mahesh and Mukesh Bhatt (Vishesh Films), Yash Chopra (Yash Raj Films) and Sandeep Bhargava (The Indian Film Company) raised their grievances against exhibitors and the issue of not letting movies run long enough in their halls, pulling them out after a handful of screenings. “We take as much risk as producers do. So if a film like Heroes does badly, I have to pull it out soon. I don’t care if it stars a Salman Khan or Priyanka Chopra in it, I have to run my business,” Shroff said.

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