Tamil Nadu Film Producers Council (TFPC) had announced a theatre shutdown across the state from March 1 as a mark of protest entire South Indian film industry (Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam) against digital service providers QUBE and UFO.

A statement issued by TFPC states that all five South Indian film industries (Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu) have decided to stop the release of news films effective March 1 for the benefit of the entire film industry. The strike will continue until TFPC makes its next announcement regarding the withdrawal. Only the producers of South Indian film industries have announced the strike whereas the exhibitors are not part of this indefinite shutdown.

Impact of the strike

No new releases - No new south Indian films will hit the theatres from tomorrow (March 1). Moviebuffs will have to wait for atleast few more weeks to catch up with new releases.

 Exhibitors face crisis  - With no new releases, exhibitors will have to continue with the run of last week or previously released films or rerun old movies. They can release other language films, the only popular choice being English and Hindi. The exhibitors will have to find ways to get the audience to the theatres which may include slash in ticket price or by providing promotion offers like discounts, cashbacks or 'buy one and get one free'.

Rescheduling release dates of new films - The new films which are lined up for release will have to wait till the strike is called off and then decide on a new date. Post strike, there may be a big clash for locking release dates and getting the desired number of screens to release the film.

Small, Medium, Big films  - The month of March is considered as the examination season. Mostly big films do not get released in March and the impact may be less or none. In case of small and medium budget films, the impact may be more as the 'release window' for such films shrinks. With the summer vacation round the corner, the month of April and May will have many promising and notable films lined up for release further squeezing the release of small and medium budget films.