₹500 show approved, reasons left backstage
Telangana permitted premium pricing for The Paradise, but the High Court questioned the last-minute memo and its missing explanation.
The High Court questioned the timing and reasons for Telangana’s special ticket-price approval.
Telangana permitted a special 6:30pm show of The Paradise on September 23 at ₹500 a ticket, including GST. The permission also allowed additional charges from September 24 to October 3: ₹48 for single screens and ₹95 for multiplexes until September 27, followed by ₹23 and ₹45 respectively. Up to five shows a day were reportedly allowed. [1]
That is the approval. It is not a collection report, an occupancy figure or a profitability certificate. No audited box-office result was found in the available material. The government memo reportedly also required a welfare contribution, but the amount has developed two different versions: ₹1 lakh in one report and ₹1 crore in others. The original account manages to print ₹1,00,000 and call it one crore, which is ambitious arithmetic.
The Telangana High Court questioned the September 20 memo, reportedly noting that it gave no reasons for the hike and was placed in the public domain too close to the show date. The court left review or withdrawal open and sought the government’s response. The BJP-led Centre and the Congress have no role to claim here; Telangana’s own permission is the record, and its explanation is still missing. [2]