Bollywood strike finally ends

The two month old spat between the Bollywood producers and multiplex owners over revenue sharing has finally come to an end. The two parties reached a deal in Mumbai late last night. The two parties had been at loggerheads for over four months after the producers had demanded for 50:50 revenue sharing from the multiplex owners. The was rejected by the multiplex owners and the producers in turn did not screen any new movie in the multiplexes since April 4. This meant only small budget movies released at single screens denying the cine goers of entertainment during the summer vacations.

The meeting between the two parties was held at the Yash Raj Studios and lasted for close to 12 hours. President of the Indian Motion Pictures Producers Association (IMPPA) Mukesh Bhatt confirmed the news and said movies will start screening at the multiplex form July 12 onwards. The final settlement that has been reached between the two parties is 50, 42, 35 and 30 percent for the first, second, third and fourth week respectively for all movies and 52, 45, 38 and 30 percent respectively for all blockbuster movies that manage to collect more than Rs.17.5 crores.

The strike also saw Shahrukh Khan and Aamir Khan come on a common platform and pledge their support to the producers and distributors. The end of the strike will be a welcome relief for the industry as 2009 has been a disastrous year so far with no money spinner yet with almost half the year gone. Vashu Bhagnani's Kal Kissne Dekha and Mithun Chakraborty's Zor Laga Ke Haiya will hit the theatres next week and formally call of the strike.