Ticket row: Theatre with Asia’s largest screen downs shutter

V Epiq, a massive multiplex theatre with Asia’s largest screen, at a small town of Sullurpet in Nellore district bordering Tamil Nadu, is going to down its shutters on Saturday, thanks to the abnormally low cinema ticket prices fixed by the Andhra Pradesh government.

Launched with a lot of publicity and fanfare on August 29, 2019, with the release of Prabhas-Shraddha Kapoor-starrer “Saho,” the multiplex with three screens is owned by acclaimed producer Vamsi Krishna, also the owner of V Celluloid chain of cinema theatres with over 50 screens in both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and co-promoter of UV Creations.

The 656-seater theatre is now being closed as the exhibitor has realised that he cannot run it with the low cinema ticket rates fixed by the Jagan Mohan Reddy government.

Sullurpeta being a municipality, the minimum ticket price has been fixed at Rs 60 and the maximum price at Rs 150 for a multiplex.

The theatres in V Epiq have only two classes and when it was opened in 2019, the ticket prices were fixed at Rs 100 and Rs 200.