Let me be honest. I do not generally go to the theater to watch films and neither do I buy DVD’s. I generally download the film I want to see and watch it at home.

But sometimes there are certain films you have to watch on a big screen to actually live the movie. One such movie is the James Bond Franchisee. If you really want to watch the film you need to see it on a big screen. So I go over to my local multiplex Inox to pick up tickets, I ask for 3 and the ticket-seller tells me “Rs.1050 sir”. I was kinda shocked. 350 bucks for a bloody 2 hour film? Comeplete “chutiagiri”
Anyways I chose not to argue with him. Gave him my credit-card, signed for the purchase and left.

So I went about asking pals from work and school what they thought about this ? Here’s a random pick of the best answers I got.

Joshua Sequeira a staff writer at campusjunkie says “its just a stupid premium kept, people spend that much just to show off. Its just isn’t justified”.

While content manager Shakti Salgaokar who is a self proclaimed cinema freak, who goes to the theater to watch even the silliest hindi films agrees that “its a rip off”. She adds “Dvd’s are way cheaper”. Though she is willing to pay for certain perks at a cinema she rules there has to be a limit.

But Smaran Sahu a south Mumbai collegian who agrees that “high ticket prices is an unreasonable trend” feels its reasonable since “at the same time it does offer you better services and to some respect due to higher pricing, you are sure to be around a much better crowd.” Which is true, the crowd is generally way better. More stylish and certainly not the type to ogle at the girl with you.

He add’s “I would pay 350 for a movie that I really want to see sitting in plush seating…otherwise there is just too much snags in a theater with a Rs 100 ticket.”

Anisha Murarka from Juhu add’s “With so many movies releasing every week, spending so much on each and every movie ticket is not at all possible.One single trip to a multiplex for a movie, with even a four member family costs me more than 1000. Each ticket leaving the morning shows,is priced more than Rs 200.”

But this kind of behavior on the part of the cinema companies isn’t welcoming. Why should someone pay top dollar for a 2 hour film? I’d rather download the film at a negligible (read:power) and watch it at home. And if your talking about small screen’s that’s not a issue I could just plug my notebook to a plasma screen. Anisha goes to the extent of saying its the most “sensible” thing to do and then spend the money saved more responsibly

Though Smaran feels its not high ticket prices that compell him to do it, rather “its just the easy availability of such pirated dvds.”

But whatever the case, if movie companies want me to stop downloading films and going to the theater it bloody well, decrease ticket prices. Else you can count me out from going to a theatre.