Alternate Cinema Ticketing System

[Ravi]

It is a pity that 3 people have died while trying to get tickets for the Tagore movie. It’s a pitiable situation. We have to avoid these kind of deaths. Why can\'t the concerned parties i.e., Government, people, theatre owners devise a system where there won\'t be any stampedes, or deaths? The present cinema ticketing system should be replaced with a modern, trouble free system, which will not require muscle power to get tickets and avoid stampedes, or deaths. The following ways will avoid stampedes and hardships of the people. It will avoid black marketing of tickets also.
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1) Sell the tickets by auction. Let people buy tickets in auction in proportion to their enthusiasm, money power, or craziness to watch the movie on the first day.
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2) People interested in getting tickets should buy tickets, which don\'t bear any date/show time on that. By means of draw (by using a computer to pick the ticket numbers) it can be decided who will watch the shows on a particular day/particular show. (Of course, this has to be done well in advance of the release of the movie.)

[Mayavi Morpheus]

Forgive me, but your ideas are not realistic.
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1. If tickets are auctioned, then only those with enough moolah can buy them and not everyone. What about ordinary people who can only afford 5 or 10 bucks for a ticket?
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Moreover, the theater owners can artificially jack up the price to cash in on the craze. There are people who will do anything but spend money to watch their fav hero\'s movie. This is also the reason for stampedes.
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2. If lottery system is used then tickets for all shows, all days should be bought much in advance, but no one will ever know when they\'ll have time to spare for a movie. And what if I want to enjoy a movie with a friend?
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The more realistic approach, in my opinion, is internet booking (of course, only in Hyderabad). Today we have a cyber cafe in every galli and corner, and they have administrators who can tie up with movie halls to sell tickets. Those who want to watch the movie can go to their nearest cyber cafe an hour or so earlier and buy the ticket. It all boils down to the net speed . It is just like online reservation. If a theater sells 600 tickets, there will be 600 people waiting for those in front of the hall, but if internet booking is used then these 600 will be spread all voer the city! This system is currently being used, but is not wide-spread.
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Of course, there should be a certain percentage of the total tickets sold at the theater.

[Kulcha Hyderabadi]

Tagore is an exception with such an unprecedented response from Chiru fans, otherwise, movie theater owners are struggling to stay in business these days.
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The current system is not bad and Morphy\'s suggestions are good. However, what is needed is for the people (fans) to understand and realise is that life is precious and it ain\'t worth to get killed for the sake of watching one\'s favorite hero in action on the first day itself!!!

[Mayavi Morpheus]

Yeah, kulcha. To me it\'s really disturbing to see people fighting for tickets. I really don\'t understand why people idolise movie actors. Everyone knows that he is \"acting\".

[upmapesarattu]

Why not sell in supermarkets? Open a counter near colleges, banks, post-office etc. Make a phone call and get home delivery if you want to, if you can spend that extra 5 or 10 bucks per delivery. Since, there are Caller IDs these days, the distributors need not worry about people making false calls.

[Mayavi Morpheus]

That\'s a really good idea! Dunno if theatres will do it or not, but Air Deccan is doing just that.

[neo]

I agree with some of the views. Fighting for tickets and putting one\'s life at risk to watch a movie on the first screening is madness. They do realise that they can watch it later, don\'t they? Are the theaters to be blamed or the public itself? Movies are for fun, not for fanaticism. Hope our audience realises this sooner rather than later. Cheers.