GUNTUR: Friday’s release of ‘Magadheera’ has set off a mad scramble for tickets. The movie slated for release in nine theatres has already seen one of the biggest pre-movie hypes in recent times. With the local civic polls round the corner, the politicians have left no stone unturned to bag the maximum number of tickets and enthuse their supporters.

Some of the local leaders have blocked and booked the tickets in advance. Amid confusing reports that the tickets for the first three days have already sold out, Joint Collector Gaurav Uppal on Thursday convened a meeting of cine exhibitors and distributors and warned them against black-marketing of tickets.

Special teams
He said that special teams, comprising revenue, police and commercial tax officers, would keep a watch at the ticket counters and see that each person is issued one ticket only. Police in vacancy reserve along with CTO would keep a tab on every theatre.

But the direction might not have the desired effect as most of the theatres have sold out the tickets for the first two days at least. The remaining few tickets have been sold away at online counters, while some of them were bought at eSeva centres. The Joint Collector further said that priority should be given for sanitation, safety and comfort of the viewers. District Revenue Officer M. Venkateswara Rao, Town DSP B. Koteswara Rao, RDO Gangadhar Goud and theatre managers were present.

Fans’ protest
VIJAYAWADA: Fans of actor Ram Charan Teja, who have been eagerly awaiting the release of mega-budget movie ‘Magadheera’ on Friday, resorted to sloganeering and an impromptu protest demonstration in the office of Revenue Divisional Officer K. Hymavathi in Machilipatnam on Thursday, demanding screening of a benefit show and advance sale of tickets.

The fans wanted the tickets to be immediately issued by the management of twin theatres Siri Venkata and Siri Krishna, where the movie is scheduled to be released, but the plea was rejected by the management. When they represented the matter to the RDO, she too made it clear to them that tickets would be issued only to those who came in queue, and no special concession would be made to fans.

The movie, which is hitting screens in Krishna district in about 30 theatres, including 15 in Vijayawada alone, has already created many expectations and the authorities have decided to strictly check black-marketing of tickets.

Huge vinyl posters of the young actor and his father and Praja Rajyam chief Chiranjeevi have been put up at all the theatres. Praja Rajyam leader and former MLA Vangaveeti Radhakrishna put up some posters with his picture, adding political importance to the release.

-Hindu