/> Amit Khanna, Chairman Reliance Big Pictures who was one of the architects of the marathon 12-hour meeting between producers and multiplex owners on Thursday evening gives a blow-by-blow account of how a settlement was reached between the two sides...

So is the strike finally over?
Yes, it's finally over. We arrived at a settlement late on Thursday night. The problem was, in the last fifteen years the way films were distributed in the last fifteen years was very different from what it used to fifty years before that.

With more releases, emergence of multiplex theatres and corporate houses planning releases in a more organized and lavish scale, the market had changed dramatically. But no ground rules about marketing and distribution emerged.

Sometimes stronger producers would muscle their way and extract something extra from the multiplexes. Or the larger chain would bully the smaller producer into saying, ‘Okay if you want me to release your film in Kolkata you give it to me for Asansol also.'

In a way this a long-due framework of how the downstream business will operate, has finally been worked out.

Everyone went home happy after the meeting on Thursday night?
Yes. Before I got involved with the strike the producers and exhibitors had taken very hard positions. It took a lot of effort to thaw the ice between the two parties. It was a long-drawn process. We started the meeting at 2 pm on Thursday and ended at 2 am on Friday morning.

What are the financial equations between multiplex owners and producers that have been worked out?
We've tried to be as fair to both sides as possible. The right to the marketing strategy of a film will now rest with the producer. The producer will decide how and where to release his film.

As a counterbalance to this the showcasing rights as they are called, that is, how many shows for every film, will rest with the exhibitor. The theatre owners will have the right to decide how many shows each film gets. In this way, no one gets exploited.

What about the revenue-sharing?
It would be 50 percent for the first week. 42 ½ for the second week. 37 ½ for the third week and 30 percent for the fourth week.

However there's a provision provided now by which if a threshold of profits is reached by a film in a certain number of screen then that film will be entitled to a bonus of 2 ½ percent for the first two weeks. That means a successful film like Ghajini gets a little more.

Similarly, as counterpoint to this, by another provision, films that perform exceptionally poorly, like for instance our own Reliace release Love Story 2050, the exhibitor gets a 2 ½ percent rebate.

Besides you, who else were the architects of the resolution?
Mukesh Bhatt and Yash Chopra from the producers' side. From the mutiplex sides we had Ajay Bijli as the main representative.

Was the time chosen for the strike a deliberate attempt to coincide with the IPL matches?
No I don't think so. The differences were brewing for a long time. Couple of meetings ended in an impasse. But finally reason prevailed.

Would you say this is one of the worst years for the film industry?
I'd say this is a year of change. And change is always painful. The entertainment industry is going through a metamorphosis.

In-between Reliace Big Pictures had decided to exempt themselves from the strike?
That was only a rumour.

But Vashu Bhagnani said so.
He can say anything. But I was always confident that before this eventuality could be considered, the strike would be resolved. In any case since Big Pictures has its own chain of theatres.I never had an issue releasing my own pictures in my own theatres.

How much are the losses for the film industry because of the strike?
We're hit very badly. We've lost between 200 and 300 crore rupees. But it was finally for the good. Now we've to bring in more efficiency for the system to make up for the losses. Last night Aamir Khan called me. We discussed the problems that the film industry has to face. Everyone is now willing to work together.

What about Aamir and Shah Rukh Khan as the glamour faces of the strike?
There was big crisis in the film industry in 1986. And all the stars were involved. Earlier people like Guru Dutt, Raj Kapoor, Dev Anand and Manoj Kumar were actively involved in all industry crises.

But Aamir and Shah Rukh were not part of the core community during the just-concluded crisis. I think this industry is growing up.I'm sure that after the strike everyone now realizes that your personal interests have to be separated from the industry's interests.