YS Jagan Mohan Reddy’s government had argued that very high cinema ticket rates push ordinary viewers away from theatres and indirectly encourage piracy, and this point is now being recalled in the context of sites like iBomma. Ticket rates and piracy During his tenure as Chief Minister, YS Jagan Mohan Reddy pushed for a regulated, affordable ticket pricing policy in Andhra Pradesh so that cinema remained within the reach of low and middle income families. The recent bust of the iBomma/Bappam piracy network by Hyderabad Police highlighted how lakhs of viewers, unable or unwilling to pay high theatre and OTT costs, shifted to piracy portals that host new films in HD within days of release.
