The Film Exhibitors Association has asked the National Film Corporation to investigate the spread of private “movie rooms” in towns across Sri Lanka, arguing that the venues operate outside the tax system and without regulatory oversight while competing with licensed cinema halls.
Association President Anuradha B. Rekawa said the establishments rent rooms by the hour to couples and groups under the pretext of watching films, the Daily Mirror reported.
“What happens in these places is that for a certain amount of money, for an hour or two, a room is given for a couple or two, or other groups, to spend two hours inside a room. The situation is that nobody regulates the activities taking place inside these given rooms, which poses a huge threat to us,” Rekawa said. “If these continue to crop up more and more in every town in the future, it will disrupt our cinema halls from starting to screen movies.”
The tax asymmetry is the Association’s core claim
The Association says licensed cinema halls pay tax amounting to 35 per cent of every ticket issued, while the private rooms allegedly operate outside the tax system and make no payments to the National Film Corporation. That differential — rather than the competition for audiences as such — is the argument the Association is putting to the regulator.
It also raised a child-protection concern: the lack of supervision at the venues means minors may be able to access age-restricted content.
The regulator has agreed to look
Representatives of the Association recently met officials and the Chairman of the National Film Corporation, urging immediate action against unauthorised movie rooms. According to the Association, the Chairman agreed to deploy investigation teams to examine the issue and take appropriate regulatory measures.
Rekawa said cinema owners remained committed to providing quality entertainment despite seasonal fluctuations in business.
Not reported: every claim here is the Association’s. The filing carries no response from any movie-room operator, no comment from the National Film Corporation in its own words, and no estimate of how many such venues exist or where. It does not say under what law the rooms would be regulated, whether any have been inspected or prosecuted, or when the investigation teams would be deployed. Only the Daily Mirror had filed on this among verified newsrooms at the time of writing.