Clearing the deck for release of new Tamil films, the newly-created film producers' association has reached an agreement with digital service provider Qube over the contentious virtual print fee (VPF), which had stalled the release of big films for Diwali.

In a press release, the Tamil Film Active Producers Association (TFAPA) said that it has been in discussion with Tamil Nadu Theatre Owners Association and Qube over the last two months on the VPF issue and that Qube has agreed to slash a substantial percentage of the fee till March 31, 2021.

The statement also added that the said agreement has also made provisions to find a permanent solutions to the issue among all the three parties before March 31.

Over the past two months, film producers and exhibitors have been locking horns over the VPF fee, which is paid by producers to digital cinema service providers such as Qube and UFO Moviez.

While producers are willing to pay one-time VPF charges for servicing their content for digital screening, they were contesting a part of VPF fee paid towards digital projectors which are theatre’s fundamental property.

Digital service providers slashed the VPF by almost 50 per cent to facilitate the release of new films a few weeks ago. However, producers would want nothing less than a complete abolishment of VPF.

More than 40 Tamil films including Vijay’s Master, Dhanush’s Jagame Thandhiram, Vikram’s much anticipated sci-fi mystery Cobra, and many other small and medium budget movies are awaiting release. The current agreement between Qube and producers will clear the way for new movie releases.

"With this agreement, there will be no further issues in release of new films till March 31, 2020. Much-anticipated big budget films as well as small and medium budget films will now release thereby providing fresh content to audience and will help the film industry to recover," the TFAPA statement added.

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