Film meeting may be called off

The government of Karnataka may call off the meeting to break the deadlock over the seven-week moratorium on non-Kannada films. This comes in the wake of the Supreme Court stay on the same.

Chief minister N Dharam Singh was to convene a meeting between theatre owners and producers on Monday. The meeting was to be headed by additional chief secretary K P Pandey.

"Since the court has stayed the moratorium, I don't know what role the government should play. The court has served a notice to the government. A panel meeting at this juncture might amount to sub-judice," Singh told reporters.

Stating that he would consult legal experts on convening the meeting, Singh added, "Let the affected parties file their response to the court. I will ask the film industry to solve the problem on its own."

Earlier, the Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce had said that it would seek legal opinion on the Supreme Court's stay order and discuss the development with the state government at the October 18 meeting convened by the chief minister.

With only a slim chance of the meeting taking place on time, cinema owners have decided to begin screening new films from Monday.

According to the Karnataka Film Exhibitors' Federation president R P Odugoudar, "We had begun releasing films earlier. We stopped it because the CM asked us to wait till the meeting. We will abide by the promise. Irrespective of the meeting's outcome, we will begin screening from Monday."

Refusing to blame anyone for the confusion, actor-turned MP Ambarish has decided to withdraw from playing peacemaker.