De Chak De in Satyam Cinemas - a shame

Satyam Cinemas in Chennai had been considered as one of the best theatres in India. But what’s the worth it has now to prove it? One of the oldest theatres in Chennai, the Satyam offered high class services attracting urban population and in the process gained good brand name. But now its business is running depending mainly on its brand name alone. But how long can it fool around people? Though the cinema crazy chennaiites do not bother too much about this, it’s not fair for Satyam or any other theatres to ride on the consumers who pay huge money.

I feel very bad to talk about the experience I got in Satyam on last Sunday when I went there to watch the Hindi movie ‘Chak de’. As usual, on Sunday Satyam and other important theatres would be houseful. I couldn’t get the ticket for ‘Chak de’ or any other movie. I asked the person sitting in the ticket counter to give ticket for the night show on Monday. He replied – “10 o clock show is already completely booked, only 11.45 show tickets are available.” I assumed 11.45 as one of the night show timings. Only after purchasing the ticket I came to know that it is a morning 11.45 show ticket. I immediately asked him to cancel the ticket. He told me that cancelling is impossible, but can change the timings of the show. I told him to do so. He asked me to come some other time for this.

After sometime I went to ticket counter and asked the person to change the timings of my ticket for any other day’s night show. He replied different answer, “….We don’t do cancellation or changes once the ticket is purchased”. Shocked by this unexpected answer, I retorted, “You accept the cancellations of tickets booked on online, but would not accept the request of the person who paid money directly in the counter.” That person didn’t care my words. “Online booking is a separate thing. Don’t mush up things like this”, he said recklessly.

After I shared this experience with my friends I came to know that this type of experiences with Satyam Cinemas has become a normal thing. One of my friends, Premkumar, who is also a journalist like me, narrated his experience which unhides the virtual process of Satyam Cinemas. Just 2 minutes before going to theatre, Premkumar checked the ticket availability in Satyam through online. 75 seats were available. When he asked in the ticket counter he got the answer ‘no’. Only two minutes or five minutes ago 75 tickets were available, what happened suddenly? He was shell shocked. Later on he came to know that Satyam Cinemas gets more profit from the Internet bookings as the profit margin is more from them.