SRK, Aamir bat against multiplex row

Shahrukh Khan and Aamir Khan appeared together to address the Press on issues revolving around the film industry’s inability to release films in national multiplex chains on equitable playing terms.After posing together for photographers and exchanging pleasantries, they addressed the media.Aamir Khan said that no filmmaker wants to make flops.

“Nobody knows what makes a hit or a flop. We enter the industry to make good films knowing well that this is a volatile business. It’s important that multiplex chains understand this." He went on to speak about revenue sharing terms between producers and distributors on the one hand and exhibitors on the other.

Sharing the same opinion, Shahrukh Khan said: “We haven’t come here to keep viewers away. We make films and the pipeline to present them before viewers exist.”The bone of contention between the producers- distributors and multiplex owners is the revenue sharing model, with producers demanding a 50 per cent of the earnings while the multiplex owners want to stick to the current model of 40 to 48 per cent depending on the film's performance.

Both the actors said that they had come together to find a solution to the problem as the film industry wanted to end the crisis as soon as possible.“All we are asking for is a fair and healthy share. All the members of the industry should benefit equally from the profits. It should be a partnership of equals,” said Aamir.

Denying reports that producers had compared multiplex owners to “mafia”, Shahrukh said the two parties were in a “marriage without the possibility of a divorce”. “We are like a family but perhaps a part of the family is doing wrong,” said the actor referring to the multiplex owners' stand on profit sharing.Objecting to the multiplex owners' argument that they would not bear the loss of a bad film, the actor said, “The multiplexes have no right to rate our creativity. It should be left to the audience to decide the fate of a film.

We are the employees of the audience and not the multiplexes.”Shahrukh said that the entire industry was open to talks with multiplex owners 24X7.Also present at the Press conference were producers Yash Raj Chopra, Mukesh Bhatt, Ronnie Screwvala and several others.