The Tamil Film Producers Council has reportedly requested theatres in Tamil Nadu to disallow YouTube channels from shooting FDFS public review videos on their premises. By preventing public review videos from coming out, the Tamil film industry wants to curb negativity.
Unlike reviews in web, print and electronic mainstream media, public reviews are unfiltered. Angry audiences trash bad films without fear or favour. We have seen how 'Liger' and 'Acharya' were cursed by the Telugu audience in recent times. Some YT videos attract lakhs of views.
Theatres are well within their rights to disallow the media from shooting videos on their premises. But this might lead to an unhealthy trend in the medium or long term. Eventually, theatres will get paid to allow only friendly YouTube channels that will interview paid artists. With time, the public will lose trust. And a new mechanism will come out in the age of digital technology.
