D Suresh Babu, the Chairman of Joint Action Committee that has been holding negotiations with Digital Service Providers, has made it clear on Thursday evening that the theatres will be shut down from March 2 onwards.

"This is a collective decision that the producers' councils in all five states of South India have taken. We want the Virtual Print Fee to be reduced gradually and eventually to zero. The DSPs are not reducing the fee for regional films. The same is not charged on English-language movies. This bandh will go on until the DSPs agree to our demands," he said.

Suresh Babu further added, "We want film trailers to be played in theatres instead of the ads that DSPs are playing. We producers want to hit the right audience through such trailer ads. Small and big films alike will benefit from it. In the case of 'Padmaavat', the ads alone were up to 40 minutes. This is bad at a time when cinema is competing with Amazon, Netflix and TV."