The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday stayed a September 12 notification issued by the state government capping film ticket prices at Rs 200, Bar and Bench reported.

Justice Ravi V Hosmani issued the interim order on a petition filed by multiplex owners and film producers challenging the state government’s decision.

The notification to cap prices at Rs 200 was part of the recently amended 2025 Karnataka Cinemas Regulation Rules. The price ceiling, which excluded taxes, applied to all screenings, across languages and theatres, including multiplexes.

However, multi-screen cinemas offering premium facilities with 75 or fewer seats were exempted from the cap.

A joint petition was filed in the court by film producers, the Multiplex Association of India and a PVR INOX shareholder challenging the notification, according to Bar and Bench.

“The blanket application of the cap across single screens and multiplexes, irrespective of cost variations, investment, technology, location, or format (IMAX, 4DX, etc.), renders the impugned rules manifestly arbitrary,” Bar and Bench quoted the petition as saying.

Over-the-top platforms, satellite television and other entertainment platforms remain unregulated even while the rules selectively capped film ticket prices, the petition contended.

The plea said that the rules also arbitrarily exempt “multi-screen cinemas with premium facilities of 75 seats or less” from its application without a definition on what constitutes “premium facilities”, Bar and Bench reported.

The rules violate a theatre owners’ fundamental right to conduct business under Article 19(1)(g) of the Constitution, the petition added.

Article 19(1)(g) guarantees citizens the fundamental right to practice any profession, occupation, trade or business.

During earlier proceedings in the matter, advocate Mukul Rohatgi, representing the Multiplex Association of India, described the provision on capping movie ticket prices as “completely arbitrary”, Live Law reported.

“What is the basis for doing this?” Live Law quoted Rohatgi as having asked. “If a customer wants to pay more for more luxury there is no reasoning why with a broad brush.”

Rohatgi also noted that a similar government order had been passed earlier.

He was referring to a Rs 200 limit on movie ticket prices announced in 2017 during Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s previous tenure. The policy was stayed by the court after multiplex owners challenged the decision, citing concerns over potential revenue losses.

“Once this was done, the government withdrew the order then,” the advocate said. “History is repeating itself now. Earlier it was by way of GO [government order] and now amendment by a rule.”

Rohatgi said that multiplex owners had spent huge sums of money on building cinema halls.

“There can’t be a direction that all your tickets should be at Rs 200,” Live Law quoted him as saying. “Or all airlines should be economy class. There is no power under the Act to fix a price whatsoever.”

Advocate Dhyan Chinnappa, representing a production company Hombale Films, noted that the Act under which the amendment was introduced dealt with licensing and construction of cinema halls and not ticket pricing, Bar and Bench reported.

The state government had no authority to introduce a cap on ticket prices, Chinnappa said, adding that pricing should remain a matter between theatres and their customers.

The advocate asked whether the state government had studied industry realities before introducing the amended rules.

The counsel representing the Karnataka government said that the decision to cap movie ticket prices was based on public interest considerations, Bar and Bench reported. The state government has powers to introduce such restrictions under the Karnataka Cinema Act and the Constitution, the counsel added.

The counsel also said that the new rule was made for the benefit of directors, the film fraternity and consumers in line with the principles under Article 38 of the Constitution, which mandates that the state secure a social order for the promotion of welfare of the public.