This is your theater. Please keep it clean.

"Idi maa theater. Ikkada meeru maa mata vinali, memu mee mata vine pani ledu" ["This is our theater. Here, you listen to us; we have no need to listen to you"] -- Mr Venkat Reddy, manager, Ramakrishna 70mm, Abids.

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Here's the full story.

Last Sunday my wife and I went to Ramakrishna cinema in Abids to watch some movie which I was told was funny and (as a bonus for me) had Sushmita Sen in it.

We arrived too early, the waiting hall was full, but we found what we thought was additional seating, in a room whose doors were open, so we just sat in one of the sofas. Pretty soon a flunky came around, and very rudely told us to get out, and pointed out a "no admission" sign that I'd missed.

Fair enough, but I felt that the guy was needlessly rude -- I mean, a polite word would have sufficed to get me out; I'm not exactly the belligerent kind. So I decided to tell the manager about his flunky needing to be a bit more polite to guests.

The manager was a hefty man dressed all in white (the kind that probably has a white Qualis, if you get my drift!). He said his name was Venkat Reddy.

I started on my complaint, but he cut me off. "Idi maa theater. Ikkada meeru maa mata vinali, memu mee mata vine pani ledu" ["This is our theater. Here, you listen to us; we have no need to listen to you"].

I practically had to beg the man to listen to my story, but clearly by then my original complaint was meaningless, and I now knew why the flunky would never learn any manners anyway :-)

I'll probably never go to Ramakrishna again. And if I ever get the urge to watch a movie that is playing only in that place, I'll save some money (tickets, fuel, parking) and hassle (traffic, pollution, having to leave almost an hour before the show), and this kind of monumentally stupid rudeness, and simply grab a video from my friendly neighbourhood video shop.

And if the film industry is worried that most videos are pirated, I'm sure someone from the industry can tell me why Mr Venkat Reddy behaves the way he does. Who does he think he is, the government? :-)

PS: It was actually quite funny, after hearing this man say "this is our theater", to walk in to the box seats and find a notice saying "This is your theater. Please keep it clean". Yeah right!