SMS booking catches on

THIRUVANATHAPURAM: The city still prefers direct booking of movie tickets, though majority of theatres in the city are offering online booking service. Around five theatres have SMS-based booking facilities. While cities like Kochi had jumped on the bandwagon much earlier, Thiruvananthapuram is yet to go the tech way.'SMS balcony,’ an SMS-based booking facility launched in the state two years ago, is slowly picking up. As many as four tickets can be booked through a single SMS. Two SMSes can be sent from a single phone. The facility is available for Sreekumar, Sreevisakh, New, Anjali and Athulya theatres.SMS can be sent in the format booknotowncode+theatreshowcodedate to 52627. Rs 5 will be charged per sms.According to V Kavitha, senior executive of SMS Balcony, the SMS facility is slowly picking up. “Compared to Kochi, the facility is not popular in Thiruvananthapuram,” she said.  Almost all theatres provide online booking facility. Anjali theatre (www.ajantatheatre.net), SL theatre (www.slcinemas.com), Kairali, Sree (www.chithranjali.in), Kripa  (www.kripacinema.com) and Sreepadmanabha  (www.sreepadmanabhatheatre.com) offer online booking facilities through their websites.Most of them charge Rs 10-15 extra for the reservation.Gireesh, director of Sreepadmanabha theatre, said online booking facility is getting popular. “We have association with ticketnew.com for the online booking facility. Rs 15 extra is charged for the ticket. Not just techies, others too are now using this facility. Around 20 per cent are using online booking facility,” he said.The ‘go4cinema.com,’ which used to provide online booking facility for a number of theatres in the city, is temporarily unavailable owing to some technical reasons.M Umesh, a movie buff, said neither he nor his friends uses the online or SMS facility. “I think most of them are not aware of such facilities. For booking tickets, we opt for the telephone,” he added.