Bhubaneswar, Aug. 27: Police will hold a meeting with cinema-owners and discuss ways to check black marketing of movie tickets.

Deputy commissioner of police Satyabrata Bhoi said the meeting was being convened to streamline the process to sell movie tickets.

"We will also ask them to sell a fixed amount of tickets online. Besides, inspectors in charge of the areas concerned have been asked to deploy their men in plain clothes to prevent black marketing of tickets," said Bhoi.

Rampant black marketing of tickets was recently witnessed during the release of big-budget movies such as Bajrangi Bhaijaan and Bahubali. During weekends, thousands of moviegoers throng at the theatres to watch movies. The city has seven halls and a multiplex with three screens, with a total of 5,500 seats.

Movie-goers complain that on some occasions, especially on the release day and weekends, fans are forced to cough up as much as five times the ticket price because of black marketing. A ticket worth Rs 100 gets sold at Rs 500.

"When a big movie gets released, one has to stand in the queue to get a ticket. But one often finds the ticket counters closing a few minutes after they are opened. When we ask what the matter is, they tell us the tickets had been sold online," said Bijay Mishra, a film-lover.

Multiple sources told The Telegraph that some residents of Mali Sahi, a slum located near three major cinemas, are engaged in the black marketing of tickets.

"Though counters open an hour before shows, the local slum-dwellers queue up before they open and manage to buy tickets," said the owner of a beetle shop in the area.

Cinemas began e-booking in 2010 in order to check black marketing of tickets.

"We usually keep 30 to 50 per cent of our tickets for online buyers. Besides, one person can only buy a maximum of two tickets at the ticket counters," said an employee of S Complex, which has three cinemas.