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Following his marathon meetings with theatre owners and film distributors, Kamal Haasan has put off the release date of his mega-budget movie Vishwaroopam — both on the direct-to-home platform and theatres.
Though there is no official communiqué from RaajKamal Films on this to the media, it is learnt that the producer has sent out mails to all DTH service providers stating the decision to postpone the release date of the movie. Following this, DTH service providers have stopped accepting bookings from their subscribers.
In his response to Business Line , Shashi Arora, CEO, Airtel DTH, said with the postponement of the release date of the movie by RaajKamal Films, the service provider was not taking bookings any more for the movie premiere that was scheduled for January 10 at 9.30 p.m. “We are awaiting confirmation from the producer on the revised dates,” he said.
Representatives of RaajKamal Films are seeking at least 400 screens across Tamil Nadu to launch the movie. But, since most theatre owners have already signed up for two other Tamil films and a Telugu film, due for release around the same time, screens are not available on January 11. Hence, theatre owners have requested RaajKamal Films to reschedule the release to a subsequent date, “preferably to January 26,” sources said.
Even though some theatres launched bookings for the movie, not many booked tickets as there was confusion among Kamal Haasan's fans on the release date.
The whole episode started with Haasan's decision to premiere the multi-lingual film on the DTH platform a day before its theatre release. Theatre owners protested this move saying “it will set a precedent for other film makers and producers that can wipe out the business of cinema halls,” and they refused to offer screens. Even theatre owners in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Mumbai too joined the protest.
The film maker is now set to be in talks with theatre owners to decide on the release date of the film - both in theatres and the DTH platform.
ravikumar.ramanujam@thehindu.co.in
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