Thalaivaa to be released today? Nothing official yet
Uncertainty remained over whether Vijay-starrer Thalaivaa would release this weekend.
While the distributor Vendhar Movies’ official account tweeted that they were aiming to get the film released by Saturday, official confirmation did not arrive till the time of going to print. After film technician Santosh Sivan tweeted “Thalaivaa release (was) confirmed”, the news went viral.
However, when contacted, multiplexes like Sathyam Cinemas and PVR said that there was “no information” about whether the film was slated to release. Prematurely, fans began celebrating outside theatres in the city and special morning shows and pujas were planned.
After Thalaivaa’s release on Friday was postponed, some amount of balance has been restored in Kollywood with the distributors of actor Bharat’s Ainthu Ainthu Ainthu (555) deciding to release the film on Saturday. This brought a lot of cheer to stand-alone theatres, which had resorted to reruns to fill the void created by Thalaivaa’s delay. “We are hopeful of getting all the issues sorted as soon as we can and releasing it,” said a source close to the producers.
Talks between the distributors and theatre owners, which all but stalled on Thursday night, resumed on Friday morning. However, it became apparent that theatre owners were apprehensive about releasing the film without police cover. “We have not forgotten how AGS theatre was vandalized for releasing Vishwaroopam. This risk cannot be taken again, which is why we are cautious, till we get protection,” said a member of the group who attended the closed-doors meeting.
With the film having stalled in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, fans sought to watch Thalaivaa in theatres in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala. “It has released in 15 theatres in Palghat. We performed the puja for the first day first show in Kerala,” tweeted Riju, who belongs to the Vijaya Kerala Fan Clubs Association.Meanwhile, not all fans took it well - a group staged a protest outside the Udhayam theatre on Friday morning.
The DGP clarified that they had neither sought a delay nor deferment of Thalaivaa, and attributed all delays to decisions taken within the domain of industry.
Meanwhile, industry sources said that release clearance orders had been dispatched to half the districts in the South and standalone theatres had begun announcements that the film would release on Saturday.