After days of pleading and back-and-forth negotiations from fans, the distributors of Suriya’s Massu Engira Masilamani (which used to go by Maaas and then Maasu before firming up its current nomenclature) have decided against allowing a midnight special show. Though Studio Green, which is distributing the film directly across the region, was mulling over allowing the show to take place, the police and members of the Tamil Film Producers Council were apparently not in favour of it. “The decision taken on Tuesday is final and all shows for Massu will release only after 8 am on Friday, May 29. The advance booking has been good but all theatres have been asked to avoid early morning shows,” said a source with Studio Green, the production company helmed by K E Gnanavel Raja.
But why not have a premiere at midnight for fans, especially when it is quite commonplace in Dubai, Malaysia and in the US? “First of all, unless it is a private screening without tickets, it is against the law. Special shows are permitted only for the first three days after release, but even those are governed by strict time constraints. Sometimes the distributors agree to these fan shows and then we have to argue with the police and the fans so that our theatre is not damaged,” said one of the management at Kasi Theatre, where fan premieres and early morning shows have been a norm. There was a lot of friction when a special 1am show for Lingaa was sold out at Rs 600 a ticket and the theatre refused to screen the film because they hadn’t gotten police permission, “We had two glass panes broken and for the entire first day all our show times were messed up and our staff were overworked. It’s not worth it,” he said, wincing with disgust.
A senior police official confirmed that they had vocally protested against such fan premieres, because it is a crowd control issue. “There will be instances of drunk people coming in to the theatres and then misbehaving, or even using the roads and causing trouble. We cannot afford to mobilise a force to watch them every time to ensure that peace is maintained,” he said. They also hold up traffic and insist on dancing and fanfare in the middle of lorry-faring main roads, he added.
Mainstream multiplexes like SPI Cinemas, PVR, Inox and AGS Cinemas stick to the norms religiously, not scheduling shows before 7 am in general. AGS alone makes an exception when it’s a bumper release like Vijay’s Kaththi or Kamal Haasan’s Utthama Villain and try and slot in 5 am shows, “But all of it is done with proper permission from the producer, distributor and the local police. Otherwise we cannot claim any liability if there is a mishap like violence or anything,” said an official with the multiplex chain, which is building their third property in T Nagar.
Early morning Massu, anyone?