CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Tuesday refused to grant permission for an early morning show for screening actor Vijay’s Leo on the opening day saying that the powers to permit such shows are vested with the State.
Justice Anita Sumanth, while hearing a petition filed by Seven Screen Studio, seeking orders to permit a 4 am show on the opening day and starting the shows at 7 am on other days, said the court can only direct the State government to reconsider permitting the special show timings.
Ruling out issuing a positive order on the plea for an early morning show, she said, “The court can’t give a direction to the State to allow such special shows. The powers for allowing such shows vest with the State.”
The producers of Leo had approached the High Court with a plea to allow special shows of 4 am and 7 am on October 19 and to start shows from 7 am between October 20 and 24.
The petition stated that a representation was submitted to the government for an additional show for the fans at 4 am and six shows on the release date, October 19, 2023, considering the mega fan following and the fact that the additional show would help in ease of overcrowding and conduct business on the part of the production company and the theatre owners.
However, the Home Secretary issued directions for allowing one special show from October 19 to 24 with a maximum of five shows per day with a condition that the screening shall start only at 9 am and end at 1.30 am.
Even though it takes 18 hours and 45 minutes cumulatively to screen all five shows of the movie per day, the Home Secretary has permitted the five shows within 16 hours and 30 minutes. The theatres would be able to screen five shows a day only if the show timing starts at 7 am. However, the Secretary has inadvertently restricted the timings to 16 hours and 30 minutes through a GO, the petition stated.
It further noted that due to the ‘huge furore’ and ‘fan craze’ surrounding the release, Kerala and Karnataka have permitted an early morning show at 4 am.
The producers cited that ‘Pathan’ and ‘Jawan’ were allowed to open with 6-7 shows in Mumbai and 6 shows in Delhi and informed the success formula of the producers of huge-budget entertainment film is based totally on the collection of the opening day and that is seen as a yardstick for success rate.