Vijay Antony’s Thimiru Pudichavan, slotted for Deepavali release, has backed out of the festival race. Shortage of good theatres is said to be the reason for its postponement. Informed industry sources, however, reveal that there are some financial issues as well. Apart from that, there is also a lot of pressure from the makers of Vijay’s Sarkar who want to dominate the entire screens of Tamil Nadu this Deepavali.
The expectations around Vijay Antony’s film might have affected Sarkar’s collections. Considering all factors, the distributors of Thimiru.... may have decided not to take any chances by releasing on Deepavali day (November 6). Interestingly, the satellite rights of TP have been acquired by Sun TV.
Vijay Antony, who has produced TP in his home banner and reportedly sold it outright to distributors, had said that the decision of releasing Thimiru... for Deepavali was taken long back so that he could make up the losses incurred through his earlier two films. A source in the know tells us that since the confusion over the authorship of the Sarkar story, there was confusion in the past few weeks over whether the Vijay film would make it to Deepavali release and so Thimiru distributors were toying with the idea of trying to release it in a considerable number of screens.
An official announcement is yet to be made but a reliable source from Producers Council confirmed that the Thimiru issue has been going on for the past two days and in all probability, it would not make it to marquee on November 6.
This may have paved the way for a small film like the Dinesh-Adithi Menon starrer Kalavaani Maapillai, to hit the screens on Deepavali day and it’s not considered a big threat to Sarkar. “Kalavaani Maapillai is a total family entertainer which would go well on a festive occasion,” claims Gandhi Manivasagam, who directs the film.
Meanwhile, Frenzy has been building up over Sarkar and the movie, already reported to have made a business of Rs 200 crores worldwide, is expected to have widest release across the globe. Vijay has a huge fan following in Kerala too. Karthika Theatre in Trichur had announced that the film will be played continuously for 24 hours on the opening day. Chennai screens won’t be lagging behind either. For instance, Rohini Silver Screens in Koyambedu, considered a ‘Thalapathy fort’, has planned a 48-hour marathon. Also, a theatre in Vavuniya in Sri Lanka will be having six shows of Sarkar in a day.
