Vijay’s Sarkar, Rajinikanth’s 2.0 create commotion in Tamil cinema as smaller films fight for screens

Tamil cinema’s two superstars Vijay and Rajinikanth caused a huge havoc in the industry with Sarkar and 2.0 respectively. Sarkar released on 6 November and occupied almost 80% of the screens in Tamil Nadu so Vijay Antony’s Thimiru Pudichavan had no other option left but to back out of the Diwali release. [caption id=“attachment_5570201” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] Vijay’s Sarkar (L); Rajinikanth’s 2.0. Image via Twitter[/caption] Vijay Antony now released Thimiru Pudichavan on 16 November but the release regulation committee of Tamil Film Producers Council had previously only given permission to four films — Jyotika’s Kaatrin Mozhi, Nakkul’s Sei, Udhaya’s Utharavu Maharaja and Ch_ittiram Pesuthadi 2_. After knowing the arrival of Thimiru Pudichavan, Ch_ittiram Pesuthadi 2_’s producer has indefinitely pushed his film but the other three producers had appealed to release regulation committee to ensure that Thimiru Pudichavan didn’t release on 16 November. Nakkul was visibly unhappy at the media meet of Sei, he said: “I’m not against Vijay Antony’s Thimiru Pudichavan but if Tamil Film Producers Council’s rules and regulations are just for namesake, then there is no need for all of us to wait for months to release our film. Sei was planned to release in March but we waited for the strike to get over and finally after waiting for seven months, my producer got the 16 November slot”, said Nakkul. Dhananjayan, producer of Jyotika’s Kaatrin Mozhi supports Nakkul and asks the office bearers of Producers Council to help the small and medium budget films. Actor Udhaya, whose Utharavu Maharaja was also scheduled to release on 16 November, says “Vijay Antony’s film was supposed to release on 6 November but they missed the date for various reasons. Vijay Antony’s plan to release his film on 16 November will only slaughter the heads of small producers”. Vijay Antony’s wife Fatima who is spearheading the actor’s production house says, “Sarkar occupied 800 screens in Tamil Nadu on 6 November, which was a shocker to us. As there weren’t enough screens, we pushed our release. When there is a regulation for the release date, they also should regulate the screen count. I understand that TFPC is our governing body so we will stick to what they suggest but we came to know that Chittiram Pesudhadi 2 has been postponed from 16 November so automatically, Thimiru Pudichavan is eligible for that slot”. The major problem here is that none of these films were ready to compete with Sarkar and they don’t prefer to clash against Rajinikanth’s 2.0 either so basically all these five films are stuck between the two biggies. For those who don’t know, Vijay Sethupathi’s long-awaited Seethakathi and ‘Jayam’ Ravi’s cop mass entertainer Adangamaru were originally scheduled to release on 16 November but Tamil Film Producers Council explained the situation of the small film producers so they pushed their release plans to December. While Sarkar’s release created commotion among small films which are scheduled to release in November, 2.0 also creates equal tension in the trade that there is an unimaginable pressure for theater owners and distributors to schedule films in December. Just like Sarkar, Tamil film producers have given two weeks time for 2.0 to occupy almost all the theaters for their own good and also to ensure maximum revenue for the Rajinikanth starrer, the costliest Tamil film ever produced. 2.0 is scheduled to release on 29 November, so the next preferred Friday for theater owners is 14 December. Trade sources tell us that Ravi’s Adangamaru approached TFPC to get 14 December slot but nothing has been officially confirmed yet. The real challenge for the distributors and theater owners is to decide the number of releases for the Christmas weekend (21-25 December). The regulation committee of Tamil Film Producers Council has given permission to four films — Vijay Sethupathi’s Seethakathi (20 December), Atharvaa’s Boomerang, Vishnu Vishal’s Silukkuvarpatti Singam, and GV Prakash Kumar’s Sarvam Thaala Mayam. Apart from these four films, either Enai Nokki Paayum Thota or Maari 2 starring Dhanush is also eyeing to release on 21 December. The producers of Karthi’s action adventure film Dev had also announced a December release in the teaser but understanding the mad rush at the box office, they are now planning to release their film only in January. Reacting to the battle among producers to get enough screens and release dates, Suriya’s NGK producer SR Prabhu, who is also the treasurer of TFPC, took to his Twitter page to say: “Only content matters for any film to succeed! We just witnessed this last month!! Other things like release date,opposition,promotion,screen quality,count,etc. has very very minimal role. But there is huge commotion among the film fraternity quoting d later reasons. Sad!  #TFPC (sic)”.