While most producers shy away from holding pre-release screenings of their films or holding max one/two shows one day before the release, Thalaivii producers Vishnu Vardhan Induri and Shaailesh Singh have proved to be an exception. As a rarity in today’s times, they have held a screening of the biopic for members of the Chennai film industry on Saturday and another screening for the Hyderabad industry on Sunday – almost one week before the theatrical release.
That’s not all, Monday onwards, Thalaivii producers are holding multiple screenings for members of the Mumbai industry, which speaks volumes of their confidence in the film. Thalaivii is a multilingual biopic of actress-turned-politician J Jayalalithaa. Written by KV Vijayendra Prasad and cinematographed by Vishal Vittal, the film has music by GV Prakash. Apart from Kangana Ranaut and Arvind Swami in lead roles, Thalaivi also features Nassar, Bhagyashree, Samuthrakani, Madhu Bala, Prakash Raj, Jisshu Sengupta, and Poorna.
Lately, the theatre chain PVR refused to screen the movie until the makers ensure a four-week gap between its theatrical release and subsequent OTT run. After a long debate, the makers finally came to terms with the theatre chain and agreed to drop the film’s Telugu and Tamil version on OTT after a four-week-long gap. However, that is not happening with the Hindi version which will drop on Netflix after a two-week window. This is the reason the theatre chain had to take a hard stand against Thalaivii’s big-screen outing.
Opening up on this producer Vishnu Vardhan Induri said, “As a producer who has invested so much money in the film, I have the right to recover the investment. Every producer is trying various means [to stay afloat] — some are taking the direct-to-web route, others are waiting for a few more months. I can recover the cost only if there is a two-week window because, at this point, the box office won’t give me the returns that we would get earlier.” “If I opt for a four-week window [for the Hindi version], I will lose money and will land in a financial problem. I will never be able to make a film again. If I hold off the release and the third wave hits, I will lose out on seven months or so. Hence, the key people on the film have decided to go ahead with the September 10 release. Kangana stands by our decision”, he added.