Tamil Cinema News

out of the four releases of Pongal have to clear the air as issues keep mounting at the last hour. While Kaavalan still has court ruling and theater owner issues to sort out, the release of the film has become very uncertain.
Both the producers and distributors show confidence but the release is uncertain. The advance booking for Kaavalan has still not begun. Although Siruthai began its advance booking, a fresh trouble broke out after some key decisions were made by the Producers’ Council in the meeting that happened last Sunday.

The producers’ council decided to demand the government to cancel the licenses of Theaters that charged higher price for tickets than the government suggested norms. Following this statement by the Producers’ Council, Theater owners have come strongly against producers claiming that they would seek 45% share in revenue for the opening week.
Theater owners charge higher price to recover the Minimum Guarantee paid for screening films which earn big publicity. If these issues are not sorted out, both Kaavalan and Siruthai will be released either on January 15 or 16, 2011.
Theater owners refuse to pay high Minimum Guarantee for Siruthai after statements emanated from the Producers’ Council about taking actions on higher ticket price. The TTOA (Tamil Nadu Theater Owners Association) had come out strongly demanding a profit share on Pongal releases, if they are not allowed to charge their desired price for tickets.
These silent protests by theater owners make it even more uncertain for Pongal releases to release on the stipulated date. These two films might be expected to release on January 16th or 17th. If not, they might be postponed to next week as well.