Shakthi Chidambaram rose to the status of a producer and distributor. He became a producer with the help of financiers from the opposition party. Recently, he has been constantly on the news for buying the worldwide distribution rights of ‘Kaavalan’ for Rs. 42 crore.
The purchase followed with challenging remarks of releasing the film within the stipulated date. After a brief delay, he got to confirm the release the movie on Pongal 2011. He is facing heat from the theater owners’ association who have been constantly demanding compensation from Vijay and if not compensated, decided to not extend cooperation for Vijay’s films.
Shakthi Chidambaram had beaten all these to emerge as the winner by getting ‘Kavalan’ ready for release, as already planned. However, the trouble is still not over for Shakthi Chidambaram. He had already taken loans worth crores from a bank or a financial institution for a film, which has led him to default.
The bank is threatening a seizure of his primary assets including his home. The distributor also burnt his fingers by purchasing ‘Manmadhan Ambu’ and releasing it in a few centers. Now, the opposition party’s financiers have also turned their backs towards him for buying the distribution rights of ‘Manmadhan Ambu’ for a few areas, which is produced by Udhayanidhi Stalin for Red Giant Movies.
His selling of the telecast rights of ‘Kaavalan’ to Sun TV has also irked the financiers from the opposition camp. Shakthi Chidambaram pins his hopes on ‘Kaavalan’ expecting the Vijay starrer to bail him out of all his financial troubles and keep him in profit.
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.
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.
Kaavalan are still haunting Vijay. The much complicated issue between Vijay and the theater owners association is going to be solved very soon and the film makers are on talks with the theater owners association.
director Hari and Prakash Raj is been successful with Ayya and Singam. The duo is now coming back with Vengai.
