Kangana Ranaut on Friday requested multiplex chains to allow the screening of her upcoming film Thalaivii on September 10. In a note on Instagram, the Bollywood star revealed that theatres are “ganging up” against her film. It is reported that multiplex chains are refusing to screen the AL Vijay directorial, over the time gap between its theatrical and digital release. India's top two multiplex chains PVR Cinemas and INOX Leisure Ltd are refusing to screen the Hindi version of Kangana Ranaut’s ‘Thalaivii’, saying the window to its Netflix premiere is too narrow.
Sharing a note on her Instagram story, Kangana wrote, “No films are choosing theatres, very few and very brave like my producers @vishnuinduri @shaaileshrsingh are compromising on huge profits and letting go off exclusive streaming options only for the love of cinema.. in these times we must support each other and not bully or arm twist, it’s our fundamental right to recover the cost of our film which we did, we may have two weeks window for Hindi version but for south, we have four weeks window yet multiplexes ganging up on us and stopping our release there as well. This is unfair and cruel in these testing times when major territories like Maharashtra are also shut… Please let’s help each other in order to save theatres”.
The film, which follows the life of actor-turned-politician J Jayalalithaa, also stars Arvind Swamy and will release in Tamil, Telugu, and Hindi. While Zee has the distributing rights for the film, the digital streaming rights lie with Netflix for the Hindi version and Amazon Prime Video for the Tamil and Telugu versions. Thalaivii’ is slated for release on 10 September. It is co-produced by Vishnu Vardhan Induri and Shailesh R. Singh, along with Zee Studios. Earlier this week, the CBFC gave a ‘U’ certificate to Thalaivii.