Vijay's Leo makers move Madras High Court seeking permission for 4 am show

Seven Screen Studios, the producer of actor Vijay’s film ‘Leo’, has approached the Madras High Court seeking a direction to the Tamil Nadu government to permit a special show of the movie at 4 a.m. on the day of its release on October 19. It has also insisted on permitting the screening of five shows of the movie from 7 a.m. onwards, between October 19 and 24.

Justice Anita Sumanth on Monday adjourned the hearing on the writ petition to Tuesday, October 17, 2023, since Advocate General R. Shunmugasundaram sought time to verify whether a public interest litigation petition filed in the Madurai Bench, with regard to regulating movie shows, had been transferred to the principal seat of the High Court in Chennai.

Justice Sumanth said that if the PIL papers had already reached Chennai, then the present writ petition could be tagged along with it and posted before a Division Bench. Otherwise, she would take a call on the writ petition filed by Seven Screen Studios, the judge said, and asked the A-G to obtain instructions by Tuesday morning.

In his affidavit, K. Ramachandran, authorised signatory of Seven Screen Studios, said, such was the fan following of actor Vijay that just the Tamil trailer of the movie had reached a viewership of 51 million in 10 days on YouTube. In addition, the crew of the entire movie had raised lot of expectations from fans the world over.Claiming that Bollywood actor Shahrukh Khan’s latest movies ‘Pathan’ and ‘Jawan’ opened with six to seven shows in Mumbai and with six shows in Delhi, the petitioner said, the yardstick for the success of a film depends upon the collections that it makes on the opening day and hence it was important to have special shows.

Further, since the movie was slated to be released world over at 4 a.m. IST on October 19, it would only be fair to release it in Tamil Nadu too, the petitioner said and insisted on the government of Tamil Nadu permitting a 4 a.m. special show at least on the opening day.Leo, along with Vijay, stars Trisha, Sanjay Dutt, Arjun, Mysskin, Gautham Vasudev Menon and others. Cameos such as what was seen in Lokesh’s previous film Vikram starring Kamal Haasan and tie-ins with what has come to be known as the Lokesh Cinematic Universe (LCU) are being awaited with much excitement among fans.