BEHINDWOODS COLUMN

Creative gagging has become the order of the day in all forms and shapes these days. Ilaya Thalapathy Vijay’s Thalaivaa after battling with known and unknown forces had finally completed the steeplechase recently.

This year also witnessed Kamal’s struggle to release his magnum opus Vishwaroopam. In Kamal’s case, he initially was keen to release the film in DTH which the theatre owners opposed although the pros and cons were discussed exhaustively. Later when the DTH problem subsided, there came the issue against hurting the minority sentiments which were resolved amicably and the film went on to become a good grosser. And much to the delight of Kamal’s fans, he decided to stay in India!

Now coming to Vijay’s Thalaivaa, till date, there is no clear indication of the core of the controversy. However, in this case, the issue appears to have been with the theatre owners who were apprehensive to screen the AL Vijay directed film due to threats from faceless people.

The theatre owners wanted police protection but the Tamil Nadu government very clearly stated that it had no problem in the release of the film. There were numerous speculations about the involvements of TN government in this issue but they all remained baseless aspersions.  Of course, Thalaivaa was released all over the world sans Tamil Nadu on 9^th of August. After almost a ten day delay in the state, it finally was presented to the audience in the state.

Numerous possibilities were analyzed and the virtual world was abuzz with varied connotations. However it remains puzzling as to why Vijay did not think about considering release of Thalaivaa in DTH when he faced the problem to screen the film on the said date in the state. In case of Vishwaroopam, the theatre owners were against the film getting a primary screening in DTH platform. But in case of Thalaivaa, it was the theatre owners who were not willing to screen the film citing the threat. Hence they cannot much protest against this move.

In such a scenario, it would have been the wisest move of Ilaya Thalapathy to have immediately shifted the screening of his film to DTH and not wait for the theatrical release. The stakeholders sure would have made decent money and even piracy could have been controlled fairly. And theatre owners cannot oppose this move as they were the ones who were unwilling to screen the film.

But the practicality of pulling off something of this nature at the last minute is not known. How the distributors would react to such a move would be anybody’s guess as the distribution price might further be cut down making it next to impossible to see profits. Yes, DTH providers would have made good profits. But it would be interesting to know if Thalaiva team had considered this idea.

In the event of such a practice bearing fruits, in future too, if there is some kind of problem pertaining to a release especially after the Censor Board certification, the industry can resort to this model. Once there is this way out, clauses and policies can be chartered for better economics.  And who knows? Perhaps this may pave way for a new trend and may even put a cap on unreasonable stifling of creative expression. What say Vijay and Vijay?