Coronavirus Outbreak: Pon Magal Vandhal releases on OTT; TN theatre owners threaten to boycott Suriya, Jyothika's films

Jyotika's forthcoming release Pon Magal Vandhal, which has been produced by Suriya under his banner 2D Entertainment, skipped its theatrical release to directly arrive on Amazon Prime Video India on the first week of May. However, the move has upset the Tamil Nadu theatre owners association.

Initially slated to hit the screens on 27 March, Pon Magal Vandhal did not get released at the time owing to the nationwide lockdown in light of the coronavirus outbreak.

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R Panneer Selvan, General Secretary of Tamil Nadu Theatre and Multiplex Owners Associations, has said that henceforth, they will not screen films featuring Jyothika and Suriya.

"A film that’s made for cinemas should primarily have a theatrical release first, and then release on other platforms. We reached out to the makers, and requested them to revoke the plan but they didn’t listen," Selvan was quoted as saying by Hindustan Times. Selvan further added they will not screen even the movies made under 2D Entertainment.

Here is what Selvan has said about the issue

The General Secretary of the #TamilNadu Theatre and Multiplex Owners Association, R Panneer Selvam, has announced that their association has decided to not release any film involving actor #Suriya or his home production banner #2DEntertainment hereafter.#PonMagalVandhal pic.twitter.com/FQtHMzkhKF

— Silverscreen.in (@silverscreenin) April 24, 2020

The news has also incited a heated debate on Twitter, with some arguing that after the lockdown, there could be an acute shortage of films to be released in theatres. Others opined that the Jyothika-starrer is a small-budget film which would not be able to recover its investment if not released now. Here are some of the tweets

Theatres anyways are going to reopen after 2 ,3 or may be 6 months. There will be acute shortage of movies when theatres reopen. So what's the hurry in giving it to ott now.its not that the producers can't manage the interest loss till that https://t.co/ttHgVXv1SB — Pathy Senthil (@dhalapathy) April 25, 2020

#PonMagalVandhal is a small film even if they wait until theatres reopen and release it in theatres they will kick the movie out in week or so releasing it directly in OTT is a smart and profitable move for producer's . Theatre owners shouldn't be allowed to blackmail like this https://t.co/UJmuTtxyxu

— Anirudh (@AnirudhVN24) April 25, 2020

Atleast there would've been a logic if #SooraraiPottru was sold directly to digital & distributors start protesting but even after lockdown ends #PonMagalVandhal won't draw huge audiences to theatres&selling it to digital won't have much impact.Don't know why they are protesting — Karthik99 (@Karthik9915) April 25, 2020

The impact of this lockdown due to COVID-19 is severe.. You cannot expect a small budget movie like #PonMagalVandhal to run housefull shows at theatres after this lockdown.. People will visit theatres only for the big hero movies for few months.. It's obvious, they gone for OTT.. https://t.co/AYNYS8eEaE — T H M™ (@THM_Off) April 25, 2020

This is not the first time that film distributors have protested against a film moving to the small screen before its theatrical release, fearing major revenue losses. Back in 2013, Kamal Haasan had planned to give his magnum opus Vishwaroopam a Direct-To-Home (DTH) premiere but eventually had to pull back, and theatrically release the film in fear of a complete boycott by the exhibitors.

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