Tinsel Town: No Thala Pongal in 2015; I will get most screens

With the release of Ajith Kumar’s Yennai Arindhal postponed, concerns of a clash with Shankar’s latest have been allayed

The makers of Yennai Arindhal , featuring actor Ajith Kumar, have announced that the film won’t compete with director Shankar’s much-awaited I on Pongal and will instead have a solo release on January 29. The development has led to the allaying of concerns over the outcome of both movies releasing at the same time. The film’s trailer and audio, which was released on Youtube on the New Year’s eve, has been generating a buzz on social media.

While the makers of YA maintain that the film has been pushed to January 29 only because the post-production is still not complete, those in the industry reckon that the decision could have been taken after considering the financial costs.

Two big movies clashing at the box office often end up dividing the audience and split the revenues. This concern has been consistently flagged by both distributors and exhibitors who have suggested that both these movies could benefit by going solo at the box office. Pongal, 2015 has been identified as one of the best days to release a film. Since the festive day arrives in the middle of the week, a film releasing on the previous Friday could cash in on the long weekend.

With

Yennai Arindhal releasing on January 29, only one more weekend remains before the Cricket World Cup 2015 begins in middle of February. It could end up pushing the release of other big budget movies to April.

(Reporting by Udhav Naig)