Producers, exhibitors call truce; stalemate on new films ends in Kerala

The storm in Malayalam film industry has come to an end, all of a sudden which has caught many by surprise. The stalemate between Film Exhibitors Federation and Film Producer and Distributor associations came to an end yesterday evening as both of them called truce.

Till July 7 morning, both of them showed no signs of arriving at an amicable situation. The exhibitors had agreed to take all four shows into consideration, while calculating holdover figure. But then the distributors demanded that, a film can be stopped only if it is holdover continuously for two days, which irked the exhibitors. Additionally, the distributors wanted to increase the publicity expense from 4 percent to 5 percent of the total net. The theatres are not in favour of that either.

However, by evening, the whole situation had changed. As per the latest agreement, a committee would be set up to find out ways and means for bringing in changes to existing trade practices for the smooth functioning of the industry. Although this sudden development has baffled lot of trade pundits, the silver lining is that new films will be released from July 9 onwards.

Mohanlal’s eagerly awaited film Oru Naal Varum, which has been scripted by Sreenivasan will be released in 71 screens across Kerala. Sameera Reddy is playing the lead role in the film. And Jayasurya’s Nallavan will be released in 55 screens. Ali John has directed this film in which Jayasurya has sported four different looks. Mythili is the lead heroine in the film.