Tamil Movie ‘Aelay’ starring Samuthirakani and Manikandan has decided to fully skip their theatrical release amid the recent development and brawl between producers and theatre owners. The Halitha Shameem directorial was all set to arrive theatrically on 12th February 2021. But due to certain demands by the theatre owners, the producers decided to go against it.
The news was circling around that Aelay will postpone it’s theatrical release to a week so that it gets better amount of screens, because on 12th February there were several other movies releasing as well. But now in a recent development, the makers have decided to fully skip the theatrical release and arrive directly on Television.
It all began when the makers of Aelay decided to cut short their theatrical run so that the movie could be premiered early in OTT platforms. Like several other movies Aelay too, has incurred losses due to delay in their release and shut theatres and with OTT platforms coming as savior to these movies, they could’ve covered their losses. But the theatre owners have put forth a strict policy that no movie should premiere on OTT platforms till 30 days of its theatrical release.
Since exhibitors also have faced losses this past year, they too are keen for the movies to run as long as possible in the cinema halls. And with the short OTT window, people will stop flocking into the theatres. The producers association of Tamil cinema signed a press release yesterday which stated how and why it was important for the movies to get an OTT release but the 30 day clauses of theatres didn’t allowed it.
The makers of Aelay have partnered with the channel ‘Star Vijay’ for a worldwide premiere of the movie on 28th February 2021. Aelay is eyeing a worldwide reach with Star Vijay and the makers are hopeful for the fact that the movie will be available to a much larger audience.