As the TPR (Test Positivity Rate) continues to rise in Kerala, film exhibitors within the state have lost all hope in opening theatres and cinema halls ahead of their biggest box office attracting festival – Onam. Since Onam is happening during mid-late August, we are now pretty sure that there will be no theatrical releases in August (just like we had predicted earlier, prior to the second lockdown). This means no ‘Marakkar’ or ‘Thuramukham‘.
The Kerala theatre owners faced their biggest financial crisis till date when the coronavirus hit all around the world last year, but it has only gotten worse since the second wave of the coronavirus promoted the State Government to implement the statewide theatre shut down. It is going to be three months since the shutdown and it doesn’t look like the theatres will open any time soon.
Priyadarshan’s multi-crore, Mohanlal-starrer ‘Marakkar: Lion of The Arabian Sea’ was supposed to bring some much-needed cheer to the crisis-hit Malayalam film industry upon its August 12th release. Even exhibitors and distributors enticed the film producer by providing an exclusive single run in 600 theatres for 3 weeks, but that will likely not happen anytime soon now.
With the State Government not providing any reprieve to the cinema theatre owners – many of them have stopped renovations and other changes halfway, which was meant to entice audiences to return to theatres. With the TPR rising above 13% and the recent increase in deaths due to the rising number of cases, K. Vijayakumar, the FEUOK (Film Exhibitors United Organisation of Kerala) President expressed his doubts regarding their Onam reopening plans.
And now, with the State being under high-flood alert, we are most definitely not going to see a theatrical release during August.