In case you guys missed it, the State Government of Kerala have agreed to reopen theatres starting from October 25th 2021, which falls on a Monday. After a successful session of talks between the members of FEUOK (Film Exhibitors United Organisation of Kerala) and the state government, it was agreed that cinema halls and theatres around the state will be allowed to open in the last week of October. With over 100 Malayalam films waiting to be released, this announcement will definitely come as good news for big-budget films like ‘Thuramukham‘ and ‘Kurup‘.
FEOUK is expected to hold discussions soon with producers and distributors to schedule the release of these 100 movies that will be released in theatres. Most likely, Ajagajantharam, which will feature Antony Varghese AKA Pepe in the lead role, will be the first movie to hit the silver screen, since this second lockdown. With theatres being closed since April this year, we don’t expect a Nivin Pauly or a Dulquer Salman starrer to “start off proceedings”. Still, we do expect both films to release in theatres by the end of this year (or even won’t before that).
By the time theatres will have opened, six months would have passed since the cinema halls were closed for a second time in two years. With the Kerala theatres having been closed for almost ten months during the first wave of the coronavirus, theatres in the Southern state have effectively been closed for 16 months. This reopening is a big deal for the Malayalam film industry, even with only 50% capacity, since the theatre experience is finally returning to the Southern State again.
While ‘Marakkar’ will not get a release date anytime soon (the producer will likely wait for theatres to allow 100% occupancy), other highly anticipated films such as ‘Aarattu’ and ‘Ramasethu’ will get a theatrical release – pretty much immediately. This is because, these films have big-name actors leading them and with theatres needing a quick way to entice people to return to theatres, releasing a Mohanlal starrer and a Jayasurya starrer is a good way to promote theatrical viewing.
And a few weeks after these releases will be when Thuramukham and Kurup finally drop in theatres. Unless the filmmakers (of these films) decide to surprise us with direct-to-OTT releases. Which is unlikely.
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