Vishal says ‘good for industry’ as Mark Antony releases week after Jawan in Tamil Nadu: ‘When SRK sang in Tamil, audience went wild’

In Tamil Nadu, Mark Antony will arrive in cinemas a week after director Atlee arrives with his big-scale spectacle Jawan, fronted by Shah Rukh and Nayanthara. The mass actioner, which is gearing up for a wide release on September 7, is already tracking excellent advance booking numbers and is set to be the biggest Hindi film opener in the state.

In an interview with Indianexpress.com, when asked how does he look at Mark Anthony arriving a week after Jawan, Vishal said, “It’s good! See without competition it’s not fun. If Usain Bolt runs alone, we wouldn’t want to watch the race but if he runs with 10 people from different countries, that’s when the excitement is there.

“So it’s good to have films release and subsequently may all the films do well. It’s very good for the industry. It doesn’t scare us or anything. We have a strong base of distributors and theatre owners for our movie.”

Vishal said today the audience across India are watching films of every state and the “cultural exchange” is ultimately only going to ensure that artistes put their best foot forward. The actor said Shah Rukh already had a base in Tamil Nadu but with Jawan releasing in Tamil, the local audience is bound to react strongly to the much awaited spectacle.

“This is nice for the audience also because when Shah Rukh bhai sang in Tamil, the Tamil audience went wild! They have always liked Shah Rukh bhai’s films in theaters and now they get to see and hear him speak their language. It’s the same here also. The best thing to have happened post COVID is that the mindset of people has changed.

“You can’t cheat them with mundane stuff. I can’t bring a regular commercial film and try to be in the list of the audience where they choose what to watch in a year. It’s their hard earned money, so why will they spend it on a normal movie? You’ve to come with something out of the box. That’s what the attempt is,” he added.

Billed as period science-fiction action comedy, Mark Antony features Vishal in a double role of father and son. The film also stars Suneel, Selvaraghavan and Ritu among others. Mark Antony is produced by S Vinod Kumar.

Jawan, meanwhile, also stars Vijay Sethupathi, Priyamani, Sanya Malhotra, Ridhi Dogra, Sunil Grover and features Deepika Padukone in a special appearance.