Prabhas’ Radhe Shyam postponed, Ajith Kumar’s Valimai firm on Pongal release

This announcement comes days after the release of director SS Rajamouli’s RRR was also pushed due to the pandemic.

Amid the growing cases of Covid-19 infections, several states have imposed restrictions to control the public movement. In states like Delhi, Haryana and Bihar, the cinema halls have been asked to close the operations until further notice. In Karnataka, the government has imposed a 50 per cent cap on the occupancy in theatres. And the Tamil Nadu government is also expected to announce strict Covid-19 measures soon.

The governments in the Telugu states have not announced any restrictions yet. Even otherwise the ongoing issue of the low movie ticket price in Andhra Pradesh is likely to undercut the film’s box office earning potential. The situation is not conducive for the filmmakers to give Radhe Shyam a nationwide release and recoup its budget as expected from such front-loaded movies.

In the meantime, producer Boney Kapoor is apparently confident of making sure his movie Valimai arrives in cinemas worldwide on January 13 as announced earlier. The reports suggest that the filmmaker is in the mood to go ahead with the film’s release even if the Tamil Nadu government brings back a 50 per cent cap on theatre occupancy. It is worth noting that last year a handful of big star movies (Master, Karnan) became a hit at the box office despite the 50 percent cap.

Valimai will release on January 13 in Tamil, Telugu and Hindi.