Superfest on July 22

With just two more days to go for July 22, the rising level of anxiety among various sections of the people seems to have no limits, thanks to the Kabali fever that is running high across the country. If this is the case with even casual movie goers, how will it be with the fans for whom it is a festival like Deepavali or celebration like New Year? In a friendly chat, some fans listed their events they are planning to hold on the eve of Kabali release and the big day. 

Here is the first ‘ritual’ exactly what one of the fans said: “We have planned a pilgrimage (the holy points being theatres screening Kabali ) from 1 am on July 22 from Kasi theatre and to other cinema halls in the city and watch the movie on different screens.” 

Sridhar of LIC Rajini Fans Club Unit, which manages the celebrations at Albert Theatre, says, “Usually, it is the production houses that take care of the cut-outs, but this time we are erecting our own two 40-foot cut-outs at this Rajini’s regular theatre, where one will be a normal life-size poster of his and the others will be made of LED lights. This apart, we will also be putting up a 50-foot wide poster across the premises.”  

The cost for all these may cross Rs 1 lakh, says Sridhar. Started three decades ago in 1984, totally 159 are active members of the LIC Rajini fans club. “While many of the clubs have decided to skip milk abhishekam this time, ours will continue with the practice and do it every 30 minutes.” Another novel item will be the musical welcome to fans and a Rajasthani band has been hired for the job. 

But, Saidai Ravi of Saidapet already begun the mission with divine blessings as he organised a special puja at Chandramouleswarar Temple in Anna Nagar, a favourite of the family of Superstar, on July 17. 

On the day of release, he is planning to take the fans on bus tours to Kabali theatres. No grand event is complete without fireworks. So, the day will start with bursting of crackers for the ‘Kabali gang’ at the stroke of midnight. 

“It will add to the theme of Neruppu Da. “Karthik of Rajini Biggest Superstar Of India — RBSI Facebook Page, which is one of the biggest online platform for Rajini fans, says, “There will be a show around 1 am at Kasi theatre and the Neruppu will start there and fans have spent Rs one lakh. In fact, the celebrations may start from 10 pm itself. The next point of grandeur will be at Kasi’s neighbour — the Udhayam Theatre — at 4 am.” 

Out of these groups, some philanthropy-minded followers of Rajinikanth have decided to make charitable donations. “My friends and I plan to distribute food packets on Thursday night before going for the premiere,” says Ashok P.

The Madras High Court has dismissed a plea seeking to take action against Kabali’s producer S Thanu and theatre owners for selling tickets for the movie at rates much higher than the prescribed ones. Justice N Kirubakaran who dismissed the plea held:  “The petitioner has given representation to the government only on July 15, and it is not known whether it has reached the hands of the respondents. Without giving sufficient time to the respondents, the petitioner has approached the court.”

Rs 200 crore is touted to be the pre-release business of Kabali. Producer S Thanu confirmed it recently at a promotional event.

Rs 500 crore, Thanu also said he expects the movie to make Rs 500 cr at box office. While the satellite rights are yet to be sold, Kerala theatrical rights have been bagged by actor Mohan Lal.

When it is Rajini, each and everything is sensational and viral, including hoax information too about the Superstar. The Indian movie buffs and the fans of the star had a taste of it once again on Tuesday, when the social media and other websites were on ‘fire’ with reports of pirated version of Kabali being released on the net. However, experts and the members of the film production team rejected all reports around the leak as rumours. 

“The sites that claim that Kabali can be downloaded from their page only leads to other suspect page and there are only pop-ups that lead to nowhere. Also, the movie is not available on Torrent sites,” clarified Raoul Andrew Mendanha, an expert adding that these websites look dubious at very first sight, wherein in size of the file is only a few KBs. “It is either hoax or call it a prank,” he says. The makers of the film had already got an order from the Madras High Court to ensure that the film was not pirated. There was also an anti-piracy flash mob being organised to spread awareness against piracy and appealing people to watch the movie in theatres. This is not the first time that a movie copy marked for viewing of censor board officials has leaked online. 

Producers of the Malayalam movie Premam were in for shock, when the movie got leaked online within days of its release. After the news of movies like Udta Punjab and Great Grand Masti being leaked came to light, filmmakers are apprehensive about the future of film industry. But for true-blue Rajini fans it’s the cinema experience that too on the first day that counts.

The whole of Tamil Nadu bursts into a festive mood the day a movie of Rajinikath is released. Proof is the theatres that will release the Superstar’s next flick Kabali gearing up for the great day on July 22. 

While multiplexes are planning extravagantly, the standalone theatres are giving a fresh coat of paint to their premises, refurbishing the interiors, besides overhauling the equipment. “We have refurbished the entire theatre. To give the best feel of the background score and the already super hit numbers of the movie, Dolby Atmos has been introduced in our hall,” reveals Roopan of GK Cinemas, previously Sri Gopalakrishna, in Porur.  

GK Cinemas is one among the first theatres to have a banner of Kabali on the premises. “But, the biggest pressure which we are not able to cope with is the demand for tickets. Never in my theatre business I have seen such a craze. While Rajini is the major attraction, the unsual come-together of Pa Ranjith, director Madras, and Santhosh Narayanan of Jigarthanda music fame, seems to have added to the mad rush,” says Roopan.  

The Vettri Cinemas in Chrompet, one of the most popular landmarks on the arterial GST Road, has been given a full makeover to its audio system with the installation of Dolby Atmos. The theatre owner Rakesh Gowtham said that the projectors have been upgraded to 4K to mark Kabali ’s release.  

Unless it is a festival day or any other important occasion like wedding, most of us do not plan our programmes. But Balaji S from Anakaputhur has extensively planned his day on July 22 and for obvious reasons. In fact, he has reserved the whole day for just one activity — watching Kabali in different theatres. “I won’t have time for anything else except watching the Thalaivar’s movie throughout the day. I have blocked tickets in different theatres to watch Kabali at least three times on the release day. To begin with it’s Kasi theatre for early morning show. Then I will catch the regular first show at Ganesh Cinemas in Anakaputhur. 

The matinee show in a theatre in Porur if the ticket is confirmed or I will wind up with the evening show in Devi on Anna Salai,” explains Balaji with a big smile. “I know I won’t be able to hear a single word in the theatre on the first day. But the electrifying atmosphere in the theatre will make the experience surreal. Moreover, Rajinikanth’s movies can never be boring no matter how many times you have watched it,” reasons Balaji.  There are thousands of Balajis in the city with similar plans.  “Getting a ticket for the Superstar’s movie on first day is like winning a gold medal in Olympics and we got it,” posted another fan on Facebook.  Mouli from Erode has posted on Twitter that he has got tickets for the first day first show, though the price was three times the regular fare. “Usually, only fans will book for the special shows, but now even corporates too are toeing this style. This has been causing problems for fans. Multiplexes prefer corporates for fans associations for bulk bookings and the share of tickets allocated for fans have come down to 25 per cent. So, we largely depend on standalone theatres,” says Sridhar, another fan.

Performing milk abhishek am for actors’ cut-outs has come under the scanner again ahead of the release of Kabali with Tamil Nadu Milk Dealers Employees Welfare Association making an appeal to Rajini fans to desist from the practice on the first day of the next film of Rajinikanth set to hit the silver screens on July 22. Close to 50,000 litres of milk is wasted just on the day of release of a Rajinikanth film, the Milk Dealers’ Association claimed. Though the practice of ‘bathing’ the film banners of any actor on Day One has become a common thing in recent times, the first star to have this ‘holy’ treatment was ‘Makkal Thilagam’ MGR during the release of his film Maatukara Velan. 

Sources said as MGR played the role of a cowherd in the movie, his fans for the first time poured milk on the actor-turned-politician’s cut-outs at theatres. However, Rajinikanth’s fans picked up the practice and made it a trend when Annamalai, in which the Superstar is also a cowherd and later transforms into a dairy owner, hit the screens. “That’s where it started. After that milk abhishekam became a regular feature,” said Karthik, member of Rajinikanth’s fans association. 

The association heads have given clear instructions to members not to pour milk on cut-outs after a series of appeals and directions from courts. “But we can’t control the fans on that day. Some of them will continue it,” he added. With a few fans having already declared that they would anyway perform the abhishekam, it may not be possible to prevent milk going to waste.