Kerala filmdom is in coming days going to see the revival of the Thiruvanthapuram- Kochi lobbies. These lobby war had ceased and the kingpins of the lobby had merged and joined hands in many collaboration. Now the Marakkar OTT release has given life to the lobby that backs Antony Perumbavoor the producer and by that the supporters of Mohanlal. The first indication came when Mohanlal's closest buddy Priyadarshan ( also director of Marakkar) fired a salvo at Dulquar Salman producer of Kurup in a TV interview.
Already there was talk going
around that the current exhibitors lobby headed by Vijayakumar was working in tandem with Mammootty and painting Antony and Mohanlal as people who went back on their words and looked only to their bank balance. This time however there is a shift in balance as Dilip who considered the kingpin of film trade, might shift his loyalty to the Lal lobby. Prihviraj who geographically comes from Trivandrum had been with Kochi lobby but of late, he is back with Lalettan.
The reason for exhibitors to get belligerent with Antony and not accept the terms for Marakkar release was due to the freehold release of Kurup which has Dulquar in title role. The director of the film had stated that they had Rs 40 crores offer for Kurup but Dulquar was adamant that he would release in theaters first. Priyadarshan without taking names said that a film rejected by Netflix and many other OTT due to high price is now coming to theaters and is projected as doing a service to exhibitors.
When Drishyam 2 went to OTT, Mammooty released The Priest and ONE in theaters. Exhibitors went in a group and hailed their Messiah. Kurup budget is close to Rs 35 crore and this is too high for a Dulquar film . Collecting it from theaters in Kerala alone is tough and was planned to release the dubbed versions in Tamil and Telugu as he had hits in that regions. ( Kaanum Kannum Koliyaadithal and Mahanati in Tamil - Telugu) and a known face through Hindi films like Zoya Factor and Karwaan. Covid put an end to this business. In a situation almost similar to Antony, Dulquar found that OTT does not give that kind of money to his films , even if it was a direct release. So best way out to go to try his luck with Kerala theaters and hope to make up for the deficit.
40 % of the theater lobby and many big banners are out to shift out of Kerala Film Chamber and Film Exhibitors United Organisation of Kerala (FEUOK). Will it go back to the days of Lal v/s Mammooty lobby ? If so where will the new breed of actors who were not witness to this lobby war stand ?
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