Ajith shoot in Mount Road Chennai from March 9th - Arjun Kapoor in Comali remake

 

Ajith's next shoot will begin on March  9th in Mount Road Chennai set erected in Ramoji Rao film city Hyderabad. Valimai Hindi ( same name) will have 1000 screens in North India, biggest for a Ajith Kumar film. Producer is not bothered about how the distributor is going to get screens but  Valimai will release on scheduled date Feb 25 even if Gangubhai of Alia Bhatt is coming on the same date as Boney Kapoor says both are different genres.  Arjun Kapoor is going to act in  Jeyam Ravi's Tamil film `Comali' remake and F2 (  Varun Tej's Telugu). R J Balaji's Veetiliya Visheshangal ( remake of Badhai Ho ) and Udhyanidhi Stalin Nenjuku Neethi  (Article 15) will release in first half of summer.

A confident Boney in an interview said that with little promotion, he is sure  that he will do good biz with Valimai. He says that he is not expecting Rs 100 cr biz in North but only a decent output. Even before Pushpa, Boney sold Hindi theatrical rights. His daughter Jhanvi's next release is Mili , remake of Malayalam film Helen..

His son Arjun Kapoor will reprise Jeyam Ravi's role in Comali remake and Varun Tej's  F2 in Hindi. Anees Bazme will be directing F2 remake and there is talk that Bazmee will being doing No Entry sequel with Salman Khan. Boney said he is keeping his fingers crossed. Luv Ranjan will direct Comali remake.

Boney's upcoming Maaidan with Ajay Devgn will clash with Prithviraj in June. Maaidan is coming on June 3 and following week is Prithviraj ( AkshayKumar). Here too he rules out any change  in  dates.  Valimai OTT release dates yet to be set says Boney. Zee5 is the OTT rights holder. PEN who is distributor of Valimai was also for Ravi Teja's Khiladi Hindi. On first day, there wasno  morning shows and till date there is no box office figures.

We called Antony Perumbavoor Bluff Master on Jan 6th'21 - Kerala Film trade echoes it now

 

Mohanlal's man Friday Antony Perumbavoor bluffs his way to justify Drishyam 2 on Amazon- Our report Dated January 6 2021. Now exhibitors and Malayalam trade unanimously term him ` Bluff Master’. Arabikadalinte Simham Marakkar for OTT .

Producer Antony told the Kerala Film Chamber that he was selling Drishyam 2 to enable Marakkar to be screened in theatres. Why ? He had taken Rs 20 crores as advance from theatres and wanted to keep them pacified.

Now theatres are open. Antony says give me Rs 30 crores more or take back your money. Reason? Amazon has offered me Rs 50 crores and with satellite rights, I will cover my investment.

As no OTT pays more than Rs 30-35 crores for a Star film direct OTT release from Malayalam language, he has put up three more films that have Mohanlal in it and fixed a total price. So in the long run , he stands to make close to Rs 20- 30 crores profit.

 Antony to exhibitors - If I walk out of the deal then I need distributors  to give me Rs 60 crores as  outright amount.  (Thus if the film collects or not, the producer is not bound to return it) Exhibitors :  In Kerala, no film is bought outright, We can give Rs 15 crores for 500 screens and only as advance . Antony : Fine. Then I am not taking any risks and going to Amazon.

Next bluff by Antony is that – “ My film cost Rs 65 crores. I am selling it to Amazon Prime and Asianet and still lose Rs 7 crores”. Why ? All for the love of Lal eattan fans.

Antony has sold three more films that have Mohanlal and pocketed a profit of Rs 20 crores from Amazon. TV rights and digital- dubbing- remake rights are still with him.

Poor exhibitors who advanced Rs 20 crores to Antony are glad that after two years they have got the capital back without interest. They run to Lalettan  and he says – Who told you that I have any stake in Ashirwad productions ?. He is doing what any producer would do in this circumstances.

So finally after Thalapathy Vijay’s Master that saved Kerala theaters then , it is for Thalaivar SuperStar Annaatthe to come to the rescue again on Diwali Day ( November 4)

Our earlier report link ; https://southfilmy.blogspot.com/2021/01/mohanlals-man-friday-antony-perumbavoor.html