With Vijay and Lokesh Kanagaraj’s much-awaited team up set to release later this week, fans are anxiously watching out for when advance bookings will open up in Chennai. Leo will finally hit screens on Thursday, October 19, but audiences have not been able to book their tickets even as the hype hits fever pitch. Reasons for this appears to be an ongoing profit tussle between the film’s distributors and theatre owners.
People tracking the entertainment industry said the distributors are asking for a higher percentage of the profits than normal, though the precise demands are unknown. Theatre owners on the other hand, are not agreeing as they feel they are already burdened by the constraints on show timing issued by the Tamil Nadu government. Sreedhar Pillai, who keeps track of the industry, said earlier on X, “Theatres will also have to reduce their interval and cleaning time between shows if they are to play all five shows in 16.5 hours (9 AM to 1.30 AM). Plus it will eat into their F&B [Food & Beverage] sales and advertisements.”
The Tamil Nadu Theatre Owners Association Tirupur Subramaniam told TNM that distributors were asking for more and that theatre owners have not agreed to it. He also added that such tussles ahead of a big release is a common occurrence and that it would be resolved soon.
The film’s release has not been smooth with several government decisions leading to confusion. On October 13, the state government issued an order revoking permissions for early morning screenings. A government order (GO) granting permission for Leo to screen shows as early as 4 am from October 19 to October 24 had been issued only the previous day. Similarly, the other big release in Tamil Nadu this year, Rajinikanth’s Jailer, was also not given permission for early morning screenings citing law and order concerns. Leo's producers Seven Screen Studios have approached the Madras High Court seeking permission for early morning shows.
In September, the film's audio launch event was cancelled. There was an announcement that all district secretaries of the Thalapathy Vijay Makkal Iyakkam (TVMI), an association of fans, would receive passes to the launch. While many rumours were floated regarding why such a big event had been cancelled, the real reason turned out to be a lack of agreement over how the 6,000-odd tickets to the event would be divided, coupled with concerns over the attendees’ safety.
TVMI’s demands for tickets was too high and sources had previously told TNM that the demand would have eaten into the share of passes that was due to the event organisers and administrators of the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium in Chennai. After the chaos and mismanagement at the AR Rahman concert earlier the same month, organisers and the police were cautious about large gatherings for events with presence of popular stars.
Leo, along with Vijay, stars Trisha, Sanjay Dutt, Arjun, Mysskin, Gautham Vasudev Menon and others. Cameos such as what was seen in Lokesh’s previous film Vikram starring Kamal Haasan and tie-ins with what has come to be known as the Lokesh Cinematic Universe (LCU) are being awaited with much excitement among fans.
Read: The real reason Vijay's Leo audio launch was cancelled