Chennai: Complaining of huge losses, distributors of superstar Rajinikanth’s recently released film ‘Lingaa’ in Trichy and Thanjavur region in Tamil Nadu, have approached Madras high court for permission to stage hunger strike in Chennai.
The film released on Rajinikanth’s birthday on December 12, 2014. Marina Pixtures managing director R Singaravadivelan, in his petition, said he had purchased Lingaa for screening in Trichy and Thanjavur districts, for a sum of 8 crore. He said the film was a failure and it did not gross enough box office collections. Distributors in several other areas too suffered similar losses, and they too plan to join the stir.
Claiming that several theatre owners who had paid money to him too had suffered losses, the petitioner said neither the producer nor actor Rajinikanth was willing to talk to them about making up for the losses.
In order to highlight the plight of distributors and theatre owners, the petitioner’s company had sought permission to hold a hunger strike in Chennai on 10th January. As there was no response from the city police despite submission of requests on 3rd January, the present writ petition has been filed.
He wanted the court to direct the Chennai city police to permit them to sit on hunger strike either at Valluvar Kottam or at Government guest house near Chepauk.
Earlier, a section of the media had reported that “Lingaa” distributors have claimed that they have incurred huge losses on the film. Following the claims, Vendhar Movies, who had acquired the Tamil Nadu distribution rights of “Lingaa,” released a press statement stating that the film’s performance has not been as expected. They had asked distributors to wait untill Christmas for the collections to pick up.
“It is true that the film has not been doing as well as we would have expected. Probably, we shouldn’t have released it on December 12. But, we are sure that the film will pick up during the Christmas,” holidays,” said T. Siva, a representative of Vendhar Movies.
