It
has been a long time since the release of
Poi has been ‘just round the corner’.
But, the corner seems far away. Why should
a movie that has been directed by a legend
of the order of K Balachander face any problems?
One might think that the problems are financial,
but that is not the case. The shooting of
the film was completed quite some time back
under the production of Prakashraj’s
Duet Movies. It is at the stage of release
that the problems have cropped up. It is
said that most of the distributors are expressing
their reluctance at buying the rights for
the movie. They feel that the subject and
the treatment given by KB is outdated and
that the film is not a sure bet. The fact
that KB’s last movie, Paarthaalae
Paravasam which had Madhavan and Simran
in it’s star cast has failed at the
box office.
A
decade back, distributors might have
fallen over each other to get hold
of a KB film, but things have changed
a lot from then. Now, the news is
that Oscar Ravichandran has come forward
and offered to take up the movie.
But, even this big production house
is moving very cautiously. Ravichandran
is reportedly trying to sell of most
of the areas of the film and retain
some key areas for himself. But finding
distributors is not proving easy.
Ravichandran’s reluctance in
releasing the movie throughout Tamilnadu
is understandable as he is currently
involved in the production of the
big budget Dasavatharam and he needs
all the money that he has to fund
the project.
Meanwhile,
the movie has been dubbed into Telugu as
Abaddham and has found immediate acceptance.
It is said that a private satellite channel
has bought the rights for the movie and
this has helped Prakashraj recover some
of the money that he invested. It is said
that Prakashraj is quite sour at the distributors
of T.N because of their reluctance to take
up the movie. Not because the movie is produced
by him, but because the movie has been directed
by one of the most iconic figures in the
industry who has given so many hits. Hope
that Poi makes it to the screens soon.
