Shows of Tamil movie 'Puli' cancelled

Chennai: The release of superstar Vijay's Tamil movie ‘Puli’ has hit a roadblock after early morning shows and overseas premiere of the film were cancelled for reasons still unclear.

The shows of the fantasy-drama film that were scheduled as early as 4 a.m. and 5 a.m. by theatres here on Thursday stand cancelled.

"Even we are not sure why we have been asked to cancel the special shows. We are waiting for go ahead from Qube to release the film," a theatre representative said.

According to an industry source, the makers of ‘Puli’ were yet to get clearance from Qube - the company that streams movies digitally.

"Rumour has it that producers of 'Puli' are yet to clear dues to Qube. As soon as it is settled, theatres are expected to get the green signal to screen the movie," the source said.

Another source said that due to the Income Tax raid on the producers and financier of ‘Puli’ on Thursday, they are yet get financial clearance to pay exhibitors.

"Due to the IT raid, the producers were not allowed to move funds to clear last minute payments. This could be one of the reasons why exhibitors did not get clearance to screen the film," the source said.

Theatres here that had planned to screen the film at 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. have also cancelled the shows.

"We hear that we may get clearance to screen the film from noon onwards. But we still are not sure about the same," the theatre representative said.

The film's overseas distributor Atmus Entertainment posted on their Twitter page on Thursday that all the premiere shows were cancelled in Canada and the US.

The release of the film in its dubbed Hindi and Telugu versions also remain doubtful.

Directed by Chimbu Deven, the film also stars Sridevi, Shruti Haasan and Hansika Motwani in important roles.