"Can't take it anymore, saying it with great pain"; Vineeth Sreenivasan at press conference regarding PVR controversy

Director and actor Vineeth Sreenivasan said that he and producer Visakh Subramaniam are people who stood by theatre owners including PVR during the crisis. Vineeth was responding to the press conference led by FEFKA on the PVR controversy. Vineeth said that even though his movie Hridayam got three times the offer, it was not given an OTT release considering theatres like PVR.

"We came to know that our films will not be screened on any PVR screens only the day before the release of the films. This issue is not confined to a single network, PVR. They even run small theatres in many parts of India. Many multiplexes are in their hands. Now none of these theaters are running our movie.

For the audience, there is a thing called theater loyalty. The audience books the theatre looking for maximum convenience. Among these will be theatres of PVR as well. We are losing all such audiences. This is a great loss.

At the time we were doing Hridayam, it was lockdown time. Many theatre owners had called us and told us not to release the film in OTT. Hridayam got three times the offer from OTT than it did from theatres. We stayed with them then and still they are doing this to us now. I'm not that talkative. I'm saying this with great pain'' - Vineeth Sreenivasan's words.

The long-standing disagreement regarding the digital projection system in theatres had led to a big controversy and boycott of Malayalam movies by PVR the other day. PVR is the multiplex chain through which most Malayalam films are released outside Kerala. Most of the recent Malayalam hits Manjummel Boys and Premalu have been screened in Chennai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad through this multiplex. Such an unexpected boycott during the season when the business is at its busiest is a heavy blow to Malayalam films.

FEFCA General Secretary B Unnikrishnan clarified that no Malayalam film will be screened in any theatre of PVR without compensating the producers for this loss.