'Baahubali' Kerala Release in Trouble as Theatre Owners Declare Strike

The 10 July release of "Baahubali" in Kerala is in trouble as the theatre owners in the state are heading for an indefinite strike from 9 July.

As per reports, the Film Exhibitors' Federation president Liberty Basheer (A Class Theatres) has announced shutdown of nearly 380 theatres from Thursday, protesting delay in probe into "Premam" piracy case.

Though the shutdown is announced for a single day, Basheer has hinted that they will go for indefinite strike, if the police fail to catch the culprits behind the case. He also added that the authorities need to take strict action to avoid the circulation of fake prints as the theatre owners are affected the most.

If the strike continues, one film that will be affected seriously will be the upcoming magnum opus "Baahubali". Meanwhile, a section of theatre owners have claimed that the latest move by the federation is to block the state-wide release of the SS Rajamouli directorial.

Though the film is also dubbed in Malayalam, sources close to the distributors, Global United Media, will be releasing the film in Tamil on 10 July in 4K resolution. According to sources, distributors predict the Tamil original version will interest audience better compared to the dubbed version. With this, "Baahubali" will be the first Tamil movie in Kerala to be released in 4K.

"Baahubali" has an impressive star cast of Prabhas, Rana Daggubati, Tamanna, Sudeep, Nasser, Prabhakar, Ramya Krishna and Anushka Shetty.