Bairavaa hit by Kerala theatre strike: Will Vijay-Keerthy Suresh's movie release suffer

Due to the ongoing rift between the Mollywood producers and exhibitors associations, the Malayalam entertainment industry has been going through a rough phase with no regional movies getting released since December. In this situation, other language movies gain, and it is evident from the box office collection of Bollywood star, Aamir Khan's latest release, Dangal, in Kerala.

Read: Bairavaa preview

Being the solo release during the festive season of Christmas, the sports biopic, directed by Nitesh Tiwari, has been performing stupendously well at the box office in Kerala. Now, even though the theatre strike is still not resolved, upcoming Tamil action thriller Bairavaa, starring Ilayathapathy Vijay, is all set to hit the screens on January 12. The makers aim Kerala as a big market for the movie with no big competitors as Vijay enjoys a huge fan following in Kerala, where the young star's movies always perform well. His previous release, Theri, has become the biggest other language grosser in Kerala in 2016.

However, the Kerala Youth Congress President Dean Kuriakose has reportedly stated that they will halt the release of the Tamil action thriller as Malayalam industry is facing a huge loss due to the theatre strike. "When the Malayalam movie industry is facing a crisis, no one should even think of releasing other-language movies here. The issue has been going on for almost a month and this shows the careless attitude of the government," he stated to the media.

Bairavaa, which stars producer Suresh Kumar's daughter Keerthy Suresh, has been scheduled to hit as many as 75 screens in Kerala. Meanwhile, the exhibitors association has reportedly decided to shut down theatres from January 10, and if the theatre strike is not resolved by then, the release of Bairavaa will surely be affected.