Ilayathalapathy Vijay's "Puli", which was to hit screens in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana (AP/T) on 1 October, has suffered a big setback at the box office on the first day, due to its delayed release.

"Puli" is a fantasy-adventure film, which has been simultaneously made in Tamil and Telugu and dubbed in Hindi. Vijay has got huge fan base in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and his latest outing has been creating positive ripples in these two states, ever since it was announced. Its promos had generated lot of curiosity among the film goers here.

The hype surrounding "Puli" had created a huge demand for its theatrical rights for these two regions. Several leading distribution houses were in the race for the rights. Finally, SVR Media was successful in acquiring its distribution rights for a record price of Rs 7.70 crore.

All the three versions of "Puli" were slated to hit the screens on the same day (Thursday). SVR Media had made all the arrangements for its grand release in both these states. Besides booking 400+ cinema halls, the distribution house had also planned to hold early morning shows at 5.00 am in several centres.

The ticket booking for "Puli" was made available for the audience well in advance and the Chimbu Deven's directed film had registered an average of 60% booking for its opening day. After seeing the huge response, the trade analysts in film nagar predicted that the movie would debut with an earth-shattering response and set a new record at the AP/T box office.

It was even predicted that "Puli" would collect more than Rs 3 crore at the AP/T box office on the first day. Just before the early morning show began, the news about the cancellation of the show fast circulated in the social media. The Vijay fans were disappointed to know that the digital prints of the film were not delivered on time due to some financial issues.

Later, it was reported that Vijay was addressing the issues and the screening of "Puli" would begin in the afternoon. As reported, he solved the problems and the show started in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and some other parts of the globe. But its release was delayed by a day in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

When Vijay fans were hoping to watch "Puli" at least on Friday, here is another shocking news for them. The film is unlikely to release on Friday too. Andhra Box Office tweeted, "#Puli AP/N: No word to Distributors on Tomorrow release either, as of now. Looks unlikely."

However, Telugu film "Shivam" and Bollywood flick "Singh is Bliing" are slated to release in large number of theatres in both the states on 2 October. Even if "Puli" releases on Friday, the movie may not get a big opening as it will clash with these two films. The movie is likely to land the distributors in big problem.

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