Vijay TV in race to bag satellite rights of Ilayathalapathy's 'Theri'

Vijay TV is the front-runner for acquiring the satellite rights of the forthcoming Tamil movie, "Theri." The channel is already in talks with the makers, and the deal is expected to be struck in the next few days.

Announcing the news, journalist Sreedhar Pillai posted on Twitter, "@vijaytelevision frontrunner 4 #Theri satellite rights. #Thanu's #Thupakki was telecast on same channel & now audio. [sic]" The audio release function of "Theri" was held March 20, and it will also be aired on the channel April 3.

In the recent years, the channel had acquired the satellite rights of other movies starring Ilayathalapathy Vijay, like "Thuppakki" and "Nanban." Vijay's previous movie "Puli" was sold for a record Rs 22 crore to Sun TV, which had paid the huge amount for the rights of Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam versions.

People are now curiously looking forward to see whether "Theri" breaks this record. Satellite rights play a big role in recovering a part of the production cost for film producers, who try their best to strike a good deal with TV channels. 

On the other end, the makers of "Theri" have submitted the final copy of the Tamil film to the regional censor board for certification. The censor formalities are expected to be completed by this weekend, and producers hope that the film gets a 'U' certificate.

Meanwhile, the Telugu dubbing rights of the movie have been sold to Dil Raju. The dubbing process has already begun, and the Tamil and Telugu versions will be released simultaneously April 14, on the occasion of the Tamil New Year.

"Theri" is an action-thriller starring Vijay, Samantha and Amy Jackson. Vijay plays the role of a cop in the film, which has Prabhu, Raadhika Sarathkumar, Mahendran, KS Ravikumar, Santhanam, and Rajendran among the supporting cast.