Kabali needs a Rajini Act'

The promotional video of the much-awaited movie Kabali is out, but the makers will have to perform a jaw-dropping ‘Rajinikanth act’ to release this multilingual movie in Telugu.

Though Rajini movies have quite a huge fan following in Telugu, a release here would not be easy now as a complaint on his earlier movie Kochadiyaan is still pending with the Telugu Film Chamber of Commerce (TFCC).

According to the complaint, Kochadiyaan, directed by Rajinikanth’s daughter Soundarya, which is the country’s first photorealistic motion-capture film, was a big loss for all distributors and financiers.

The Telugu version Vikramasimha distributed by Lakshmi Ganapathi Films and financed by Sobhan Babu was in trouble right from the beginning as the shooting went on for years and crores were spent on it.

Finally, the film hit the screens in 2014 and before the Telugu release, Rajinikanth’s wife Lata had given the distributor an assurance of '7.60 crore, in case of loss. Later, when the film bombed, the actor allegedly failed to keep his word, following which the matter was taken up with the TFCC.

“There is a complaint on Kochadiyaan regarding financial issues and we have forwarded it to the South Indian Film Chamber of Commerce as the film is not in our jurisdiction,” says TFCC secretary Damodara Prasad.

Without divulging more on the complaint, he comments, “Most super stars movies are bought on high rates on a Non Refundable Amount (NRA) agreement. So if the film flops, it all depends on a mutual understanding between the distributors and the filmmakers.”

Moreover, Rajini’s post-Kochadiyaan movie Lingaa too was a big flop in Telugu, which has created a fear among Telugu distributors to try their hands on yet another Rajinikanth movie.