The release of Thalaivi, the upcoming biopic of late actor and former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa featuring Kangana Ranaut has been postponed due to the alarming rise of Covid-19 cases in the country, the film’s makers announced on social media on Friday.
The film was slated to release in theatres on April 23.
“Since the film has been made in multiple languages, we would like to release it in all languages on the same day. But with an alarming rise in COVID-19 cases, subsequent precautions and lockdowns, even though our film is ready for release on 23rd April, we want to extend all the support towards the government rules and regulations and have decided to postpone release of Thalaivi,” the makers said in the statement.
Thalaivi was simultaneously shot in Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu under the same title.
The makers have not yet announced the new release date.
Directed by AL Vijay, the film is produced by Vibri Media along with Karma Media and Entertainment and Zee Studios. It began shooting in November 2019 and was initially supposed to release in June 2020 but was halted due to the Covid-19 pandemic and resumed shooting in October 2020. The film also features Arvind Swami, Madhoo, Nassar, Bhagyashree, Samuthirakani, among others.
Besides Thalaivi, other films that postponed their release include the Akshay Kumar-starrer Sooryavanshi (slated to release on April 30), Amitabh Bachchan’s Chehre (scheduled to release on Friday), and Rana Daggubati’s Haathi Mere Saathi (March 26). All the films cited the spike in Covid-19 cases as the reason for their delay in release.
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Till 10 am on Saturday, India registered 10,46,631 active cases of Covid-19 while the country recorded the highest single-day spike on Wednesday by reporting 1,15,736 cases. While a total of 9,80,75,160 have been vaccinated, states such as Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, have implemented restrictions such as night curfew (8 pm-7 am) and 50% seating capacity in theatres and multiplexes, respectively.