The festive season of Pongal in 2021, was filled with releases of star-studded Tamil films such as Vijay’s Master, Eeswaran starring Silambarasan, Jayam Ravi’s Bhoomi. But this year, owing to the escalating Covid-19 pandemic and Ajith’s Valimai being postponed, several small-budget Tamil films will be arriving to theatres for Pongal, instead.
Presently, cinema halls in Tamil Nadu are operating with a 50% occupancy and no late night shows being screened, owing to the night curfew in place. These restrictions have been imposed to curb the rising number of Covid-19 cases and the Omicron variant. Due to this, producer Boney Kapoor announced that Valimai, which was scheduled to hit the big screens on Thursday, has been indefinitely postponed.
While Valimai was the last big-budget film to opt-out of the Pongal race, after RRR and Radhe Shyam, several small and medium-budget films have announced their releases.
On Thursday, at least three Tamil films will be released in theatres. They include; comedian Sathish’s debut as lead actor in Naai Sekar. Directed by Kishore Rajkumar and produced by AGS Productions, it features Cook With Comali-fame Pavithra Lakshmi, as the film’s female lead. On the same day, filmmaker-actor Sasikumar and Madonna Sebastian’s Kombu Vatcha Singamda will also be hitting the big screens.
Along with Naai Sekhar and Kombu Vatcha Singamda, Carbon starring actors Vidaarth and Dhanya Balakrishna, will also witness its release. Previously, the director of the film, Sreenivasan had said to Silverscreen India that Carbon will revolve around a protagonist, whose dreams end up coming to reality.
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Other Pongal releases include, Enna Solla Pogirai, which marks the debut for Ashwin Kumar, a former contestant in the show, Cook With Comali, Radhika Sarathkumar’s Marutha, and Lakshmi Menon’s AGP releasing on Friday.
With at least six films releasing in theatres this week, it is to be noted that the situation in Tamil Nadu mirrors that of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. While in both states, the occasion of Pongal/Sankranthi is widely celebrated, with the postponement of RRR, many small-budget Telugu films have announced their premieres on the big screen.