Why Kerala theater owners decided to ban Dulquer Salmaan's films?
Dulquer Salmaan's call to take his upcoming film, Salute, to OTT by bypassing the theater route has left cinema hall owners mightily angry. Hence, they have decided to ban all his films. The Film Exhibitors United Organization of Kerala (FEUOK) announced this development and added that going forward, they will not co-operate with any of the films associated with Salmaan. Here's more.
Why does this story matter?
When Salute makers declared that the cop drama will hit the digital space, it did come as a surprise. That's because Salmaan is a known advocate of theatrical outings and even decided to hold back Kurup until the situation permitted for a big screen release. Now when cinema halls are functioning at full capacity, this decision to take the OTT route is indeed mysterious.
Salmaan's production house taking the hit too
Coming back to FEUOK, the association has banned not only Salmaan's films, but also those projects that will be produced under his Wayfarer Films banner. To note, Salute is being bankrolled by Wayfarer. Salmaan is yet to react to this development, but his last tweet came hours before this decision, where he reiterated that Salute will stream "in Malayalam, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, and Kannada."
'Salute' to release on March 18
The main reason why FEUOK is miffed with Salmaan and his production house is because they were not made aware of the direct-to-OTT release call, even though FEUOK-Wayfarer had a release agreement in place, said reports. And, as per the latest announcement by the makers, Salute, helmed by Rosshan Andrrews, will hit the OTT platform SonyLIV on March 18, marking the occasion of Holi.
Here's what we know of the film
Salmaan plays a cop in Salute, his first such role. The film has been written by ace screenwriter duo of Bobby and Sanjay. Bollywood actor Diana Penty makes her Malayalam debut with Salute and is the leading lady. The film will co-feature Manoj K Jayan as SI Aravind Karunakaran's (Salmaan) elder brother Dy. SP Ajith Karunakaran, Alencier Ley Lopez, and Lakshmi Gopalaswamy, among others.
