Makers of big-budget South Indian films Marakkar, Acharya, Kotigobba 3 forced to push back their release dates

The alarming rise in coronavirus infections has forced many states to go into lockdown once again. Due to this, many highly awaited big-budget extravaganzas that were scheduled to be released soon have been postponed. 

On Tuesday, makers of the Malayalam historical epic Marakkar: Arabikadalinte Simham announced the postponement of the project's release date again. 

Starring Mohanlal and directed by Priyadarshan, the film was initially to arrive in theatres on 13 May. However, owing to the devastating second wave of the pandemic, makers have now shifted the release date to 12 August.

Confirming the news, Mohanlal shared a poster of the movie that bears the new release date. The actor is seen as Kunjali Marakkar, the naval commander of the Zamorin of Calicut, in the poster. 

The movie, which has won three National awards, including Best Film this year, will be released in Malayalam, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Kannada.

Apart from Marrakar, two other awaited Malayalam films, the Fahadh Faasil-starrer Maalik, directed by Mahesh Narayanan, and the Prithviraj Sukumaran-starrer Kuruthi are also scheduled to be released on 13 May. However, with theatres not operating in the state now, there are doubts surrounding the fate of Eid releases.

Films that were running in theatres are also being impacted by the ongoing situation. To curb the spread of the virus, makers of projects such as Manju Warrier’s Chathur Mukham and the Rajisha Vijayan-starrer Kho Kho have already withdrawn their films from theatres.

The Telugu film industry, which had been doing surprisingly well in adverse circumstances, has not been spared by the second wave.

Earlier today, the release of the Chiranjeevi and Ram Charan-starrer Acharya, one of the most anticipated Telugu films, was postponed. The makers are yet to announce a new release date for the action film, which was expected to arrive in cinema halls on 13 May.

Other big Telugu projects such as Nani and the Aishwarya Rajesh-starrer Tuck Jagadish and Rana Daggubati and the Sai Pallavi-starrer Virataparvam have also been postponed indefinitely.

Meanwhile, the Tamil Nadu state government recently announced a slew of new restrictions in the state, which also include the closure of movie theatres. Because of this, the Tamil movie MGR Magan, which was supposed to be released on 23 April, won't be out anytime soon. In light of the new restrictions, there have been unconfirmed reports that actor Sivakarthikeyan’s much-awaited film Doctor, which is slated for an Eid release, might be streamed on an OTT platform.

The Kannada film industry is also reeling under the pandemic. Last week, the state went into a lockdown, forcing cinema halls operating at 50% occupancy to completely down their shutters. Because of this, the release of one of the film industry's most anticipated movies Kotigobba 3, starring Kiccha Sudeep, has been postponed again. The film was slated to be released on 29 April.