The release of actor Dulquer Salmaan's investigative drama Salute has been postponed owing to the rapid rise in COVID-19 cases across the country.
Written by Bobby and Sanjay and directed by Rosshan Andrrews, the film was lined up for release on Friday 14 January. No new date has been set.
Dulquer, who is also the film's producer, made the announcement today on his social media accounts. He wrote: "We at Wayfarer Films are bound to show social responsibility ahead of our personal interests. Just like all of you, we were most excited and eagerly awaiting our next release. Owing to recent developments and the spike in COVID-19 and Omicron cases, we have taken the difficult decision to postpone the release of Salute. We apologize if we have disappointed you. But in times like this we must prioritize health and safety. We request everyone to stay safe. We will be back. At the earliest. We thank each and every one of you for your support."
The movie, which sees Dulquer playing a police officer on the trail of a mysterious killer, marks the first collaboration between him and Rosshan Andrrews. Salute also stars Diana Penty, Manoj K Jayan, Saniya Iyappan and Lakshmi Gopalaswamy.
Although in the past week or so, makers of some big-budget Hindi, Telugu and Tamil films like Jersey, RRR, Radhe Shyam, Valimai and Prithviraj have decided to postpone their releases, this is the first major Malayalam film whose release has been postponed due to rising COVID-19 cases.