Ajith’s Mankatha release in trouble due to Dhayanidhi Alagiri’s production

Reports emanating from Kollywood say that actor Ajith’s upcoming film ‘Mankatha’ is facing the problems vis-à-vis its theatrical release and that the problem is not dissimilar to the one which Vijay faced during the release of his ‘Kaavalan’ early this year.

The film, which is Ajith’s landmark 50th film and pits him opposite ‘action king’ Arjun for the first time, has raised high expectations among his fans and the movie-goers alike. The multi-starrer film has heroines such as Trisha, Lakshmi Rai, Anjali and Bollywood’s Kainaat Arora and has been directed by Venkat Prabhu. The problem is its producer Dayanidhi Azhagiri, son of Union Minister M.K. Azhagiri and the DMK strongman.

Though distributors and theatre-owners all over the State believe that the film would do well at the box-office, they are apprehensive about taking on a film produced by grandson of Kalaignar as they don’t want to invoke the wrath of Amma who is in the saddle at present. Ironically, the film’s Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Overseas distribution rights have been sold at a good rate but the Tamil Nadu distribution rights are yet to be sold!

Distributors and theatre-owners feel that it won’t be ‘proper’ if they release the film under the banner of Dayanidhi Azhagiri’s ‘Cloud Nine Movies’ and have reportedly asked Ajith to take on the responsibility of getting the movie from Azhagiri so that they would release the film without any fear or hesitation.

Ajith, on the other hand, maintains that he won’t be meetingCM Jayalalitha at this juncture as it would be construed that it was a ‘selfish’ meeting to iron out problems in releasing his film.