Exclusive! We'll weigh release options for Thurthu Nirgamana based on theatre occupancy: Sunil Raoh

The film is Freaky Chakra actor Sunil Raoh's return to Kannada cinema and stars Hitha Chandrashekar and Samyuktha Hegde in pivotal roles.

Sunil Raoh

The team of Sunil Raoh’s comeback film, Thurthu Nirgamana, was bang in the middle of planning release promotions when the pandemic struck and upended everything. Since then, they have been looking at possible windows to bring the film to theatres. “Thurthu Nirgamana is a film made for theatres. We recently had a preview of the film and the response has been encouraging. In fact, during the lockdown, we made couple of changes to the film, in terms of a tighter, crisper edit and have the final product in hand now. Much as we’d like a theatrical release, we understand that audiences are still iffy about venturing out to movie halls. There are also conflicting rumours about theatres being opened with full capacity or the possibility of more lockdowns. If the former is true and 100% occupancy is allowed, and halls fill up at least 40-50%, we will line up for release. But having said that, we are also keeping our options open for a direct OTT release. We should be able to make a final decision in the next couple of months,” explains Sunil.

This long wait to get the film out to the audience must be frustrating. “Of course, it is, but then, we are not the only ones in this situation; everyone’s on the same boat. What makes it easier to deal with is that there is very little we can do about it, other than being patient and waiting. At least I am not a newcomer; I have seen success and people know about my work. but when it comes to the director or technicians, most of them are newcomers who have a point to prove. They have been waiting for their effort to be seen,” he adds.

The problem with this wait is also that with every passing day, newer projects pile up and the list of films ready to hit theatres becomes longer by the day. What if it goes back to a situation like a few years ago when 10-12 Kannada films released on most Fridays? “Ideally, there should be a mechanism to streamline this. Any film competing with a lot of other movies is not ideal. We will need to address this when theatres open up fully,” says Sunil.

Thurthu Nirgamana is the directorial debut of Hemanth Kumar and explores the story of a young man who passes away, but is given the opportunity to go back three days before his demise. The film also stars Samyuktha Hegde, Sudha Rani, Hitha Chandrashekar, Raj B Shetty and Achyuth Kumar in pivotal roles.

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