Exclusive! Dulquer Salmaan’s Wayfarer Films responds to FEUOK’s stand, says Salute’s OTT deal was signed first

The Film Exhibitors United Organisation of Kerala (FEUOK) announced that they have decided to cut all ties with Dulquer Salmaan and his production house Wayfarer Films after the makers opted for a direct-to-OTT release of Salute, which was initially slotted for a theatrical release on January 14. An official from Wayfarer Films spoke exclusively to OTTplay to explain the situation that led to them releasing the film on Sony LIV on March 18.

K Vijayakumar earlier today had told OTTplay that the major grouse that FEUOK members had with Dulquer and Wayfarer Films was that they “backtracked” on the decision of releasing the movie in theatres and didn’t honour the contract they had signed. Apparently 300 theatres were ready to screen the film on January 14.

A spokesperson of Wayfarer Films however denies this claim. “Salute’s OTT deal was signed first. We pulled this down so that the film could release theatres in January. So, we wanted to give the film to theatres, but the streaming service wanted it to hit the platform on or before March 31 and the deadline, they had shared for its theatrical release, was on or before February 14,” he says. “This was not possible for us because all of us were down with COVID-19. But when we have a contract in place and it’s not honoured, it’s a problem for them and for us. That’s why we had to release it on OTT.”

Also read: FEUOK president on ‘ban’ on Dulquer’s films: Let this be a warning to stars opting for OTT releases 

The official also informs us that the production house had spent a substantial amount for the marketing of the movie, ahead of its January release. “We put up hoardings across Kerala and did proper marketing for the film,” he says.

Meanwhile, Vijayakumar had also told us that the theatre owners weren’t informed by the production house that the movie is opting for a direct-to-OTT release after the January 14 release was postponed due to the surge in COVID-19 cases.

To this, the Wayfarer Films spokesperson says, “We had already intimated to the theatre owners that the movie would go for an OTT release if we didn’t do it within the stipulated period. By then, there were already hit movies releasing and it didn’t seem likely that we could release on February 14. It’s not as if we didn’t want to release the film in theatres. We have always supported theatres,” he says.

Since November, Wayfarer Films has released two of its movies in theatres – Dulquer’s Kurup and Upacharapoorvam Gunda Jayan on February 18. “It also didn’t make sense to release two films in theatres at the same time,” says the official.

Salute, which is an investigative thriller helmed by Rosshan Andrrews, was also initially made for OTTs, he explains. “We make movies keeping the platform in mind and Salute was designed for OTT. But because of the opportunity to screen it in theatres, we tried to push it. But the COVID situation didn’t help matters and we couldn’t put people in place to get things done,” he says.

On the response of the production house regarding the non-cooperation stand of FEUOK, the spokesperson says, “We didn’t intend to hurt the sentiments of theatre owners, they have always been of great support to us. If they decide to ban us, what can we say? Also, if we had an option to release the movie in May, we would have opted for it but the platform wants to be done before March 31, being the end of the financial year. So, we had to honour that.”