Dam 999 and a flood of new films

KOCHI: Ending the drought that had gripped the Malayalam movie industry for the past 50 days, new movies will hit screens from Friday. Interestingly, the Malayalam filmdom gets a breather on a day when the movie ‘Dam 999’ is banned in Tamil Nadu.Other Malayalam movies released on Friday are Kamal’s ‘Swapna Sanchari’ and Jayaraj’s ‘Nayika’. Both feature Jayaram in the lead. The last major Malayalam release was on October 6, when Ranjith’s ‘Indian Rupee’ hit the screens. Soon, after a difference of opinion with the minister for cinema, the exhibitor’s federation called for a strike, which was joined in by the producers association and distributors association.According to trade analysts, the industry suffered a loss of Rs 15 crore during the last one-and-a-half months. The worst sufferers were the producers. “For instance, take my movie ‘Venicile Vyapari’, which was slated for a November 11 release. Accordingly we started the publicity work by October itself. But the strike forced us to postpone the release date to December 16. Now, the producer will have to restart the whole promotional campaign,” said director Shafi.Apart from Shafi’s Mammootty-starrer, the other movies that were postponed include Priyadarsan’s Mohanlal-starrer ‘Arabiyum Ottakavum P Madhavan Nairum’, A K Sajan’s ‘Asuravithu’, Sibi Malayil’s ‘Unnam’ and VK Prakash’s Jayasurya-Anup Menon starrer ‘Beautiful’.A major challenge that the postponed movies will have to face would be a clash with Christmas releases. A couple of big movies like Lal Jose’s ‘Spanish Masala’ and Johnny Antony’s ‘Masters’ are charted for Christmas. However, it seems there are more surprises in store for the movie buffs as the Producers Association (KPA) is yet to take a final decision on withdrawing their strike.“We are yet to decide on whether to produce new films or not. A final decision in this regard will be taken only after the general body meeting of the association to be held on November 28,” said KPA president Siyad Koker. The strike by the producers has been delaying the commencement of shooting of movies, including Mammootty- Lal team’s ‘Kobra’.