The Telugu version of Vijay’s controversial Mersal was scheduled to release today. However, according to a tweet from the producer’s team, Mersal which is titled Adhirindhi in Telugu, won’t be releasing on Friday as per plans.
Aditi Ravindranath, Executive Producer and Marketing Head at Thenadal Films, announced on Thursday evening that Adhirindhi won’t be releasing on Friday but didn’t give a reason for the postponement.
According to this tweet by journalist Sreedhar Pillai, the reason for the delay in Adhirindhi’s release is that the Central Board of Film Certification hasn’t yet certified the film.
And all signs for this unusual delay on behalf of the CBFC seem to be pointing towards the controversial anti-GST dialogues in Vijay-starrer, which the BJP had protested against. The Tamil version Mersal had been certified UA by the CBFC and released across several states on 18 October. But, the producers of Adhirindhi have denied that there is any move to mute or cut the Telugu version of their film.
Adhirindhi is proceeding as per normal Censor timelines & guidelines. No truth in speculations of mutes & cuts.Aditi Ravindranath, Thenadal Films (Twitter)
The SOP of getting a CBFC certificate is a very straight and simple process which the regular biggies in any film industry are well-versed with. Under these circumstances, this postponement of the controversial Adhirindhi’s release will naturally raise eyebrows.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)