A sky high treat for the Rajini's fans

By: Settu Shankar
Thursday, November 29, 2007

It will be a sky high treat for the ardent fans of Indian superstar Rajinikanth as Singapore Airlines has purchased exclusive rights for the in-flight screening of his blockbuster, Sivaji-The Boss.

"This is the first time that the Singapore Airlines has purchased the rights of an Indian movie. The film will be screened on all its international flights starting December 1st," Bharat Mahadevan, Airlines Manager Southern India, told reporters in Chennai on November 28.

He said the rights had been purchased from Ayngaran International, a London-based company, which had the distribution rights of Sivaji for the overseas market.

According to Mahadevan, the airlines had paid two times more than the normal rate to get the film's rights amidst heavy competition from other airlines operators! He further told that the exclusive right was only for 3 months, after which other airlines could also opt for the movie.

Stating that the film would be screened to over two million passengers a month, he expressed hope that the airline's customers would welcome the Indian flavour on international flights. Singapore Airlines has also tied-up with actor Madhavan to be the official airline for his maiden production Evano Oruvan.

Expressing happiness over the association with Singapore Airlines, SC Babu, the CEO of AVM Productions, the producers of Sivaji, said the film had set a record in the Tamil film industry by running more than 100 days in many overseas theatres. The film would be dubbed in Hindi and released in January 2008, he added.