Rajini's Kuselan jagged

Superstar Rajnkanth is shocked by the theater response for his recently released Kuselan, the remake of Malayalam version of Mammootty starrer Katha Parayumbol.

Yesterday, some theater Owners from Kanchipuram district assembled in Chennai and decided to get back their money from Kavithalaya and Seven Arts the producers of Kuselan.

S. Palaniyappan, head of a Exhibitors association told reporters on Monday evening that they have announced a non-co-operative movement against the producers, and are meeting on Aug 23 to chalk out their plans with regard to Rajinikanth,.

"The loss will cross over Rs.25 crores in the short term unless, adequate remedial measures are initiated by the actor, who has actually taken care of the exhibitors on several occasions in the past. We were taken for a ride by the producers who claimed it was a full length Rajnikanth film, which it was not. Even though Rajini sir announced that his role is just 25 percent in the film, the producers and Director have misguided us', says Palaniyappan.

The wholesale distributor of the film, Pyramid Saimira who bears the sole responsibility in this issue is hardly responding to the situation. A spokesman for the distribution company Pyramid Saimira, which is showing the film across Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, said the movie had so far collected Rs.220 million since its release on Aug 1 in Tamil Nadu alone.

According to Saimira sources, the overseas reports are really good and expressed confidence about Kuselan covering the costs of Rs.600 million before being taken off theatres.

But some other sources revealed that they have already made enough profit through the overall performance of Kuselan worldwide.

While the star did not charge any fee from the Tamil producer and his mentor K. Balachander, the Telugu version's producers had paid Rajinikanth a fee of Rs.10 crores only against his actual fee of Rs.25 crores (amount paid for Sivaji).

It may be recalled that the matinee idol had overcome the losses of his earlier movie Baba (2005) and helped distributors and exhibitors get a smart recovery through his subsequent release Chandramukhi (2005) which created box office history.

The Exhibitors say, "we are not targeting Rajini sir to return any amount. We are aware of his kindheartedness and helping mentality during the time of Baba. Actually we don't have any rights to ask him to return any amount, since he plays a special appearance only in this film. And he never hides this factor too. We are only requesting him to advice the producers to do justice in this issue."

This is the cost he pays in return for his numero uno status!