Baahubali-2 shows taken off in the UAE – What’s the inside story?
The film industry is funny. Because even after a film crosses the 1000 crore mark and gets to be termed as the biggest blockbuster ever, there’s negativity and tension spinning around. Case in point here, SS Rajamouli’s Baahubali-2 which has become the best buddy of any moviegoer with ease.
For those of you who are clueless about the situation, the Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam versions of Baahubali-2 have been removed from screens across the UAE effective from today. The reason for this occurrence is neither a technical glitch nor a misunderstanding, but an act of arrogance and a shot at trying to grab more than one can hold.
The Beginning
Like many other films in our industry, Baahubali-2 had changed a lot of hands before seeing the light of the day. The producer, who first sold it to the highest bidder (who bought the film’s major overseas and TN rights), saw the film being sold to two other houses. Due to the losses faced by the buyers thanks to their other releases in the recent past, quarrels arose with unnecessary reshuffling coming up at the eleventh hour. Things finally came down to a lump sum shortage, which had to be amicably settled with agreements from all sides.
The result was a hullaballoo, leading to the cancellation of the first two shows in Tamil Nadu on release day.
The Conclusion
By the time all the issues were sorted out after the cancelled shows finally giving way to the commencement of screenings, things looked on song. But little do people know that only 2 weeks of overseas KDM codes were given at the time of release. This time span of two weeks was the one given to the main buyer to settle the amount to the producer, who eventually got into a spot of bother.
Even after knowing that the film has been bought on outright basis (whole buy with all profits for the buyer after crossing the selling price) by the Gulf buyer, the production house has come forward demanding overflow. After negotiations turning vain, it’s the Gulf distributor’s turn to pull down the content from cinemas. And voila, we have paper ads being floated in the UAE without a single poster of the record breaker. Sorry sight.
While this is a sign of insecurity and greed from the makers, it is ultimately the audience in the UAE who are suffering with their weekend plans going spoilsport. Always disheartening to see financial issues halting a film’s successful run, and this time it’s no different. Hope we will find an answer soon, or else, this will be used as a strong argument for Baahubali fans to rush towards piracy.
