Yuddhakaanda: Ajai Rao’s courtroom drama set to lose screens to HIT 3 and Retro
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When Kannada actor Krishna Ajai Rao’s courtroom drama Yuddhakaanda released in theatres on April 18, it had an uphill task. Leading man Ajai had had a career slump and the genre, a courtroom drama, had not been attempted in a while in Kannada cinema. In theatres only a week after the big-ticket Tamil release Good Bad Ugly and with the Malayalam film Alappuzha Gymkhana also doing well, Yuddhakaanda had its work cut out for it. Kannada audiences, though, warmed up to the film, with the subject, a mother’s fight for justice for her child, after the little one’s subjected to unspeakable abuse, striking a chord with them.
Although Krishnan Marriage Story fame Ajai, who has also produced the film, has not revealed box office figures, the film recorded day-by day growth in footfalls, which allowed him to declare Yuddhakaanda a hit and even have a success meet. The actor-producer’s fight, tough, did not end there, what with the releases of April 24/25 impinging on his screen/show count. However, the bigger hurdle comes this week, when Eega star Nani's HIT 3 and Varanam Ayiram star Suriya's Retro release.
Kannada filmmakers at the mercy of multiplexes, says Ajai Rao
Taking to social media, Ajai spoke about the struggle that Kannada filmmakers face in getting appropriate show count and at decent time slots in multiplexes, with the exhibitors often scheduling non-prime shows for Kannada movies. “Yuddhakaanda was also given show slots that were inconvenient to audiences and yet, a large number came and supported the film, for which I am grateful,” he said.
However, he added that he has received word from multiplexes that given the impending releases of Nani’s HIT 3 and Suriya’s Retro, the shows of Yuddhakaanda will be curtailed further. Ajai has been told that the exhibitors will try to give him some shows, but the when and where will be revealed only once the schedules of the big-ticket films are finalized. Ajai says that he’s flabbergasted that Kannada cinema is at the mercy of multiplexes and has to make do with whatever number of shows and time slots they deem fit and take it like a temple offering.
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Ajai is hopeful that the Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce, among others, will help him fight this, given that his film is losing out on business, even though it has been doing well.
