Last film of Kannada superstar Puneeth Rajkumar ‘James’ was released in cinema theaters in Karnataka last week. Meanwhile there are complaints from theatre owners that there are efforts to remove James movie and replace it with controversial film ‘Kashmir Files’ directed by Vivek Agnihotri.
It is now getting reported that the theater owners are being pressured to reduce the number of shows of James and put more shows of Kashmir Files.
Producer and distributor of the film the, Kishor Pattikond is said to be under pressure from some rightwing elements to give more prominence to Kashmir Files than James.
Some media houses are now projecting James director as a close confidant of the Leader of the Opposition, Siddaramaiah, after a picture of him went viral.
Speaking to naanugouri.com Kishor admitted that he has been receiving calls to reduce the number of shows of his film.
“ In several places, some people tried to remove the morning and second show of James, but I strongly opposed it. I told them that it is a good movie and it is the last film of Puneet. But the theater owners said that they are being forced to replace James with Kashmir Files as the film is tax free. But I did not agree with that. I told them clearly that they can exhibit any film after the four shows of James. There should not be any trouble for James. If they want, let them display Kashmir Files at 7:00 am but surely not at 10:00 am”, he said.
Kishor said that the unseen hands even tried to reduce at least one show if not all in order to exhibit Kashmir Files. “ But told them firmly that since the movie was released just a week ago, thus it is not right to take it out from the screen” .
Kishor said that after a week, if any city has two movie halls, James can be taken out from one theater and Kashmir Files can be shown. But certainly, the film will not be taken away when the fans of Appu are still watching it.
Asked whether BJP MLAs are forced to replace James with Kashmir Files, he said that the theater owners asked for removing one show of James for Kashmir Files, but he said he has no idea who pressured them for that.
“ The theater owners said that some people want to show the film for free to the audience. To that I told them that since the film is shown free, let them show it at any other time why they want to replace James which has not been shown free and is doing good business”, he asserted.
Kishor said that Kashmir Files is less than a two hour film. They can show it in the morning, and James can be shown at around 10:30 am. Mandya city has five theaters, it does not mean that we are showing our film in all the theaters.
While producer and exhibitor Kishor said that he has been getting pressure to cut down the number of shows of his film James, the Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said that action will be taken against those who force the theater owners to show Kashmir Files by removing James.
