NRI Malaysian fans set fire to the building at delayed opening of Tamil movie "Sivaji" - the Boss

Kuala Lumpur, June 16, 2007
Ashok Sharma

NRI fans rioted in 10 cinemas in Malaysia when the film Sivaji - the Boss, starring Superstar Rajnikanth, is one of the most-awaited movies was delayed hours and hours.

Superstar Rajnikant and Shriya in "Sivaji".

Sri Intan Theatre in Klang, in Selangor state: NRIs had started lining up at 4 p.m. local time, waited five hours for the show to start and the fans wrecked a cinema lobby, ripping up ticket counters and setting fire to part of the theatre, but the flames were quickly doused by theatre management. The fights broke out, people threw glass bottles, and cinema manager beaten up by fans had to have stitches for his head injuries,

Kuala Lumpur, The Coliseum Cinema: 9 p.m. and midnight shows were fully booked. The film started late at 10:30 p.m. and due to technical problems, the film was halted at 11:30 p.m. The cinema owners could not be fixed the problems and offered to refund the ticket money. The NRI fans became very angry, smashed glass displays, lights, speakers, screen and curtains. According to the The Star, NRIs also set fire to the building, but it was quickly extinguished by cinema management.

The northern island of Penang: Threre was three hour delay, the fans banged on ticket counters and demanding refunds. The police was called and control the situation.

Cinema in Rawang: The fans threw bottles and smashed glass cases.

According to local news paper, the movie distributor said the delay was due to not enough prints of the film being sent from AVM, the Chennai-based production company.

Another paper, the Star said, The film's distributors said heavy rains disrupted delivery of some prints to theatres while others were held up by delays in receiving passwords for Internet downloads.

In Malaysia, Tamil has about 10 percent of a population of 26 million.

The movie Sivaji - the Boss was made for more than $15 million, a huge budget by Indian standards and its most expensive film. On Thursday, this film was released in India and Malaysia

 

• Sivaji: The Boss, starring Superstar Rajnikanth, is one of the most-awaited movies this year.
• The Tamil film credits some of the biggest names like director S Shankar, music director A R Rahman, art director Thotta Tharani, cinematographer K V Anand and many more.
• The film also stars Shriya opposite him, and has Nayanthara doing an item number.