KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 29 — The harvest festival of ‘Pongal’ in 2019 is going to be a double celebration for the Tamil community in Malaysia as it will also see the release of the film Petta, actor Rajinikanth’s first Pongal release in 24 years.
Petta promises a visual treat for Rajinikanth’s ardent fans as the movie is touted to be the actor-turned-politician’s last movie before he ventures fully into politics.
Malik Streams Corporation chief executive officer Datuk Abdul Malik Dasthigeer, who bagged the worldwide distribution rights for the film, said Tamil moviegoers in Malaysia would have a chance to see the South Indian movie legend on the silver screen on Pongal, 24 years after the movie Basha in 1995.
“The release of Petta on Pongal has come as a big boost for the film as it will be a double celebration for the Tamil community here.
“We are trying our level best to persuade the Tamil superstar to personally come to Malaysia to witness the movie premiere scheduled for next month.
“Rajinikanth has not made any promise but said he will try his best to come. It’s enough that he has stated his commitment as he is still considering the invitation,” he told Bernama.
Petta, which in colloquial Tamil loosely means locality, is scheduled to be released on January 10 in 140 cinemas in more than 1,000 screens nationwide in three languages, namely Tamil, Hindi and Telugu.
The movie marks Rajinikanth’s first collaboration with young director Karthik Subbaraj. The cast includes Bollywood actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Vijay Sethupathi, Simran, Trisha and Bobby Simha.
Abdul Malik said he had to compete with many big players to get the distribution rights for the film to be released under the banner of Sun Pictures despite sharing a cordial relationship with Rajinikanth.
“We are grateful that a Malaysian company has finally achieved the distribution rights given our track record in undertaking promotion activities for the earlier Rajnikanth movie Kabali which created a new concept in brand promotion,” he said.
Abdul Malik created waves in the Kollywood (Tamil film industry) fraternity through the film Kabali in 2016 where he managed to persuade the Tamil superstar to stay in Malaysia for more than 50 days to complete 90 per cent of the movie shooting in Malaysia, a rare feat for the 67-year-old actor. Kabali has collected some RM13 million nationwide. — Bernama
