On Saturday, the Tamil Film Producers Council and the Tamil Film Active Producers Association put out a joint statement, saying that there will not be any new film releases in the language starting September 01, Tuesday. The statement added that every ongoing film shooting and postproduction work will have to be stopped from the aforementioned date.

The decision has been made as part of the ongoing conflict between the producers and the exhibitors and distributors in the state regarding the OTT release window. The theatre owners group and the distributors association have expressed their intention to exhibit only the films that come with assurances from producers of releasing these on streaming platforms within an eight-week window. The producers group called out this practice, saying it is nonexistent in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala, and expressed that it deserves condemnation.

They said that the decision regarding the eight-week window has been made unilaterally by the distributors and exhibitors, without consulting them and other stakeholders in the Tamil film industry, and called it 'unacceptable'. They added that preventing new Tamil film releases from the first of September is an act of protest against the aforementioned unilateral decision.

They are set to take the issue to the notice of both Chief Minister Joseph Vijay and Rajmohan, the Minister for School Education, Film Technology and Cinematograph Act, to arrive at an amicable way of solving the dispute. In the meantime, S Sridhar, The Tamil Nadu Theatre Owners ASsociation Secretary, expressed his hope for a quick resolution of the dispute in a conversation with IANS.

Several films are scheduled to release in September, including Karthi-PS Mithran's Sardar 2, Karthik Subbaraj-Keerthy Suresh's Dorothy, Soori's Mandaadi, Hiphop Adhi's Meesaya Murukku 2, Gangai Amaran and Roja's Lenin Pandiyan, Demonte Colony 3, and GV Prakash-Kayadu Lohar's Immortal.