Lady Superstar's film gets early morning shows

Theatres in Chennai have scheduled early morning shows for Nayanthara’s Kolamaavu Kokila which is getting released tomorrow (August 17). This marks the first time that a heroine-centric film has got a 6am show at theatres like GK Cinemas, Porur, in a move that seems to justify the actor's ‘Lady Superstar’ tag. Historically, only male stars like Rajinikanth, Kamal Haasan, Ajith Kumar, and Vijay have been beneficiaries of such special early morning shows.

Directed by Nelson, Kolamaavu Kokila has music by Anirudh Ravichandran, and one of the songs in the film, Kalyaana Vayasu, featuring Nayanthara and Yogi Babu, which went viral recently, is said to be a huge draw for the audience.

On the special 6am show for Kolamaavu Kokila, Ruban Mathivanan, Managing Director of GK Cinemas, says, "We felt that the buzz around the film was quite high because of the Kalyana Vayasu song, and Nayanthara has the pull of any top male star in the industry. So, we wanted to experiment with an early morning show. As expected, the bookings are almost full."

The shows, he says, have been organised because the film's promo visuals indicate 'high entertainment'. "This film carries the right energy to draw in the youth. While her previous films like Aramm were powerful scripts with a social message, Kolamavu Kokila seems like the kind of film capable of drawing viewers to the theatre for an early morning show," he says. "Ultimately, all that matters is whether a film has the potential to be entertaining enough to bring in audience for an early show."

Interestingly, a noted trade analyst (on condition of anonymity) says he feels that such early morning shows are simply a marketing gimmick. "If you notice the pattern of the last three releases that had special morning shows--Tamizh Padam 2, Pyaar Prema Kaadhal, and now, Kolamavu Kokila--you can see that it's just two or three screens, which incidentally have ties with the distributor, that have done this. It's just to create hype. Only Rajinikanth, Ajith and Vijay can claim to have true mass openings across Tamil Nadu."