After running Sooryavanshi for 15 days, Reliance Entertainment has discontinued the hit film from all the properties of Carnival group from today (20th November). Reason: the multiplex group has defaulted in the payment of distributor’s share to Reliance which is the film’s distributor (besides being one of the producers).
Reliance had made it clear to all the multiplex chains that payments of its share would have to be transferred to its account twice a week. The weekend payments, according to the terms of settlement, were to be transferred every Monday whereas the payment for the four weekdays would have to be made to Reliance on the following Friday. While the distributor’s shares from all Carnival properties for the first weekend were transferred almost in time, the chain defaulted in the payment for the last four days of the first week, then the payment for the second weekend, then again for the last four days of the second week. That’s when Reliance decided to do something which the Carnival bosses may never have imagined. The producer-distributor simply pulled the film out of the multiplex chain’s properties from today (20th November).
It may be pointed out that Carnival already owed huge amounts of money (approximately Rs. 1.35 crore) to Reliance Entertainment for films released prior to the Coronavirus pandemic lockdown. While the corporate house agreed to requests from the Carnival group that the earlier amounts would be settled in due course of time (before the year-end) alongside the dues of Sooryavanshi, it was in for a shock when the multiplex chain defaulted in the case of the latest film too while doing nothing about the overdue payments of Reliance for films released by it in Carnival properties prior to the pandemic.
Sooryavanshi was released in around 66 properties of the Carnival chain because only those properties of the chain were operational in India (besides those in Kerala, which were screening South language films and so were not available for Hindi films), the other about 40 properties not having reopened after the pandemic due to settlement issues with landlords or non-payment of electricity bills or other financial reasons. Reliance allowed the film to run today in only the few cinemas which are being managed by Carnival but have since been taken control of by the owners due to the mess Carnival has landed itself in.
Carnival has been going through a terrible patch since years. The all-India cinema closure, prompted by the lockdown, has only made matters worse for the national multiplex chain. Many of its employees have been retrenched post-COVID-19, and many have quit because they were not being paid salaries. But the discontinuance of Sooryavanshi, which was doing extremely well at the box-office, does not augur well for the chain. It may be mentioned here that Punjabi film Honsla Rakh had similarly been pulled out of Carnival properties after just two weeks because the chain defaulted in the remittance of distributor’s share.
When contacted, Kunal Sawhney, COO, Carnival, told Information, “There was a technical issue which has been resolved. It is not true that the film was discontinued today from all the Carnival cinemas. Around 50% of the Carnival properties screened the film today. The balance 50% will restart screening from tomorrow because the technical problem has been resolved.” Sawhney refused to specify what the “technical problem” was. The fact, however, is that Sooryavanshi was discontinued from all the properties of Carnival except those which are only being managed by it but are now being managed by the original owners. That’s because the distributor’s share from those properties have been remitted by the owners to Reliance in time.