The staff of the Kavita Theater in Kochi had a hard time controlling the crowd, and even the police had to be brought inside the hall to prevent the crowd from booing.
It was a field day for movie lovers in several districts as two big budget films of Tamil superstars Vijay and Ajith started rolling out on Wednesday. Several fan shows were held, with early shows screening as early as 1 a.m. The show was crowded with fans, and the police had a hard time controlling the crowd.
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The people who turned up at one o’clock in the night for a special show for fans on two screens of the Padma Theater here demanded courage. To this end, the crowd has turned into a throbbing human ball as it surges towards the entrance of the cinema hall under its own pressure and almost threatens to pull down the doors.
This proved too suffocating for one fan, who fell only to be literally dragged off his feet. A rare couple of families stood on the sidelines looking at the crowd for who they had signed up for.
Theater staff had difficulty controlling the crowd and there was a ruckus prompting police to be brought to the scene to prevent the crowd from booing even inside the hall. Eventually, when the film started and ‘Thala’ made a massive entry, the fans went crazy and greeted it with wolf whistles.
A few meters away from Kavita theatre, even bigger construction work was going on for the opening fan show of Vijay’s film ‘Ilaiah Thalapathy’ the heir Peppy songs from the film were being played with full blast outside the theater at 4 am, with fans swaying to the tunes. The rush to enter the hall was even greater, especially for the first class.
As Vijay’s intro was given a rousing reception, the theater erupted with wolf whistles and pieces of paper were tossed into the air.
Fans climbed onto the stage in front of the screen and danced wildly to each song, while some posed for photos with the film as a backdrop to brag.
“We organized around 400 fan shows across the state with screenings for fans in three theaters in Kochi city alone. This was easily the biggest reception for a Vijay flick after the pandemic,” said Sandeep Yousef, Ernakulam district president of Vijay Fans Association.