Vijay fans throng UAE theatres to watch Tamil thriller Bairavaa

Dubai - With Pongal festival coinciding, it's double celebration for Vijay fans.

Vijay fans across the UAE are flocking theatres in huge numbers to watch the 60th movie of Ilaya Thalapati. Bairavaa has been running successfully for a week with much fanfare in Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman and Abu Dhabhi. The movie is welcomed with whistle blows, drum beats, applause, selfie sessions and other mayhem created largely by the Tamil audience in the UAE.
Vijay, a young actor from the Tamil film industry who's quite popular in rural Tamil Nadu, is nicknamed Ilaya Thalapathy (Junior Commander), compared to Rajinikanth, the real Thalapathy of Tamil film industry. 
Starting with the World Premier show in Dubai Galleria Cinemas on January 11, 2017, special screenings were held in major theatres across the UAE and fans celebrated the occasion with larger than life flex boards and cake cutting ceremonies accompanied by music and drum beats to whip up a Vijay euphoria in the theatres. 
The movie, directed by Bharathan, revolves around the story of Bairavaa, the main character played by Vijay who works as a rude debt collection agent at a private bank in Chennai. He falls in love with medical student Malarvizhi, played by Keerthi Suresh, daughter of a leading film producer of Kerala, whom he meets during a wedding function. Their romantic encounter ends up in a close fight with a don who runs a higher education mafia in Tamil Nadu. Bairavaa tells the plight of many helpless students enrolled in various private medical colleges, some allegedly run by mafia dons.
Bussy N. Anand (Head of World Vijay Fans Club) has been coordinating the fan club events in the UAE. The movie has all the basic ingredients of a Vijay thriller masala -- stunts, songs, dance and action sequences that strike a chord with the average Tamil audience. In Vox Cinemas too, the Tamil movie is doing better than any other movie. 
Karthikeyan P, leader of UAE Ilayadalapathy Vijay Fans Association, told Khaleej Times that the fan club members' main motto is to prevent piracy of the movie.
"We organised a Singari Melam at the Galleria theatre and placed cut-outs and roll-ups of Thalapathy. Manager Hassan cut the cake in the presence of fan club leaders -- Karthikeyan.P, Madan Kumar, Nijesh, Srinivasan, Sathish, Sankar, Sada, Hari and Midhun. An exclusive fan club show was held in Sharjah as well," he said, adding that the movie is running successfully for the second week.
The UAE Ilaya Dalapathy Vijay Makkal Iyakkam, Vijay Fans Online Association, UAE Chapter and Dubai Vijay Fans Club UAE are among the official fans associations that celebrated the movie inside the theatres.  
"On January 12, we gathered our entire team at Sharjah, Star Cine Plex theatre at 9.00 pm and organised a show exclusive for Thalapathy Vijay's fans," he added. The second session was also accompanied by a Singari Melam and cake cutting. 
Vijay fans wore special T-Shirts with the popular Tamil actor's image besides Burj Khalifa. Many said the movie is up to their expectation - it contains all the required elements of a Vijay thriller masala movie. 
"As it is the Pongal festival in Tamil Nadu, many Tamil workers wanted to celebrate. They all wanted to watch Bairavaa movie in a Sharjah theatre on January 12. There are only rare occasions when our Tamil workers go out in groups to celebrate and they all insisted on taking an off from work and watching Bairavaa. It seems they all enjoyed the movie. The theatre was filled with cheers and applause," said Basheer M, manager of a labour accommodation in Ajman, housing fishermen from Tamil Nadu, said.
"In our theatres, the movie Bairavaa has been running successfully for over a week and we hope it will run for longer because there have been no new Malayalam movies lately due to a long strike by film exhibitors in Kerala. Vijay has a huge fan following in India and the UAE. They all came and celebrated the first week's shows starting with special programmes," said Rajan Varkala, Manager at Bollywood Cinemas, Al Quoz. He said the theatre had only two Indian movies. 
Actor Vijay is also celebrating twenty five years in Indian cinema industry. 
The movie also stars Jagapathi Babu, Sathish, Vijayaraghavan, Aparna Vinod and Sija Rose in key roles. The movie has been doing well in Kerala theatres as well because of the theme of the movie that focuses on the fate of Kerala medical students in Tamil Nadu, and a huge fan following for Vijay in the state. "I am sure it will cross Rs 200 crore in collection," added Karthikeyan.

• UAE
• South Stars