Despite receiving good response thus far, local Tamil film 'Jagat' has been denied its screening time in cinemas.

Because of this, the film’s director Shanjhey Kumar Perumal believes these were attempts to “sabotage” the film’s success.

Under the compulsory screening scheme, films must be shown for no fewer than 14 days.

Hitting out at those responsible in carrying out the compulsory screening scheme, Shanjhey said they have not been transparent in their role as cinema operators.

Under the scheme, “Jagat” should be given four slots of screenings daily but this has not been the case, he said.

Shanjhey ( photo ) added that "certain quarters" have also taken the opportunity to decrease the number of screenings to once per day and no screenings at night.

This has worried Shanjhey and his team as they were not informed of the matter beforehand.

“When we said that we will take this case to court, certain quarters suddenly screened the movie at night,” he told Malaysiakini .

“This means that there was actually room for night screenings for Jagat, so why didn’t they screen the movie at night previously?”

'Jagat' tells the tale of estate workers who were forced to relocate to the squatters in 1991. It centres on how poverty has been a factor which had led to the social problems among the poor.

Assist local filmmakers

The National Film Development Corporation’s (Finas) compulsory screening scheme was introduced in 2005 to assist local filmmakers to gain a larger audience.

Screening may be demoted to a smaller hall if audiences fail to reach 30 per cent of capacity and screening may be discontinued if less than 15 per cent of the cinema hall is filled.

On this, Shanjhey said his team abides by the conditions.

“We abide by the conditions but Jagat has only started to receive good response from the public so it’s not fair for the film to be treated as such.

“Even though the film was screened on the same date as Star Wars, it still has its own fans,” he reasoned.

He also did not discount the possibility that the popularity of two Indian films 'Tanggamagan' and 'Dilwale' had led to 'Jagat' being sidelined.

Some cinemas, he claimed, have tried to decrease his film’s screenings to reap profits from other films.

Nevertheless, Finas has been informed of the matter and is considering on action to be taken, said Shanjhey.

'Jagat' still has one week left of screening and the film’s director hopes to see the film be given its due rights.

“We are not asking for it to be screened in large halls, we just want the film to be screened consistently,” he said.