Sanal Kumar released film Vazhakku online after conflict with producer

Malayalam director Sanal Kumar Sasidharan released the film Vazhakku online after having a conflict with producer Tovina Thomas. Sanal uploaded the movie for free on Vimeo.

This release came after Sanal accused Tovino of interfering with its release and expressed concerns it would harm his career. The conflict started when Sanal shared a lengthy Malayalam post on Facebook in which he claimed that Tovino was interfering with the theatrical and over-the-top (OTT) release of Vazhakku.

He also said Tovino was the reason the movie was not released even though it was filmed in 2020 and post-production finished in 2021.

He stated that Tovino was a rising star during the production of Vazhakku. The hate would have turned against him if it had been released then. Hence, the way to become a successful superstar might have been short for Tovino.

However, Tovino Thomas conducted an Instagram live session with Girish Chandran on May 12, 2024. Girish is a cousin of Sanal and co-producer of Vazhakku. Tovio said he made the film because he respected the work of Sanal as director.

View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Tovino⚡️Thomas (@tovinothomas)

Click here to read the updates on Tamil actor Daniel Balaji who died at the age of 48 in Chennai

Moreover, Tovino said he invested INR 27 lakh into creating this movie but did not get any money back. He also claimed that Sanal was the one who stopped the movie from releasing.

Tovino claimed that Sanal was not ready to give up artistic rights for Vazhakku, as selling OTT is normal. According to him, many OTT platforms did not want to connect with Sanal because of his arrest for stalking actress Manju Warrier in 2022.

After this session with Tovino, Sanal Kumar did not respond to his claims only but shocked everyone when he released the film Vazhakku online for free on Vimeo. He also shared a movie link to Vimeo on his Facebook post.

Director Sanal captioned the audience should view the cinema. For anyone who wants to watch the film, here is Vazhakku/The Quarrel. You now understand why the movie has not come out yet.