The emergence of the third wave of Covid-19, the growing cases of the pandemic, and the upcoming festival season have cast together and sparked a question whether the release of Ajith's much-expected movie 'Valimai' will be postponed for another time, owing to the virus spread. While the movie team is all set to release the movie beyond Tamil Nadu, the state government is mulling to bring back the restrictions and curfews to curb the spread. 

It has been expected that Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin will announce a new set of restrictions on Wednesday- January 5 after a high-level meeting and the government will impose restrictions for the non-essential services. As the sequel of surging cases of Covid-19 and Omicron variant, the state government has already tightened the restrictions and as Valimai will be releasing during the Pongal holidays, the reports close to the developments say that there would be a last-minute change in the release. 

Earlier, the government has directed the theatres to screen the movies with 50% of the occupancy. However, as the cases are increasing sharply, the state government has now been considering closing the theatres completely and imposing a night curfew in the state. As the Tamil Nadu market is crucial for the movie and it has waited for a long time for the release, the entire movie team is waiting for the final decision from the state government. 

On Tuesday, Valimai producer Boney Kapoor has announced on Twitter that the movie will be releasing on January 13 in Tamil, Telugu, and Hindi. He also had unveiled the movie posters in Telugu and Hindi. However, if the Tamil Nadu government restricts the release, the movie can't be released in other states as the release of the movie in its primary language had suffered a setback in the release. With no final decision, several theatres are yet to begin reservations for the movie.

The reports say that a top distributor of Kollywood has informed the theatre owners to wait till January 10. A source told Bollywood Hungama, "The Tamil Nadu government has taken the harsh call of closing cinema halls due to the rising Covid-19 cases. This leaves the producers of Valimai with no option but to delay the release. Ajith Kumar fans will have to wait a little longer for their Thala to be back on the screen again." On the other hand, Boney Kapoor hasn't issued an official statement. 

Valimai, which has been scheduled for the first major release in 2022, is touted to be Ajith's first pan India movie. The trailer and posters were already been released, they had poured more expectations to the fans. Earlier, Rajamouli's magnum opus 'RRR' has announced that it won't get released on January 7 as previously scheduled due to the rise in the Covid-19 cases. The Valimai team has been taking to social media and reiterating that the movie will definitely be released on January 13. 

Valimai is produced by Boney Kapoor under the banner of Bayview Projects and Zee Studios and directed by H Vinoth. While Ajith plays the lead role, Huma Qureshi, Karthikeya Gummakonda, Gurbani Judge, Yogi Babu, Achyuth Kumar, and Pavel Navageethan will be playing crucial roles. Yuvan Shankar Raja has composed the music while Nirav Shah and Vijay Velukutty had done cinematography and editing respectively.