Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, theatres in South India are opening with 100% occupancy and the first film which is all set to hit the cinema halls is Superstar Vijay starrer action flick, 'Master'. The makers are releasing this highly anticipated film during the Pongal festival and especially for this film Tamil Nadu government allowed full occupancy in the state. The decision comes in the wake after Vijay meets Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K. Palaniswami and requested him to open the entire cinema halls with 100% occupancy.

But now, government decisions are getting backlashes on social media and people are criticizing them for their irresponsible decision making as there is a spike in the COVID-19 patients in the state. After the announcement, the medical fraternity has come forward and raised their concern about the full occupancy announcement.

A Junior Resident doctor at Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education & Research named Aravinth Srinivas wrote an open letter on social media while addressing Vijay, Silambarasan and the Tamil Nadu Government. He wrote, "I am tired. We are all tired. Thousands of doctors like me are tired. Health care workers are tired. Police officials are tired. Sanitary workers are tired." Check out his open letter here -


He further wrote, "We have worked so hard at the ground level to make sure the damage done is kept to as low as possible amidst an unprecedented pandemic. I am not glorifying our work for I know there is nothing so great about it to the onlooker's eyes. We don't have cameras in front of us. We don't do stunt sequences. We aren't heroes. But we deserve some time to breath. We don't want to fall prey to someone's selfishness and greed."

He continued, "The pandemic isn't over and we have people dying till today to the disease. A hundred percent theatre occupancy is a suicide attempt. Rather homicide , for none of the policy makers or the so called heroes are going to put themselves under the pump, to watch the movie amidst the crowd. This is a blatant barter system, trading lives for money."

The doctor ended the letter with a request, "Can we please slowly try and concentrate on our lives and make sure we tide through this pandemic peacefully and not reignite the slowly burning out flame, that is still not completely put out? I wanted to make this post scientific and explain why we are still in danger. But that's when I asked myself, `what's the point?`

Lokesh Kanagaraj's action film stars Vijay, Vijay Sethupathi, Malavika Mohanan, Arjun Das, Andrea Jeremiah and Shanthanu Bhagyaraj. The film is confirmed for release on January 13, 2021, in theatres, during the week of Pongal, across India with 100% occupancy in Tamil Nadu theatres.