Rajinikanth's Vettaiyan becomes first Tamil film to release with disability-friendly features
Directed by TJ Gnanavel, Vettaiyan has an ensemble cast that includes Amitabh Bachchan (in his Tamil debut), Fahadh Faasil, Rana Daggubati, Manju Warrier, Ritika Singh, Dushara Vijayan, and VJ Rakshan
The upcoming Rajinikanth film Vettaiyan is set to hit screens this Thursday. Meanwhile, yesterday, the production house Lyca Productions announced that the cop thriller will be released with audio descriptions and closed captions in order to make it more accessible for people with disabilities. "This has been done for films like GOAT and Love Today, but only for special screenings for disabled viewers. The idea with Vettaiyan is to make them get the mainstream theatrical experience," says Rabhinder Kannan from Qube Cinema, who worked on the feature.
The audio descriptions feature will be delivered through the Moviebuff Access application and will be available in theatres that have the required setup. A list of such theatres is expected to be released shortly. "We're hoping that the audio description service will get more visibility through this, given it is a big release. In the coming months, we plan to integrate the technology in many theatres across the state." The closed captions feature will be available in theatres that choose to opt for the same. "The plan is to build a device for this purpose sometime in the future," says Rabhinder.
Recently, the Hindi film Srikanth, starring Rajkummar Rao, released with audio descriptions through the XL Cinema application. Earlier in March, the Delhi High Court ordered the Centre to notify the guidelines to make films more accessible to hearing and visually impaired people. The order had come following a petition filed by four people with visual and hearing impairments. In January, the ministry of information and broadcasting had proposed that film producers submit a version of their films that has accessibility features like captioning, sign language interpretation, or audio descriptions to the Central Board of Film Certification.