Suriya's Soorarai Pottru had a direct digital release on Amazon Prime Video on November 12 and the film opened to highly positive reviews from the critics and the general audience. People opined that Soorarai Pottru is one of Suriya's career best films and everyone were in awe of his impactful performance as Maara. Despite being celebrated widely by the Tamil audience, Suriya's fans and ardent film buffs were quite disappointed that they could not watch the film on the big screen. Soorarai Pottru was a film that was initially made for a theatrical viewing experience, but due to the global pandemic, the film had a digital release. The long pending desire and interest of the Suriya fans were fulfilled today (February 21).

Yes! Soorarai Pottru had a theatrical screening today and the reception has been phenomenally outstanding. The 18th Chennai International Film Festival (CIFF) is happening between February 18 and February 25 and several award winning films from across the world will be screened in this festival. Apart from world cinema films, few handpicked quality Tamil films will also be screened and that has been the practice. Having said that, 13 Tamil films will be screened this year and the list includes - Labour, Galtha, Soorarai Pottru, Ponmagal Vandhal, Mazhayil Nanaigiren, Yen Peyar Anandhan, Godfather, The Mosquito Philosophy, Chiyangal, Some Day, Kaalidas, Ka Pae Ranasingam, Kanni Maadam, and more.

On that note, Suriya's Soorarai Pottru had its theatrical screening today evening at 6 PM at Sathyam Cinemas. Usually, these film festivals would be attended by ardent film lovers and passionate art cinema followers, but surprisingly, Soorarai Pottru witnessed a mass crowd. It looks like several fans have bought tickets exclusively just to watch the film in a theatre. Videos from Sathyam Cinemas are now doing rounds on social media and we see a humongous crowd storming into the entrance of the theatre. Soorarai Pottru's co producer and director of 2D Entertainment, Rajsekar Pandian took to his Twitter page to share a video from inside the theatre and in the video, we see a rousing reception to the film's introduction scene.

The response is indeed phenomenal and this indeed shows the desperation among the Tamil audience to watch the film in theatres. We had recently seen Thalapathy Vijay's Master doing exceptionally well at the box office, despite the pandemic and even after the OTT release. This response to Soorarai Pottru's CIFF screening has indeed made a lot of fans request the makers of the film to reconsider their decision and release the film in the theatres. Will it happen? Let us keep our fingers crossed and wait for an official word. For now, check out the video showcasing the response to Suriya's Soorarai Pottru's theatrical screening here:

This unconditional love gives goosebumps 🔥🔥❤️🤗👍🏼 #AnbaanaFans ⁦@Suriya_offl⁩ ⁦@2D_ENTPVTLTD⁩ ⁦@PrimeVideoIN⁩ #CIFF ⁦@SPICinemas⁩ pic.twitter.com/B7jk53wmzu

— Rajsekar Pandian (@rajsekarpandian) February 21, 2021

• Huge Crowd Came to Witness #SooraraiPottru on BiG Screen, But as mentioned by @bookmyshow Only 300 members were allowed by the First Come First Serve booking basis!

Satyam Theatre Staff & #CIFF Team unable to control the love of @Suriya_offl fans for his film ♥️ pic.twitter.com/JXFGLtcvtP

— Suriya Fans Club™ (@SuriyaFansClub) February 21, 2021