Dulquer Salmaan’s much-awaited Malayalam film I’m Game hit theatres on Thursday, but its release appears to have run into technical trouble across several locations.
Directed by Nahas Hidhayath, the film marks Dulquer’s return to Malayalam cinema after King of Kotha (2023). However, instead of a smooth opening, several moviegoers and theatre representatives took to social media to report problems including delayed content delivery, missing subtitles, sound issues, frozen frames and cancelled shows.
Videos shared online from a Kerala theatre showed the film reportedly getting stuck during a screening, while viewers could be heard complaining about the disruption. Another post claimed that theatre owners were facing similar problems at multiple locations.
The issues were not limited to Kerala. An employee at Prasads Multiplex in Hyderabad said the Malayalam version was playing but without subtitles, while a Telugu morning show had reportedly been cancelled. A Chennai theatre owner also posted that the film's content had been received and loaded, but confirmation regarding subtitles for the morning show was still pending.
According to several social media posts, theatres received the Malayalam version on Thursday morning, just hours before release, while the Tamil, Telugu and Hindi versions faced delays. Some users claimed that multiple shows in these languages were cancelled.
The last-minute technical problems could potentially affect the film’s opening-day performance. Initial advance bookings had generated excitement after opening on September 1, but social media chatter later suggested that bookings had slowed.
Trade tracking website Sacnilk reported that I’m Game had earned around ₹31 lakh from 633 shows in India by 11 AM, with an occupancy rate of about 33 per cent.
The film stars Dulquer Salmaan alongside Antony Varghese, Mysskin, Kayadu Lohar, Samyuktha Viswanathan, Kathir, Vinay Forrt and Parth Tiwari. It has been produced by Dulquer and Jom Varghese under Wayfarer Films.
I’m Game was originally scheduled for an August 20 release during the Onam season, but was postponed to September 3. The film was expected to compete with Prithviraj Sukumaran’s Khalifa and Nivin Pauly’s Bethlehem Kudumba Unit.
With audiences now waiting for the reported technical issues to be resolved, the film’s box-office journey will depend heavily on how quickly screenings return to normal and what kind of word-of-mouth it receives.
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