Post the release of Leo starring Vijay in the lead, and before that Varisu starring Vijay in the lead, producer Lalit Kumar of 7 Screen Studios was alleged to have inflated box-office numbers by Tamil Nadu Theater Owners and Multiplex Association president Tiruppur Subramaniam. During Varisu, being just the distributor of the film Lalit had not addressed the issue but during Leo, a war of allegations ensued. Additionally Tiruppur Subramaniam was batting for single screen theater owners who he said were cornered by Lalit Kumar into screening Leo for a high distribution share.
Before Tiruppur Subramaniam had come out with this high distribution share issue, theater owners in Tamil Nadu had also hinted of the same on social media, a rare sight in the Tamil film fraternity. It is not known where the tension between theater owners and producer Lalit Kumar stands as of today, or if there was a tension/dissatisfaction at all to begin with [a bunch of theater screen owners have also come out speaking highly of the Leo business, though the issue is how much profit said theater owners were making from Leo business].
On November 1, 2023 i.e. on day 14 of Leo's theatrical run, the team had conducted a huge 'Vetri Vizha' i.e. success meet at Nehru indoor stadium, Chennai which was telecast on Sun TV Tamil channel today. Vijay while speaking at this 'Leo Success Meet' stage seems to have touched on this issue and batted for producer Lalit in the process. The actor's quote from his Leo Vetri Vizha speech:
"..producer Lalit (Kumar of 7 Screen Studios). He is indeed a good friend of mine beyond cinema. An example of how much he loves cinema is the Master (2021 Vijay, Lokesh Kanagaraj movie that Lalit had distributed) movie release time. I don't think that entire team will ever forget that (experience) in their lifetime. Including me because we all went through a lot.
During that time, it was a new kind (pandemic) of problem (we faced). Not knowing how to handle, we were somewhat blank. If it was some other issue, we would have had references. We would have thought 'ok, we can handle it this way, we can sort it out this way'. But this wasn't like that. At that time just because I has asked him (Lalit Kumar) for one thing (to release Master in theaters first instead of directly on OTT), not even thinking about the profits he could have earned, just to see theater owners happy, he waited for almost a year, he released the movie (Master) in theaters.
If we have to think if someone else in that place would have done the same, a small question mark pops up there (meaning Vijay is doubtful). Which is why I am saying, for his decision making and his guts, hats off to you Lalit"
At the same event, Leo producer Lalit Kumar had also attested that owing to the pandemic an OTT firm had offered big money to release Master directly on streaming platforms. However it was Vijay's call to release the movie first in theaters as the actor had said, "If we don't lend a helping hand to theaters at this time, who else would". It is worth mentioning here that Tamil Nadu theater owners had reciprocated this generosity by offering a high distribution share to Lalit Kumar for Master. One of the main reasons for doing so was the 50% theater occupancy rule due to the COVID pandemic.