Trust Vishal to introduce new ideas, original or borrowed.  This time, he is keen on 'Footage screening', a practice widespread in Hollywood.  The actor-producer wants to give Kollywood a taste of it with his up-and-coming 'Irumbi Thirai' ('Abhimanyudu' in Telugu).

"Vishal's path-breaking screening of 'IT'.  He is holding a unique Footage screening on May 9 at Sathyam Cinemas for the media.  May screen 1 hour (probably up to interval) to get the feel and mood of the cyber-thriller," says senior commentator Sreedhar Pillai. (The Tamil version releases on May 11, while the Telugu version is yet to get a date.)   

If this practice yields dividends, others could follow.  A lot depends on the confidence that a filmmaker has in his product.  There are instances where quite a few Telugu films were screened 2-3 days in advance for the media.  'Pelli Choopulu', 'Drushyam', 'Manam', etc are the examples.  In all cases, the makers were very confident of the result.