IMAX India Vice President Preetham Daniel is getting slammed on the internet for his response to a customer about Ryan Gosling’s Project Hail Mary. After a delayed release in India, those looking forward to watching the film were shocked to see it get fewer IMAX screenings. When a customer criticised Preetham for the delay in the film’s update, the VP called it a ‘tantrum’. (Also Read: Project Hail Mary’s IMAX shows finally go up from 5 to 60 on fans’ demand after limited release due to Dhurandhar 2)
What did IMAX India VP Preetham Daniel say?
On Thursday evening, after 7 PM, Preetham took to his X (formerly Twitter) account to announce that Project Hail Mary’s IMAX bookings have opened in India. An X user posted a GIF with “what took you so long” written on it in response, writing, “After fans already swamped the bookings and got all shows packed:”
Preetham seemed to take offence to that as he replied, “Hey Dev, we are not sitting around wasting time. We are doing our job and doing the best we can. If there is a delay then there are reasons that took time to resolve and we cant tell you what happened (as much as you think you have the right to know ) so stop pretending to be an authority and questioning us. We appreciate you as an audience and we are working round the clock to get our audience the experience they need, but don’t Think I’m here to address your tantrums !”
When another X user pointing out, “Sir I’ll be as polite as I can… You need to understand that we aren’t asking for free shows. We’re paying high amounts. And we’ve been waiting for this movie for long time. Some like the OP are traveling to get to an ideal screen. We’ve been sad and angry. You need to be humble,” he replied, “Got it thanks and we have it open now. Hope u enjoy the film.”
Customer slams IMAX VP for his response
Another customer from Bengaluru, Karthik Srinivasan, shared Preetham’s response on Instagram, writing that many like him had been waiting all day to book IMAX tickets for Project Hail Mary. “Later in the evening yesterday, I came to know that there was a sustained clamour by fans all through the day to get IMAX shows for the movie in India,” he wrote, adding, “Amidst all this comes the pugnacious reaction from the Vice President of IMAX Corporation, responding to mild fan frustration.”
“Definitely not a good look for IMAX’s customer-facing image,” wrote Karthik, pointing out how Preetham called the other customer’s response a ‘tantrum’. “You can be firm without being rude. You can protect internal info without sounding like you’re doing the fans a favor. Right now it reads like entitlement from the supply side when the demand side is the one shelling out for tickets and hyping the experience,” he added.
Many on the internet agreed with him, with one person commenting, “Another case of – he could have just said nothing and that would have been better.” Another wrote, “@imax @imaxindia after being a passionate advocate of watching movies on imax for so long, this kind of a demeaning response is really not done.” “Oh god did he really reply like that? I get his hands are tied with all the Jio studios situation and Dhurandhar blocking IMAX, but the most ardent fans were the most frustrated because of radio silence,” pointed out one Instagram user.
Project Hail Mary was released in the US on March 20 and in India on March 26, with a delay due to Dhurandhar 2’s release on March 19. Fans who were waiting to watch the film were frustrated to see that it had only a limited number of shows on Thursday. On Friday, the number of shows was increased, much to their relief.
