Ilayathalapathy Vijay’s fans have been eagerly awaiting the much-anticipated audio album of “Bairavaa”, scheduled to be released on December 23. However, much to everyone’s shock and surprise, including the film’s audio label Lahari Music, the album released on iTunes three days in advance on December 20.
For about 20 minutes on Tuesday, the Santosh Narayanan-composed album was made available for download at Rs 75 on iTunes, before it was finally taken down. By the time it was taken down, however, it had already been purchased numerous times, and songs from the album have reportedly been circulating via Whatsapp.
It is still unclear how this error took place. On the one hand, some sources say that the audio release for “Bairavaa” was originally scheduled for December 20, and this was the release date communicated to iTunes. It is being rumoured that when the release date was then pushed by three days, this decision was not communicated to iTunes, resulting in the release of the album on December 20.
For its part, Lahari Music tweeted an apology, and claimed that the early release had occurred because iTunes had not updated the schedule despite email intimation. In two tweets, Lahari Music wrote, “We are extremely feeling bad. Due to some technical issues on iTunes, Bairavaa album went live. We took it down as soon as we noticed it! As iTunes office is shutdown for few weeks, they made live as per previous audio release date though we sent the new updated date via mail!”
We are extremely feeling bad. Due to some technical issues on iTunes, #Bairavaa album went live. We took it down as soon as we noticed it!
— Lahari Music (@LahariMusic) December 20, 2016
As iTunes office is shutdown for few weeks, they made live as per previous audio release date though we sent the new updated date via mail!
— Lahari Music (@LahariMusic) December 20, 2016
Following this, Santhosh Narayanan and Lahari Music tweeted the official YouTube lyrical videos of all the songs on the soundtrack over the next few hours.
Meanwhile, early reports indicate that the album has received a lukewarm response, even by a section of Vijay fans. With some people terming it as the weakest Santhosh Narayanan album so far, even the number crooned by Vijay didn’t have any major effect on the overall response.
Directed by Bharathan, “Bairavaa” is gearing up for release on Pongal 2017, and also stars Keerthy Suresh and Sathish.
(Content provided by Digital Native)