Chennai, May 14 : Just hours before director R J Balaji's eagerly awaited action thriller 'Karuppu', featuring actor Suriya in the lead, was to hit screens, the makers of the film have now announced that the morning (9 a.m.) shows of the film have been cancelled.

For the unaware, the Tamil Nadu government had granted permission to the makers of 'Karuppu' for holding one extra show at 9 a.m. on the morning of May 14 and May 15.

However, due to unresolved financial issues, the 9 a.m. shows of the film scheduled for May 14th now stand cancelled.

Dream Warrior Pictures, the production house producing the film, took to its X timeline to retweet an announcement by the film's producer S R Prabhu in this regard.

It said, "Due to unavoidable reasons, 9am shows will be cancelled for Karuppu. Our sincere apologies to everyone!"

Sources in the industry say that the makers of the film were trying their best to resolve the financial hurdles facing the film and ensure its smooth release on time on Thursday.

However, negotiations that went late into Wednesday night and early Thursday morning had not borne fruit and therefore, the makers were forced to cancel the morning shows on Thursday.

The film has triggered huge excitement among fans and filmbuffs. Excitement about the film doubled after the makers released a teaser on the occasion of Suriya's birthday last year.

The teaser that was released begins with the deity of Karuppu being worshipped with chilli powder even as a voice says, "It's not a calm deity that you worship with grace. If you pray with sincerity and offer chillies, it's a fierce deity that will deliver instant justice."

We then get introduced to Suriya's character in the film. We get to know he plays a lawyer called Saravanan and that he has another name -- Karuppu as well.

The rest of the teaser shows that the film will be a proper commercial entertainer with a lot of action sequences in it. Suriya is also seen delivering several punch lines in the film. For instance, Suriya says, " Blast! My brother, this is our time, I'm gonna give you all a whacking."

Actress Trisha plays the female lead in this film, which will also feature Malayalam actors Indrans, Sshivada, Swasika and Tamil actors Yogi Babu and cinematographer and actor Natty in pivotal roles.

The film has music by young music sensation Sai Abhyankkar, and cinematography by GK Vishnu, the very same cinematographer who impressed with his work in films like Vijay's 'Bigil', 'Jawan' and 'Mersal'.

R Kalaivanan is the editor of this film, which had Vikram Mor choreographing stunts for the film and Arun Venjaramoodu as its art director.

/IANS