INVESTIGATORS with Ontario’s York Regional Police are appealing for witnesses after drive-by shootings at movie theatres in the cities of Richmond Hill and Vaughan.

Media reports and a statement from Cineplex say that film is “Malaikottai Vaaliban” — a South Indian action movie. “Journey of Malaikottai Vaaliban, an undisputed warrior, transcends time and geographies, triumphing over every opponent he encounters” is how IMDb puts it.

The Malayalam film also has dubbed versions in Hindi, Kannada, Tamil, and Telugu languages, according to Wikipedia.

Cineplex has cancelled screenings of the movie.

According to some media reports, the violence is the result of a turf war with a group that doesn’t want South India language movies to be screened in favour of other films.

York Regional Police said on Tuesday that last week on January 24, police were called to a theatre in the area of Highway 7 and East Beaver Creek in Richmond Hill after an employee arrived for work and found the windows had been shot at. The same day, police in Vaughan responded to a similar call at a theatre in the area of Highway 7 and Weston Road.

The suspects are being linked to both occurrences in York Region and to similar shootings that occurred at cinemas in Toronto and Peel Region the same night. Investigators believe the incidents were targeted due to their similarities; all the cinemas were closed and occurred in the early morning hours.

Police are appealing to anyone with information or who witnessed any suspicious activity in the area to come forward. Investigators would also like to speak with anyone with video surveillance or dashcam footage in the area around the time of these incidents.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the York Regional Police #2 District Criminal Investigations Bureau at 1-866-287-5025, ext. 7241, or call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS, or leave an anonymous tip online at www.1800222tips.com.