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A new milestone has been achieved by the Tamil film industry. Chennai Times tells you all about it…
SREEDHAR PILLAI Times News Network


On October 30, Kollywood hit the fastest hundred in its history as the 100th Tamil film of 2009, Kanden Kadhalai, hit the screens. Never before in the history of Tamil cinema has there been a situation where 100 films have been released by the month of October. By Friday last (November 6), the number of releases for the year stood at 106. There are seven more weeks before the year ends and Kollywood has managed to cross the magical hundredreleases-a-year mark (see box) consecutively for the last five years. According to trade sources, Kollywood is set to surpass all records as far as the number of releases are concerned this year.
Sadly, while 2009 will definitely see the highest number of Tamil releases, the quality of the movies and the number of hits and super hits have touched the nadir. This year, out of the 106 releases so far, there has been only one film which can be declared a universal hit — Suriya’s KV Anand-directed Ayan. The film did well in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Mumbai multiplexes and overseas as well. Others like Padikkathavan, Nadodigal, Siva Manasula Sakthi, Kanthaswamy and Aadhavan were hits in Tamil Nadu (A, B & C centres). Then, there were multiplex and area-specific hits like Yaavarum Nalam, Vennila Kabadi Kuzhu and Eeram which were hits largely in the 3C’s — Chennai city, Chengalpet and Coimbatore.
Compare this with figures of 2008 for the same period (up to October 31) and you’ll find there were two universal hits — Kamal Haasan’s Dasavatharam and Sasikumar’s Subramaniapuram, along with nearly a dozen other hits whose revenues were bigger than the current crop’s fiscal revenues. As ‘Tirupur’ Subramaniam, leading distributor and trade analyst, says, “A new trend is emerging with films catering to a particular class of audiences turning out to be hits. At the same time, the number of releases has increased, creating chaos in the market, and most of the new releases don’t percolate down to B and C.” Recently, Maayandi Kudambathaar did better in the B & C areas in Tamil Nadu than in cities. Similarly, Kanden Kadhalai is doing better in the 3C’s.
But the biggest cause of worry for the trade is the rise in number of releases a week, leading to audience fatigue. Says a leading theatre owner from Chengalpet area, “Last Friday, six Tamil films hit the screens. However, only three of them got proper releases. It would be a miracle if some of them manage to survive even for six days in a theatre, especially in this rainy season.” The trade wants only two releases a week. Otherwise, they feel that the audiences will stop seeing small Tamil films. The Tamil Film Producers Council (TFPC) had passed a resolution earlier restricting the number of film releases to two per week from Deepavali. However, TFPC president, Ramanarayanan, now says that after considering the plight of small producers, who make their films by taking loans and will be able to repay their loans only if the films release, the TFPC has relaxed the rule. However, the TFPC will be discussing the issue at its executive meeting later this year. Till then, it looks like the more the merrier!

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