After the box-office success of Kaakka Muttai , the Tamil film that won two national awards, the new Kamal Haasan film, Papanasam, has been released with English subtitles in cinemas outside Tamil Nadu.
Suresh Balaje, co-producer of Papanasam , said the decision to screen the subtitled version was taken mainly for two reasons. “First, the film features a very authentic, strong Tirunelveli dialect, which may not be understood by everyone. Tamils who have lived in north India for long would definitely prefer a subtitled version. Secondly, an actor like Kamal Haasan has fans who do not speak the language. A subtitled version might bring in people though the number is small,” he says. “Recently, distributors in the north had found that Mani Ratnam films, when screened with English subtitles, had done well commercially,” he says.
The trend seem to have been inspired by the huge success of Kaakka Muttai , which was screened with subtitles across North India and has had a great run at the box-office.
“ Kaakka Muttai has entered fifth week and did fantastically well in cities such as Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kochi, and Mumbai. In a place like Mumbai where the life of a film is not beyond a week, it ran for four weeks with quite a lot of non-Tamil speaking audiences watching and appreciating it,” Vijay Singh, CEO, Fox Star Studios India, says.
The decision to release the film with subtitles was taken because of the film’s universal content.
While those in the trade admit that different films call for different marketing strategies, most agree that distributing films with subtitles is bound to organically increase audience for Tamil films outside the State. “In the long run, subtitled versions will slowly add value, not just for Tamil films screened outside but even for Hindi and other language films screened in Tamil Nadu,” Mr. Balaje says.
