Come September and the festival season starts in Kollywood. A large number of Tamil big and medium films are slated for release (see box). Earlier, only Pongal, Tamil New Year’s Day and Deepavali were recognised by the trade as Tamil festivals, but in the last few years, two new ‘festival dates’ have been added to the calendar to accommodate the large number of releases every year. They are Vinayaka Chaturthi (Ganesh Chaturthi ) and Pooja, both festivals traditionally not associated with Tamil Nadu but more with Northern India.
This year, both these festivals fall on Thursdays (September 13 and October 18), which the trade feels makes the perfect continuous four-day holiday weekend, while Deepavali (November 6) is on Tuesday. This is perhaps the reason for three or more films vying for these dates.
Traditionally, in Tamil cinema, the superstars monopolise the big festival dates like Deepavali and Pongal, leaving the smaller festivals to other heroes. This year, due to the 48-day ‘no new releases’ strike by Tamil Film Producers Council against Digital Service Providers (DSP), the releases of films have gotten staggered, leading to an overflow of releases during the festival season.
Leading producer G Dhananjayan said, “With four days of extended weekend (Thursday to Sunday), the audience are willing to watch new films in theatres. We have scheduled Samantha’s U Turn on September 13 due to the Vinayaka Chaturthi holidays. Similarly, Jyotika’s Kaatrin Mozhi is scheduled for release during the Ayudha Pooja festival. We hope to benefit from it despite the strong competition then.”
Take a look at the release schedule for the next one month. On August 30, Nayanthara’s Imaikkaa Nodigal is scheduled to release. Her last release Kolamaavu Kokila is rocking the box-office for the last two weeks and now most theatres will stop it to accommodate her new suspense thriller. Two other films are also releasing the same weekend. A week later, Vijay Sethupathi’s 96 and Mammootty’s Peranbu join the fray. Six days later, on Vinayaka Chathurthi (Sep 13) big competition comes in the form of Sivakarthikeyan’s Seema Raja , Samantha’s U Turn and Karthick Naren’s Naragasooran . After that, it’s time for Vikram’s Saamy Square , Boomerang , Sathuranga Vettai 2 and later, Chekka Chivantha Vaanam .
PL Thenappan, the producer who is trying to release Peranbu, which has been getting a lot of critical acclaim on the festival circuit, said, “I haven’t been getting a proper release date for a while now. The concept of solo release date has vanished even for big hero films, as there are too many releases vying for the same weekend. And the life of a Tamil film in theatres is just a week and the best I can do in these difficult times are to get good show timings and maximum shows in the opening weekend in multiplexes.” Veteran theatre owner Abirami Ramanathan added, “The very concept of theatrical run is being redefined in Tamil cinema. Till a few years back an average film had a certain amount of audiences patronising it in the opening weekend irrespective of content. But now with OTT platforms booming, a film’s survival purely depends on the first day first show audience report.”
A few films on the list have financial issues and settlements to be made, and that means that postponement of the release is a likelihood. Recently, a producer complained to the TFPC that his film, which released in a multiplex with two shows on a Friday, was discontinued on Saturday and replaced by the previous week’s hit film! One wonders what will happen with the festival releases; it looks like only films with strong content and buzz will survive the race.
