Kollywood hits a purple patch

The Tamil film industry is going through a rare purple patch in the last four weeks. The massive – but simultaneous – successes of Chekka Chivantha Vanam, Pariyerum Perumal, 96 and Ratsasan at the box office has made every stakeholder associated with Tamil cinema heave a collective sigh of relief.

The industry had gone through a terrible trough since summer: there was a 48-day shutdown as producers were in confrontation with digital service providers over fees, resulting in loss of revenue during the holiday season, and the implementation of the GST made tickets costlier. The theatre owners struggled to bring people back to the theatres as the occupancy rates fell.

But these concerns have been allayed thanks to a string of films released in September and the first week of October. While Mani Ratnam’s star-studded

Chekka Chivantha Vaanam and Mari Selvaraj’s perceptive

Pariyerum Perumal have both struck gold at the box office, serial killer neo-noir film

Ratsasan featuring Vishnu Vishal and Amala Paul and C. Prem Kumar’s love story

96 , featuring Vijay Sethupathi and Trisha, have brought people back to theatres in hordes.

Speaking to The Hindu , Abirami Ramanathan, MD, Abirami Cinemas, said, “After a long time, all theatre owners are happy. It has broken the previously held assumption that audience will watch only one or two movies a month. The success of all four movies has proved that if the script is good and the film is well made, people will come to the theatres.” He further said that the number of seats in Chennai can just accommodate one percent of the city’s total population of around 65 lakh. “People don’t want to waste money. With YouTube and social media, they form an idea whether the film is good. If the film is good, they will come.”

Filmmaker and now producer, Pa. Ranjith, whose Neelam Productions has bankrolled

Pariyerum Perumal , said that the movie had done well beyond expectations. “I knew that the content of the film, which highlights the caste differences, will appeal to the Tamil audiences. This is the reason why I distributed the film myself even though the distributors and theatre owners were sceptical. It is true that we did not get theatres because it came to the theatres along with films such as

Chekka Chivantha Vaanam while Sivakarthikeyan’s

Seema Raja and Vikram’s

Saamy 2 were already in theatres. But, we took a decision to show the movie to the press in advance to generate a buzz that would get the audiences into the theatres. And it worked,” he said.

“While the film was given more screens through word of mouth, in places such as Madurai or Ramanathapuram or Kamudhi, we still didn’t get enough screens. Pariyeum Perumal has done well but so have other movies such as CCV . We have achieved a gross collection of ₹5.5 crore and a producer’s share of ₹3.5 crore for this film,” he added.

Actor Vishnu Vishal also expressed the same feeling that getting more screens was an issue for his film, Ratsasan , but he was so confident with the film’s content that it would do well in theatres.

G. Dhananjayan, founder of BOFTA film institute and producer of upcoming Jyotika-starrer Kaatrin Mozhi , said, “The movies will continue to do well and the next major set of releases are only expected in the third week of October.”

With more big movies ready for release in October and November, the box office will continue to be a busy.

(With inputs from S. Poorvaja )

Kollywood hits a purple patch

Massive success of recently released movies comes as relief for all stakeholders