The film business in Tamil Nadu has undergone a shift this year. With the box office success of Vijay’s Bigil and Karthi’s Kaithi this Deepavali, the industry is awaiting a new phase in which major festivals such as Pongal, Tamil New Year’s Day, Deepavali, Ayudha Pooja and Christmas witness films of two stars clashing at the box office instead of allowing one to have a free run, as was the norm.
The trend was set in motion when Sathyajyothi Films, producer of actor Ajith Kumar’s Viswasam , decided to go ahead with the release on Pongal day despite actor Rajinikanth’s Petta , produced by Sun Pictures, releasing that day. Both films shared the 850 screens across the State.
Competition is good
The success of the two films removed the fear that one big film would eat into the box office collections of the other.
Karthi in ‘Kaithi’
Stating that distributors and theatre owners have always preferred a double release to a saturated one-film release, Tiruppur Subramaniam, well known distributor and financier, said, “We have been telling producers to release two films every big festival. With Bigil and Kaithi , both are doing well and Kaithi is getting more shows in multiplexes. Even today, if a film is good, it will do well. Though Kaithi released in less number of screens, the audience will come since it has received phenomenal word-of-mouth reviews.”
Releasing two films with big stars during a festival is actually beneficial to both films, argues S.R. Prabhu, producer, Kaithi .
“The attention of the audience turned towards Kaithi because of the competition. My point is: we are going to compete with some film anyway. We took a call based on all factors at that time: did we want to compete in a lightweight competition or in a heavyweight fight,” Mr. Prabhu said, adding, “we did not start this — it started with Pongal.”
