There! If you are from Chennai and you are movie mad, you don’t need any expanding of that caption. You know. But if you are that minority that needs this elementary fact of Chennai life explained – it is first day first show. And it has been a part of our lingo from long. Remember movie-crazy Pattu Mami from K. Balachander’s Ethir Neechal?
For some reason FDFS is always associated with male matinee idols. Screen goddesses may have their fans, but they never get together to celebrate the way those of vathyar/nadigar thilagam/superstar/ulaganayagan/ilaya thalapathi/thala do. There are sadly no records of M.K. Thyagaraja Bhagavatar’s followers doing this but they may have. Certainly by the 1960s, the Tamil tradition of fans of MGR and Sivaji thronging theatres for FDFS had been well established.
An old tradition
There was another group – the fans of NTR and they showed their adulation in an entirely different manner. If you lived in Madras in the 1960s it was a common sight for hundreds of shaven-headed Telugu people after having had darshan at Tirumala arriving by bus at T. Nagar’s Bazullah Road. That was where NTR lived and they came directly here to see their reel God. They considered the whacks administered by NTR’s watchmen as direct blessings from Jaya and Vijaya, Lord Vishnu’s doorkeepers and having devoutly chanted Edu Kondalavada Venkataramana Govinda, they left. To them, any day was FDFS, particularly if they managed to see God himself, rushing off to a studio.
For the more mortal Tamil heroes, FDFS was for years synonymous with Friday evening unless it was a Pongal or Deepavali release. The Hindu in an article dated September 10, 2016 traces the history behind Friday releases. It all began it says when in 1939, Gone With The Wind released on December 15, a Friday. The logic was sound. Friday was weekly payday in the U.S. and so people went to the movies that day. India caught the trend somewhat late says the same article, citing Mughal-e-Azam’s release on August 5, 1960. And from then on it became a tradition. The article goes on to say that by 2016 this was on the wane in Tamil Nadu, with films releasing on Thursday more often. By then some releases happened on Tuesdays and Wednesdays as well. It was argued that a superstar’s loyal fan base would fill the theatres on any day.
New era
By 2016 it was necessary to fill the theatres on opening day anyway. Gone was the era of 100 days and silver and golden jubilee hits. Distributors needed to maximise crowds on the first few days of the release – as The Hindu wrote on October 24, 2023, this was necessary before the film was released on OTT platforms and also before negative reviews if any had gone viral. FDFS, no matter what the day be, acquired new significance in this high-pressure environment. The number of shows on the first day too had to be maximised and this was when some enterprising distributors and theatre owners hit upon the 4 a.m. show. The laughable logic behind this was it allowed people to get to work(!!!) after watching the film. There were even 1.00 a.m. shows.
But here again there were problems. FDFS was also when the hero was ritually worshipped. Giant cut-outs had long been a Kollywood feature and until they were banned, you could see them near Presentation Convent and Dhun Buildings on Mount Road and other places. Politicians, beginning with the late Jayalalithaa gave them a completely new meaning and purpose later but let us not go into that. The film cut-outs became objects of worship before and during the release of a film. Fans climbed them and anointed the hero with milk, and down below, crackers were burst, and camphor was lit. The faithful then entered the cinema hall. If in North India this was seen only when Jai Santoshi Ma was released, in rationalist Tamil Nadu it had been accepted tradition since long.
With early morning FDFS becoming the rage, tickets sold at unconscionable rates. The grapevine had it that as much as Rs 1 crore could be made by way of premium in a single screening. This was the cause of much heartburn. And the gathering of fans in the early hours posed law and order problems. Milkmen reported being waylaid and their sachets being stolen for the ritual anointing. And when two heroes had films released at the same time, clashes too happened. The police complained.
Court intervenes
The matter went to court in 2023 when the producers of Vijay’s Leo requested permission to screen at 4.00 a.m. and a second show at 7.00 a.m. The Government, stepping in, ruled that 9.00 a.m. was the earliest possible timing for FDFS. The earlier concern about fans having to go to work was given a quiet burial.
Whatever be the timings or the day, FDFS still holds sway over Chennai and Tamil Nadu. And it is not likely to go away any time soon. From a time when cinema was considered an escape from the pressures of daily life and work and so was entertainment in the evenings and on weekends, it is now a world of make believe to reside in.
Published - August 22, 2024 12:45 pm IST