Visualising a new future for cinema

The Tamil film industry is undergoing a massive churning. Piracy and price control of movie tickets have resulted in producers losing money every Friday. The filmmakers are also increasingly frustrated as most movies struggle to last for more than five days in theatres, which are accused of giving smaller films a raw deal.

In an attempt to reduce the dependence on theatres for revenue, filmmaker Cheran launched a company named C2H (Cinema t0 Home) to explore the home DVD market in Tamil Nadu.

The first film, which was released through his company on DVDs and a few cable networks in the State, was his own

JK Enum Nanbanin Vazhkai , starring Sarva and Nitya Menen.

What is the result? “We have sold close to 20 lakh DVDs and it looks like I will recover my investment,” says Cheran. The idea to explore this new market came to him after his film

Pokkisham struggled to stay in theatres. “It was a good film. But, I found that films unable to instantly pull people into the theatres were being dumped. There are films that people would like to watch at home,” he says.

When he was exploring the possibility of setting up his own company with his peers, he was discouraged, laughed at and even warned against antagonising the exhibitors. “But, for me, it was about making a livelihood as a filmmaker. I don’t want to be known as somebody who lost his ‘market’. I am doing this to continue making films and remain relevant as long as I want.”

The announcement of the DVD release of his film attracted criticism from the exhibitors. Over time, many in the industry expected that the exhibitors would come around eventually, giving the film at least a modest release. B

ut it did not happen. “It would have been nice if it had been released in theatres, but that’s okay. If I had gone in for a purely theatre-only release, it would have been dumped saying there are no big stars and I would have lost money. The exhibitors might have their own valid reasons, but I am hoping we can meet each other halfway in future,” he says.

The doomsday predictions that selling legal digital discs on the day of the release will actually increase piracy have been proved wrong, he says. “Those who have been saying this for the last decade did nothing. With our network of distributors, we have managed to create fear in the minds of pirates.”

Does he believe that his company has a future?

“If I can show results and make money, producers will eventually come to me. I have worked hard on this for the last one-and-a-half years and I have no intentions of going back. This is the future,” he says.