Tamil producers in a hurry to release films before IPL

Tamil film producers and distributors seem to have learnt a hard lesson from last summer (Ma rch – May) season. Th ough the Indian Premier League matches were he ld in So uth Africa, match timings clashed with the timing of shows in cinema ha lls. Wi th the school board exams also scheduled during the same period, most films released at that time came cropper at the Kollywood box office.

To avoid a similar fate this season, most producers are releasing films in a flurry in February. At least 15 Tamil films are expected to hit the big screen this month, at the rate of four-five movies a week.

After a long gap, last Friday (February 5) saw a solo release when Ajith Kumar’s Asal hit theatres.

Karthi’s Payya, Silambarasan’s Vinnai Thaandi Varuvaaya, Vishal’s Theeradha Vilayaatu Pillai and Bharath’s Thambikku In dha Ooru are the other films set for a February release. These movies are expected to hit theatres between February 12 and February 19 along with several small-budget films.

“No other film was released on February 5 because of Ajith’s big-budget Asal. Otherwise, at least five movies are being released every week and this will continue for a while,” says Kalaipuli G Segaran, president of the Chennai-Kanchipuram-Thiruvallur Tamil Film Distributors’

Association.

“We don’t have enough theatres to release films and as is the case in the last two years, low-budget films with ‘lower artiste value’ are left out. About 50 to 60 films are pending release because no theatre owner

is ready to buy films at

the rate they are priced,”

he added. Ironically, only a handful of low-budget films made money last year and the same was the case even a year before that. Over 90 per cent of films failed and big movies including Vik ram’s Kandasa my were total failures.

“At any point in time, out of 50 films, only five collect profits,” said V Shanmu­gam, manager of the Coimbatore Distributors’ Asso cia tion.

Of all the films rele ased in the last three mo nths, only Venkat Prabhu’s Goa released on January 30 is doing well, he added.

While it collected about Rs 40 lakh in the first week in the Coimbatore region, Cloud Nine Productions’ Tamizh Padam grossed Rs 20 lakh. Vijay’s Vettai karan, though a hit among C centres, did not make profits, he said.

The proliferation of oth er language movies, especially Hollywood films, has also hurt the fortunes of the Ta mil film industry. James Cameroon’s Avatar was a massive hit and it has gr ossed over Rs 1 crore in Co imbatore alone, Shanmu gam said. If the present tr end continues, no big film will be released next month and only the pending mo vies will be released, he added.