MUMBAI: The mania unleashed itself early morning. Mumbai’s Matunga neighbourhood was brimming with fans who had trooped in at the crack of dawn from different corners of the city to indulge in the 4 Ps — puja, procession, poo abhishegam (flower shower) and paal abhishegam (milk bath) — obligatory release-day ritual for
Rajinikanth’s latest Kaala
hitting the screens.
South or north, Rajinikanth rules. But
Southern stars such as Chiranjeevi, Suriya, Ajith, Prabhas and Vijay have also become hot box-office property on either side of the Vindhyas. And the niggling question — why Kattappa killed Baahubali? — is equally significant both in Chandigarh and Coimbatore.
The craze for Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam movies has always existed among migrants in north and west India. But now with affordable ‘digitization’ replacing the prohibitively expensive film prints, it’s easier for such films to find more multiplex space.
“Digitization helped us programme films in remote places and gross box office for
Southern films has grown by approximately 20% in the last three years at Inox,” explains Alok Tandon, CEO, INOX Leisure. He adds, “Films like Baahubali, Sivaji – The Boss, Vishwaroopam and Kaala, despite being dubbed in Hindi, have done exceedingly well in their original version across India.”
Kamal Gainchandani, CEO, PVR Cinemas agrees. “Southern films are no longer screened in one fixed slot in a couple of cinemas but have multiple shows across metros and Tier II and III cities. With most films being subtitled in English, the crossover potential is on the rise.”
According to FICCI-EY’s latest ‘Reimagining India’s M & E Sector’ report, the Indian film segment grew by 21% in 2017 with a surge in box-office collections and revenue from satellite and digital rights. If Bollywood contributed 40%, regional films with Tamil and Telugu added 50% to the total annual kitty.
Nine films joined the Rs 100 crore club in 2017 with Tamil-Telugu bilingual film Baahubali emerging as the biggest blockbuster selling 52.5 million tickets at the box office for its Hindi dubbed release.
Single-screen theatres too have bounced back. The 75-year-old Aurora Talkies’ now flaunts air conditioners, an advanced sound system and screening of three different South Indian films (Tamil, Telegu, Kannada) a day instead of one matinee show.
And Ganesh Films, a 32-year-old proprietary firm that handles 60 per cent of the distribution of southern films in the north, is likely to list its distribution business on the stock exchange this month. In its initial public offer (IPO) the company aims at raising a fund of nearly Rs 8.5 crore.
The company’s aspirations aren’t too far-fetched given the likes of Pradeep Dahiya in the Delhi-Haryana border or Varun Desai in Mumbai’s Ghatkopar for whom words like ‘magizhchi’ (Tamil for happiness) and taking strides in a veshti or eating on a banana leaf are cultural lessons from “Rajini and Kamal sir”.
For Nambi Rajan, 59, and chairman and managing director of Ganesh Films, it all began in 1990. That year Inaindha Kaigal (Conjoined Hands) was setting box offices in India’s deep south on fire when Rajan – an enterprising young in Mumbai decided to bring the blockbuster to his homies. A drivein theatre in Bandra was booked and fans showed up in droves. Before he knew it, the anticipated crowd of 500 had exploded to 5,000. In an anticlimax, the screen and the speakers failed. Desperate and deprived of entertainment, Tollywood fans went on a rampage until cops arrived with sirens blazing and resorted to lathi charge to salvage a moment that made history.
Soon after, Rajan went for a simultaneous Tollywood release, a first in the country. Thalapathi, starring Tamil and Malayalam heavyweights, Rajinikanth and Mammootty, was released in Mumbai on the same day it hit the southern shores. “It ran to packed houses for 12 consecutive Sundays. A messenger boy on bike would ferry the film reel from Metro to Eros and then to Regal for back to back shows. We had bought the print for Rs 2 lakh as opposed to the usual rate of Rs 5,000 for a later release and collected around Rs 6 lakh,” smiles Rajan. “It was a sign that there’s an audience for a good south Indian film in the northern states and that they can yield good returns.”
Rajan had foreseen the future. And the future is now.
