Tamil cinema

Tamil cinema (also referred to as the Cinema of Tamil Nadu, the Tamil film industry, or Chennai film industry) is the Chennai–based Tamil language filmmaking industry of the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is based in the Kodambakkam district of Chennai, where several Tamil language feature films are produced, which has led to a colloquial reference to it as Kollywood (Tamil: கோலிவுட் kōlivūṭ), a portmanteau of the words Kodambakkam and Hollywood.

Silent movies were produced in Chennai since 1916 and the era of talkies dawned in 1931 with the film Kalidas. By the end of the 1930s, the industry was booming to the extent that the State of Madras legislature passed the pioneering Entertainment Tax Act 1939 with little opposition. Tamil Nadu cinema has had a profound effect on the film making industries of India, with Chennai becoming a hub for the filmmaking industries of other languages and also Sri Lankan cinema in the 1900s. Tamil–language films are further made in other countries.

Today, Tamil films are distributed to various theatres around the world, hence, the industry serves as one of India's most successful entertainment hubs. Tamil films have gained popularity with wide distribution in regions outside of India, such as in Sri Lanka, Singapore, Japan, Korea, Malayasia, Mauritius, South Africa, Eastern Europe, North America, and other significant Tamil diaspora regions.

History

A visiting European exhibitor first screened (date unknown) a selection of silent short films at the Victoria Public Hall in Madras. The films all featured non-fictional subjects; they were mostly photographed records of day-to-day events.

Early exhibitors

File:Chandralekha .film.jpg

A scene from the Tamil film Chandralekha released in 1948.

In Madras (now known as Chennai), the Electric Theatre was established for the screening of silent films. It was a favourite haunt of the British community in Madras.The theatre was shut down after a few years. This building is now part of a post office complex in Anna Salai. The Lyric Theatre was also built in the Mount Road area (now Anna Salai). This venue boasted a variety of events, including plays in English, Western classical music concerts, and ballroom dances. Silent films were also screened as an additional attraction. Samikannu Vincent, an employee of the South Indian Railways in Trichy, purchased a film projector and silent films from the Frenchman Du Pont and set up a business as film exhibitor. He erected tents for screening films. His tent cinema became popular and he travelled all over the state with his mobile unit. In later years, he produced talkies and also built a cinema in Coimbatore.

To celebrate the event of King George V's visit in 1909, a grand exhibition was organised in Madras. Its major attraction was the screening of short films accompanied by sound. A British company imported a Crone megaphone, made up of a film projector to which a gramophone with a disc containing prerecorded sound was linked, and both were run in unison, producing picture and sound simultaneously. However, there was no synched dialogue. Raghupathy Venkiah Naidu, a successful photographer, took over the equipment after the exhibition and set up a tent cinema near the Madras High Court. R. Venkiah, flush with funds, built in 1912 a permanent cinema in the Mount Road area named Gaiety. It was the first in Madras to screen films on a full-time basis. This theatre is still functioning, although under different ownership.

In tent cinemas, there were usually three classes of tickets: the floor, bench and, chair. The floor-ticket purchaser sat on sand to watch the movie, but he enjoyed certain advantages that other patrons did not. He could sit as he pleased, or he could turn over and take a short nap when the narrative was particularly dull and roll back again when the action was again to his liking—luxuries in which the upper class could never indulge.

Film studios

1916 marked the birth of Tamil cinema with the the first Madras production and South Indian film release Keechaka Vaadham (The Destruction of Keechaka). During the 1920s, silent Tamil-language movies were shot at makeshift locations in and around Chennai, and for technical processing, they were sent to Pune or Calcutta. Later some movies featuring MKT were shot in Pune and Calcutta. In the 1930s AVM set up its makeshift studio in the town of Karaikudi, and during the same decade, full-fledged Movie studios were built in Salem (Modern Theatres Studio) and Coimbatore (Central Studios, Neptune, and Pakshiraja). By the mid 1940s, Chennai became the hub of Studio activity with two more movie Studios built in Chennai, Vijaya Vauhini Studios and Gemini Studios. Later, AVM Studios shifted its operations to Chennai. Thus, with the undivided Madras Presidency being the Capital to most of South India, Chennai became the center for Tamil- and notable Telugu-language movies. Also, most of the pre-independence era drama and stage actors joined the movie industry from the 1940s, and Chennai became the hub for South Indian–language film production and Sri Lankan cinema before independence.

Film music

Main articles: Chennai film music and Music of Tamil Nadu

Kollywood is well known for its talented composers and its film music Two of the most famous and acclaimed film composers of India, Ilaiyaraaja and A. R. Rahman are from the Chennai film industry. Other prominent Tamil film score and soundtrack composers in the industry include Yuvan Shankar Raja, Harris Jayaraj, Karthik Raja and Vidyasagar. Several international composers have used Chennai's studios to record music for projects, as have composers from other film industries. S. Rajeswara Rao was based in Chennai from the 1940s. During the 1960s and 1970s, prominent film composers K. V. Mahadevan, M. S. Viswanathan were popular, with interest in classic Tamil film songs being re-ignited with the audio cassette revolution.

The film music of Tamil Nadu is widely known for its innovation and eclecticism. Scores may showcase blends of Carnatic, Western and other instruments, music systems with a range of melodic and rhythmic patterns. Orchestral themes and minimalist songs often feature. Recent trends show the prevalence of synthesizers and other electronic instruments.

Impact

Mark Morris choreographed Tamil Film Songs in Stereo (1983).

Politics

Main article: Tamil cinema and Dravidian politics

The Tamil film industry has a long intertwining link with politics, dating from the earliest days of regional cinema, where stories, themes and characters derived from Tamil traditional folk ballads have inspired screenplays and have become vehicles for creating future politicians. The first non congress Chief Minister C. N. Annadurai and the current Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi were directors and acclaimed script writers. M. G. Ramachandran, who was a popular commercial film actor, had served as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for nearly a decade. The current opposition leader J. Jayalalithaa was also a popular actress. Moreover, a few actors are currently appointed as members of parliament, such as Vijayakanth. Some of these actors like Rajinikanth, are politically influential due to their loyal fan bases.

Distribution and popularity

See also: List of Tamil-language films and List of top Tamil-language films

Tamil films constitute India's most popular films along with Bollywood films. They have one of the widest overseas distribution, with large audience turnout from the Tamil diaspora alongside Hindi films. The Chennai film industry produced the first commercially successful film across India in 1948 with Chandralekha, a landmark film in Tamil cinema. Kollywood outranks Tollywood in box office receipts after including overseas markets like Malaysia.

Tamil films have enjoyed consistent popularity among populations in India, Sri Lanka, Singapore and Malaysia. They have recently become popular in Japan (particularily Muthu, directed by K. S. Ravikumar, and Indira, directed by Suhasini Mani Ratnam), South Africa, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States. Sivaji: The Boss (2007) had been touted as a record-breaking film for its high-budget, large opening, and reception worldwide. It also cracked into the United Kingdom's and South Africa's top-ten high-grossing films during the week of its release. Ayngaran International distributes a majority of Tamil films overseas while domestic distributors such as Aascar Films, Pyramid Saimira, and Madras Talkies handle distribution within India. The Kamal Haasan starrer Dasavathaaram was distributed by Walt Disney Pictures in Canada.

Many Tamil-language films have premiered or have been selected as special presentations at various prestigious film festivals across the world, such as Mani Ratnam's Kannathil Muthamittal, Veyyil and Ameer Sultan's Paruthiveeran. More recently, Kanchivaram, directed by Priyadarshan, had been selected to be premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. Films like Thevar Magan, Indian and Jeans had been selected by India for Best Foreign Language Film for the Academy Awards.

Tamil films enjoy significant patronage in neighbouring Indian states like Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. In Kerala and Karnataka the films are directly released in Tamil but in Andhra Pradesh they are generally dubbed into Telugu. There is a fair amount of dispersion amongst the Indian film industries. Many successful Tamil films have been remade by the Hindi and Telugu film industries. It is estimated by the Manorama Yearbook 2000 (a popular almanac) that over 5,000 Tamil films were produced in the 20th century. Tamil films have also been dubbed into other languages, thus reaching a much wider audience. Examples of those dubbed into Hindi include such hits as Anniyan directed by S. Shankar, Minsaara Kanavu directed by Rajiv Menon, Roja and Bombay directed by Mani Ratnam. Kadhalan, directed by S. Shankar became the first Tamil movie ever to be dubbed into Hindi.

Tamil language films are produced in other cinema hubs. The film My Magic directed by Singaporean Eric Khoo became Singapore's first film to be nominated for the Palme d'Or at Cannes. There has been a growing presence of English in dialogue and songs in Chennai films. It is not uncommon to see movies that feature dialogue studded with English words and phrases, or even whole sentences. Some movies are also simultaneously made in two or three languages (either using subtitles or several soundtracks). Chennai's film composers have popularised their highly unique, syncretic style of film music across the world. Quite often, Tamil movies feature Madras Tamil, a colloquial version of Tamil spoken in Chennai.

Actors

Further information: List of Tamil film actors

At the beginning of the talkie era, Tamil cinema was dominated by P. U. Chinnappa and M. K. Thyagaraja Bagavadhar up until the end of the 1940s. From the 1950s to the late 1970s, the two highly anticipated Tamil film stars were M. G. Ramachandran and Sivaji Ganesan.

The 1980s saw the rise and consolidation of the markets of Kamal Haasan and Rajinikanth. The films of both of these stars typically dominate 20 per cent market share each of the total annual box office receipts. They received salaries of $2 million and $3 million respectively for their latest projects, Dasavathaaram (2008) and Sivaji (2007). With Sivaji, Rajinikanth became the highest paid actor in India while Dasavathaaram broke the record of the costliest film ever made in Tamil of its time. Ajith Kumar and Joseph Vijay, who debuted during the early 1990s are currently considered as Tamil cinema's youngest superstars with loyal fan bases and, thus, receiving large openings for their films in India and locations abroad. Other senior and junior Tamil actors, such as Sarath Kumar, Sathyaraj, Arjun Sarja, Vikram, Surya Sivakumar and R. Madhavan are considered leading Tamil film stars and often critically acclaimed for their performances, also holding significant market shares.

Industry observers, as of recent times, have come to the belief that the age of superstardom is gradually coming to an end due to persistent piracy, rise of multiplex cinemas and corporatisation.

Union associations

The industry includes several groups who organize their own events based on different issues of major concern. Rather than forming separate and distinct groups, each association occasionally collaborate for certain events. These associations are based on profession in the industry, such as a directors' association or producers' association.

The most notable association is the South Indian Film Artistes' Association which is a group of all prominent Tamil film actors. Formed in 1952 under the leadership of actor Sivaji Ganesan, the association has continued to conduct several protests and hunger strikes for certain political and humanitarian issues, in efforts to make positive changes in the Indian and Tamil society. The current president of the association is the actor-turned-politician R. Sarath Kumar.

Other associations include the Association of Tamil Film Directors which is headed by director Barathiraja and the Tamil Film Producers' Council who often meet to make cinema-related decisions. More general associations include the well known FEFSI (Film Employees' Federation of South India) which is headed by FEFSI Vijayan, a popular film stunt choreographer.

Industrial trends

File:Kollywood.output.JPG

Annual film output in Tamil market

Average annual film output in Tamil film industry has risen steadily in the 20th century. However, since 1985 peak, output has stagnated or declined. Nevertheless, the industry still manages to attract artistes and technicians nationwide and plays a "special" role in Tamil Nadu politics.

Given below is a chart of trend of box office collections of Kollywood with figures in millions of United States Dollars. The data excludes the market segments of in-film advertisement, celebrity branding, mobile entertainment, stage, DVD and other intellectual property rights. Since 2000, the satellite television rights market segment has doubled but do not attract entertainment taxes while the music rights market segment has stagnated due to unbridled piracy.

Year	Tamil Box Office	Satellite Television Rights	Music Rights
1980	10
1985	12
1990	18
1995	24
2000	31	1	1
2005	52	2	1

The magnum opus Chandralekha produced in 1948 at a staggering cost of almost $600,000 ($28 million in 2008 prices) remains the most expensive Tamil film ever. The film was released in 609 screens worldwide with subtitles. But the film was a flop.

The Tamil film market accounts for approximately 0.1% of the gross domestic product of the state of Tamil Nadu. In the year 2007 a record 108 movies were released. For the purpose of entertainment taxes, returns have to be filed by the exhibitors weekly (usually each Tuesday). Costs of production have grown exponentially from just under Rs.40 lakhs in 1980 to over Rs.11 crores by 2005 for a typical star-studded big-budget film. Similarly, costs of processing per print have risen from just under Rs.2,500 in 1980 to nearly Rs.70,000 by 2005.

Interestingly, the Tamil Nadu government has made provisions for an entertainment tax exemption for Tamil movies having pure Tamil word(s) in the title. This is in accordance with Government Order 72 passed on July 22, 2006. The first film to be released after the new Order was Unakkum Enakkum. The original title had been Something Something Unakkum Ennakkum, a half-English and a half-Tamil title.

Domestic exhibitors

There are about 2800 cinema-halls located in Tamil Nadu, Below is a list of the most prominent exhibitors in the box office.

Show rentals range from Rs.700 in C-centres to as much as Rs.7,000 in A-centres for an average 700-seat screen. Unlike Hollywood, superstardom is deeply ingrained into Kollywood economics, so distributors are prepared to not only finance the films of super stars with proven track records but are also, in turn, able to secure minimum guarantees for those films from exhibitors. Rise of multiplexes in the late 1990s has stunted the growth of large screens. Salem city is famous for theatres and known as theatre house of Tamil nadu.

Theatre	Seats	Location
Sathyamcomplex	total of 2380	Chennai
Albert	1225	Chennai
Devi	1212	Chennai
Geethalaya	1100	Salem
Melody	998	Chennai
Abirami	927	Chennai
Kasi	917	Chennai
Sangam	877	Chennai
Maharani	733	Chennai
Udhayam	700	Chennai
Santham	567	Chennai
Padmam	540	Chennai
Suriyan	480	Chennai
Devi Bala	369	Chennai
Rakki	306+	Chennai
Mayajaal	1000+	Chennai
Inox	909	Chennai
Maruti	900	Coimbatore
KG complex	2000	Coimbatore
Central	900	Coimbatore
Royal	650	Coimbatore
Kalaiarangam	1500	Trichy
Maris Complex	total of 1500	Trichy
Sonamena	total of 900	Trichy
Megastar	458	Trichy
Ramba	456	Trichy
Venkatesha	400	Trichy
Cauvery	400	Trichy
Star	350	Trichy
Urvasi	300	Trichy
ARRS multiplex	2200	Salem
Reliance adlabs	2000	Salem
Abirami	1500	Erode

See also

• List of Tamil-language films
• Popular Tamil films
• List of Tamil actors
• Cinema of India
• Filmfare Awards South
• Tamil Nadu State Film Awards

Further reading

• Arnold, Alison (2000). "Pop Music and Audio-Cassette Technology: Southern Area - Film music". The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9780824049461.
• Bhaskaran, Theodore, Sundararaj (1996). Eye of The Serpent: An Introduction to Tamil Cinema. Chennai / University of Michigan: East West Books.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Gokulsing, K. (2004). Indian Popular Cinema: A Narrative of Cultural Change. Trentham Books. p. 132. ISBN 1858563291. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Shohini Chaudhuri (2005). Contemporary World Cinema: Europe, the Middle East, East Asia and South Asia. Edinburgh University Press. p. 149. ISBN 074861799X.
• Chinniah, Sathiavathi (2001). Tamil Movies Abroad: Singapore South Indian Youths and their Response to Tamil Cinema. Vol. 8. Kolam.
• Guy, Randor (1997). Starlight, Starbright : The Early Tamil Cinema. Chennai. OCLC 52794531.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Hughes, Stephen P. (February 24–25, 2005). "Tamil Cinema as Sonic Regime: Cinema Sound, Film Songs and the Making of a Mass Culture of Music". New Perspectives on the Nineteenth and Twentieth Century. Keynote address: South Asia Conference at the University of Chicago. Chicago, Illinois. {{cite conference}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help); Unknown parameter |booktitle= ignored (|book-title= suggested) (help)
• Kasbekar, Asha (2006). Pop Culture India!: Media, Arts and Lifestyle. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 9781851096367.
• Ravindran, Gopalan (March 17–18, 2006). Negotiating identities in the Diasporic Space: Transnational Tamil Cinema and Malaysian Indians. Cultural Space and Public Sphere in Asia, 2006. Seoul, Korea: Korea Broadcasting Institute, Seoul. {{cite conference}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameters: |booktitle= and |coauthors= (help)
• Nakassis, Constantine V. (2007). "Desire, Youth, and Realism in Tamil Cinema". Journal of Linguistic Anthropology. 17: 77–104. doi:10.1525. {{cite journal}}: Check |doi= value (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Velayutham, Selvaraj (2008). Tamil Cinema: The Cultural Politics of India's Other Film Industry. Routledge. ISBN 9780415396806.