The Tamil as well as Telugu film industry saw a big high this year with some good films hitting the screens though not necessarily becoming hits The year 2007 clearly established that Tamil cinema is poised for a great growth in the coming years. Not only that the year saw more box office successes than the previous year but also due to the fact that along with some block busters, many medium and low budget films made it to the grade at the box office. New ideas in content and stylish narration have become the success mantra. Above all these things, it is the tax concessions doled out by the State Government that helped the raise in production and for many new talents to debut.

Interestingly the first half of the year saw more hits than the second half. The numbers of films released are about 110 straight and about 28 dubbed films. “Thanks to the tax free concessions given by the Tamil Nadu Government for films with Tamil titles and to the new multiplex culture, there are more hits than in the previous years,” says film historian ‘Film News’ P.G. Anandan. “The tax free system also brought down the ticket rates with Rs. 40 at the high. The Government has also increased the cash subsidy from Rs. Two and half lakhs to Rs. Five lakhs, besides the Rs. 6 lakhs for ten films and Rs. 10 lakhs for twenty films selected from among the low budgeted ones. Films like Mozhi and Chennai - 600 028 ran well thanks to the multiplexes. Another emerging trend is that today apart from the young Tamil audience, it is cine fans from other languages that are patronizing Tamil cinema. At every multiplex in the metros running Tamil films, though the tickets are priced at Rs. 120, one can find houseful shows thanks to the 50 per cent audiences from Hindi, Telugu or other languages.”

The year also saw the 884 day celebration of Chandramukhi and 312 days run of Paruthiveeran, 200 day run of Pokkiri and Sivaji (all released in 2007) with all the films still running. About 16 films celebrated 100 day run including a few of last year releases like E, Thalaimagan, Varalaru, Lee , Vallavan, Veyil, Thiruvilayadal Arambham. This year till now Mozhi, Chennai-600 028, Unnalae Unnalae, Periyar, Muni, Marudhamalai, Deepavali , Veerasamy and Karuppusamy Guthagaidharar were among them. Vel is a declared hit. The successful films include Polladhavan and Kannamoochi Enada. Thankar Bachan made two films; Pallikoodam and Onbathu Rubai Notu were made out of his popular novels. Vasantha Balan’s Veyil made it to the Cannes festival.

Corporates entity helped boost Tamil cinema to a great extent. The pioneer in this, Pyramid Saimira group has acquired about 250 theatres in Tamil Nadu alone and besides distributing is also producing films in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Hindi and English.

Interestingly an old Tamil black and white film was converted into colour. “S.S. Vasan liked it so much he bought the rights of the Hindi film, Anarkali and dubbed it as Akbar and released during the Fifties. Now the film’s sound negative is lost but the picture negative is intact. Jabbar acquired the rights and restored the sound, recorded the same songs fresh with P. Susheela and Chitra and converted into colour. He gave a new title Aadal Arasi Anarkali and got it censored again. The film was premiered in Kalaignar TV recently, with excellent result before its theatrical release,” informs Anandan.

The first remake edition from a previous Tamil hit, Naan Avanillai was also a big hit paving way for some more. Billa released on December 14 is one such starring Ajith and remade from Rajnikanth’s 1979 blockbuster with the same title. Directed by Vishnuvardhan the film opened to fantastic collections. But the audience verdict is that while the original has soul the remake has more style than soul. However the costliest production that Tamil cinema ever witnessed was Rajni starrer, Sivaji produced by AVM Productions. Directed by Shankar the film mesmerized the audience for its sheer sheen and gloss and Rajnikanth.

Among the heroes, Sathyaraj has acted in more number of films, four to be precise. From slapstick comedy, he has evolved into a serious actor with Periyar and Onbathu Rubai Notu. The heroines busy with multi language offers are just restricted to one or two films. Asin made her entry into Bollywood with the remake version of Gajini. Among the music directors Yuvan Shankar Raja with 11 pictures tops the list.

As the year is closing down, now all eyes are on Kamal Haasan’s Dasavatharam slated for release during the first quarter of 2008. If Sivaji is released with 800 prints world over, Dasavatharam is expected to break its record with a thousand prints release. Tamil cinema is indeed poised for great growth.