Kollywood hones its success mantra, down to a science

The box office for Tamil cinema in 2015 was akin to a one-day cricket match where, in the last over, the runs come rushing to meet the target. Although December witnessed heavy rains, yet, three films -- Eetti, Bhooloham and Pasanga-2 – succeeded at the box office and enabled the year to end well for the audience, producers, distributors and theatre owners. 

The scenario was good the entire year: 206 films were released during the year, lower than 213 – the number of releases of 2014. Out of these, 37 films managed to recover their cost, and of these, more than 50 per cent of films made a profit for the producers. 

Thus, there was an overall 18 per cent success rate, which is much higher than the box office results of the last five years. The year also saw the industry grow by leaps when the top ‘opening collection’ actors release more films. 

Ajith had two releases (Yennai Arind hal and Vedalam), Kamal Haasan had three releases (Uthama Villain, Papanasam and Thoongavanam), Dhanush had two releases (Maari and Thanga Magan), Jayam Ravi had four releases (Romeo Juliet, Sakalakala vallavan, Thani Oruvan and Bhoola ham) and most of them succeeded at the box office, thus bringing in higher revenues. 

The release of Shankar’s high-budget I raked in huge revenues at the beginning of the year; a bilingual blockbuster Baahubali with Tollywood actors made a big splash due, thanks to the mass appeal it had, which helped the industry grow overall.  This trend clearly shows that if more films by top artistes and directors release in a year, Tamil cinema’s revenues could grow further. While regular commercial films with top actors worked well, so did well-made high-concept films. 

Films, like Thani Oruvan, Kakka Muttai, Rajathanthiram, Indru Netru Nalai, Kirumi and Kallappadam, all worked well, giving hope to newcomers: a film with a unique concept, made well, could find favour with audience. The year set a benchmark for the highest number of releases in the horror genre, with most of them succeeding too.

Kanchana-2 set the bar for the highest collection in this category. Along with it, Maya, Darling, D’Monte Colony, and Straw berry, all did well at the box office. Next year two supernaturally themed films could be releasing. The publicity controls implemented by the Tamil Film Producers’ Council worked well, and today, the publicity budget of any film (including top artistes’ films) cannot be more than Rs.1.5 to Rs 2 crore, which is a big relief to producers. 

The new team of South Indian Artistes Association is working towards bringing in many changes and the industry hopes that it will benefit every stakeholder. A big challenge is a large number of new producers and talents failing to achieve success. 

Out of 206 films, 151 were made within a budget of Rs 4 crore. Of these, only 10 managed to recover their cost or make a profit, which is a big cause for concern. Most of these films were produced by newcomers and when they face such colossal failure, it is unlikely they will return to produce films, which is not good for the industry.