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| The
views expressed here are those of the writer sent to Behindwoods
through email. |
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| By
Sharmila Valli Narayanan |
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September 24, 2007 |
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Dear Team Behindwoods,
I have some exciting news to share with your readers.
Sivaji the Boss has just crossed 101 days in Malaysia
and this is a record because the last time a movie
ran for 100 days was Haathi Mere Saathi in 1972!
After that no other movie has ran for so many days
in Malaysia.
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HMS ran in the days when there was no video and the audience
had no choice but to see it in the theater. Plus, Hindi
movies have a wider audience with Malays, Chinese, Punjabis
too contributing, in addition to the Tamils.
What
is amazing about Sivaji's run is that Tamil films are mostly
watched by Tamil speakers who make up less than 10% of the
population! Sivaji has incited some curiosity from non-Tamil
speakers but the flip side is that this film is not supported
by any subtitles at all. If only there were subtitles, the
movie could have reached a much wider audience.
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The last time a film has run this
long was Titanic which ran for over 80 days....
Sad thing about Sivaji's record breaking run in Malaysia
is that this fact has not been publicized in the English
media. The distributors for Sivaji, Pyramid Saimira
should have called for a press conference to announce
this fact to the rest of the country because this
is the first time in over 37 years that a film has
run for over 100 days in Malaysia. But sadly, Tamil
film distributors in Malaysia (and the rest of the
world I should say) are very severely short sighted.
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Once
again I would like to touch on two subjects that need great
urgency from Tamil film distributors: proper marketing and
publicity and most importantly: SUBTITLES!!!! There are
many Tamils in Malaysia and the rest of the world who do
not speak their mother tongue anymore and only speak English
so please include subtitles!
Producers should insist on this -- just take a leaf from
Bollywood. All Hindi films shown in Malaysia and the VCDs
all come with subtitles. If Hindi films are marketed to
non-Hindi speakers why can't Tamil producers and distributors
think along the same line and market Tamil movies to non-Tamil
speakers? It is so sad that only Tamils have seen some recent
wonderful films like Kakka Kakka, Mozhi, Gajani, Paruthiveeran
and Sivaji...these films would have been enjoyed by non-Tamils
as well.
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It's high time that producers and distributors follow
their cousins in Bollywood and market their movies
to non-Tamil speakers as well by including subtitles
and having posters in English as well. They might
have to fork out extra money for this but the effort
is well worth it as it will be increasing their market
and that means more money for their movies as well.
Unfortunately, it is the short sightedness of the
producers and distributors that is making Tamil films
from taking its rightful stage in the world stage.
This goes not only for Tamil films but for other Southern
films as well. It does not take a scientist to figure
out that with proper marketing, publicity and subtitles,
Southern films can also go very far. But as a NRI
living in Malaysia, all that I can conclude is that
Southern films (and Tamil films in particular) are
just happy to go along as they are and that is to
cater to the Tamil speaking audience in Tamil Nadu
and elsewhere.
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Regards,
Sharmila Valli Narayanan
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
sharmval@gmail.com
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