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REVOLUTION: COURTESY AJITH AND SILAMBARASAN! |
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Which are the two biggest film industries
in the country at the moment? No doubt,
Bollywood and Kollywood! There is not
much separating the industries at this
point of time, except a few differences
in opinion! But, if there is one aspect
of cinema where Bollywood has grown while
Kollywood has remained inert is that of
multistarrers. Most big film industries
in the world use multistarrers as sure
shot ways to make hits and spin money.
Multistarrers are not immune to the general
requirements of film making. A multistarrer
without a good storyline will not work.
But, a well made multistarrer always stands
to gain more success than a solo starrer.
Let’s face the facts. In spite of
the fact that many big stars have given
flops over the years, we still love to
see our stars on screen. The huge opening
that a big star’s film gets, irrespective
of the performance of his/her last few
releases is proof of this fact. So, having
more than one big star in a film makes
perfect business sense.
Hollywood has always been awake to this
fact. There has been a regular flow of
multistarrers from the industry for years
now. The Ocean series (eleven and twelve)
was perhaps the Hollywood film which featured
the highest number of stars. Bollywood
too has been active in producing multi
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which have produced some of their biggest successes
in recent years. The concept however started even
during the heydays of Amitabh Bachchan who has featured
in quite a few multi-starrer ventures with stars like
Shashi Kapoor, Dharmendra etc. In fact, some of the
biggest hits of the Big B’s career were multistarrers
like Deewar, Sholay, Amar Akbar Anthony etc. In recent
years, almost all top stars of Bollywood have featured
in multistarrers; SRK (Kal Ho Na Ho, Kabhi Khushi
Kabhi Gam) Aamir Khan (Dil Chahtha Hai, Rang De Basanti,
Three Idiots), Salman Khan (Yuvraj, No Entry, Partner)
and Akshay Kumar who has featured in numerous multistarrers.
The one thing to note here is that almost all these
films, bar a few, were huge hits.
Kollywood too had a golden period of multistarrers
which was at its peak when Kamal and Rajnikanth were
still doing films together. In those days, having
the two of them in a movie guaranteed a hit and that
advantage had been well used by the industry. Nowadays,
a multistarrer from Kollywood is even rarer than the
general elections. The last time we had a film that
could be rightfully called a multistarrer was in 2003;
Pithamagan and before that the only film that one
can recall is Friends. That is to say that in the
past decade, only two multistarrers has rolled out
of Kollywood. And, we know that both of them were
solid hits and yet there has been great paucity and
hesitancy towards making multistarrers in the industry.
It is difficult to understand the reason behind this
inertia. Is it the stars who do not want to feature
opposite each other fearing that their role might
appear secondary to the other or that their image
might take a beating? Or is it the directors who shy
away from handling two huge stars at the same time
fearing that there will be ego clashes and demands
for more importance in the script? Or, are the producers
wary of the huge budget that such a film might require?
Or is it the fact that our stars are just too busy
making their own films that dates just cannot be organized
for a multistarrer?
Enough of speculation! We have reason to believe that
multistarrers might be back soon in Kollywood. The
recent news that Ajith will be featuring in a Venkat
Prabhu project created a lot of curiosity. One reason
for this was that Ajith was first supposed to be doing
a project with Gautham Menon. Second and more important
is the fact that there are strong rumors about the
film being a multistarrer which might feature up to
4 lead actors. While there has been no official conformation
yet, news is that some of the regular members of the
Venkat Prabhu team might be part of the movie. But,
the major casting coup comes in the form of Telugu
superstar Nagarjuna who will be part of the film,
one hears. His presence would automatically make this
film a candidate for a bilingual, or at least for
a dubbed release in Telugu, which means better chances
of making money and breaking even; makes good business
sense. Similar news is being heard about Silambarasan
who might feature in a bilingual which will have Telugu
youth icon Allu Arjun along side him. Ramesh (Jithan
fame) will be producing the flick.
If these films do good business, then other big stars
too will be inclined or forced by industrial pressures
to nod to multistarrers which could spark off a revolution
of sorts in Kollywood. More stars, more excitement,
more business, bigger cinema!
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