BEHINDWOODS COLUMN

100 crore Fad:

 

Tamil Cinema has reached its 98th year and has grown from heaps to mountains. If we take for example the first Tamil feature film, Keechaka Vadham which released in 1916, one would have no idea about the cast, director or even how many days the movie actually ran. But now audience are aware of every single unnoticeable thing. From cast, crew to even the post-release response it is all an open book. Thanks to social media and internet sources, even a person who sits in a remote place gets to know what the movie's box-office income is, in less than a week.

Bollywood films have been constant players in the 100 crores domestic net club . The success of a Bollywood film today is defined specifically by the kind of business it makes with the benchmarks being the coveted 100 crores domestic net and 200 crores domestic net marks. Many biggies, starting from Ghajini to the recent Bang Bang and Happy New Year have breached these marks effortlessly over the past few years. Dhoom 3 sits at the top with more than 280 crores net from India alone.

 

Visibility in Tamil Cinema:

 

Hitting the 100 crores worldwide gross mark is a brand new concept in Kollywood compared to Bollywood. There are very few directors who have got it bang on target with A.R.Murugadoss and Shankar reportedly among a few of the directors who have touched this space with their films. A famous tagline from Superstar Rajinikanth's "Late ah vandalum latest ah varuven" fits the bill perfectly for Tamil Cinema here.

Enthiran took the Indian cinema industry by a storm with simultaneous releases in Tamil, Telugu and Hindi, and the worldwide gross for the movie from the 3 versions, zoomed way way past the existing Tamil benchmarks and compared well with big Hindi movies as well. This is one sureshot entry to the so-called 100 crores worldwide gross club in Tamil cinema.

The craze started exactly at that time. Before Enthiran, Rajini's Sivaji also minted big money at the worldwide box-office. After Enthiran, Vijay's Thuppakki also reportedly joined the elusive worldwide 100 crores gross club, according to the producer of the movie.

Mankatha, Arrambam, Vishwaroopam and Singam 2 also earned the big bucks worldwide due to good reviews, favourable release times and wide releases. The latest buzz about the recent release Kaththi is that, in just 12 days the movie has hit 100 crores in worldwide gross collections. The movie had a massive festival opening for Diwali and is getting raving reviews. A.R Murugadoss is not new to this concept as he has already seen similar 'century' successes with his previous Hindi movies like Ghajini and Holiday.

 

Social Media's power:

 

Social Media does play a major role in promotions of a movie. Movies like Lingaa, Yennai Arindhaal, 'I' and Kaththi have an edge due to the social media. Twitter as a platform for releasing teasers and posters have now come in trend. The plus point being the time and reach of the post or tweet.Within just one day, Lingaa's teaser reached over 1 million views. Strategizing a movie based on promotions is also a success aspect to hit the 100 crore club. With hashtags and tweets going around rapidly, it has now become a fad to tweet and put a facebook post stating the box-office figures.

It is no surprise that celebrities have also become open to the public with their tweets. A.R Murugadoss himself tweeted about the grand worldwide gross of Kaththi and started trending #Kaththihitsfastest100cr!. In less than a day, the hashtag started trending and was on the top of the pile for an extended time.

 

Upcoming expectations:

 

If we skim through the upcoming releases, we will know that we have some biggies coming up. Lingaa, 'I', Yennai Arindhaal and Uttama Villain will definitely have a grand opening and it is expected by the trade analysts that they have all the chances to hit the 100 crores worldwide gross mark if reviews are good as well.

With a lot of expectations for the upcoming releases, it is going to be a treat not only to the team of the movie, but also to ardent fans. Here's to more 100 crore bonanzas in Tamil Cinema!!