Kollywood on back foot with elections and IPL

Move over Bollywood, if Kollywood were asked to name the biggest blockbuster of last summer, the stock reply would be IPL 2008. The four consecutive wins of the local team Chennai Super Kings, which had Ilayathalapathy Vijay as its brand ambassador in the IPL tournament, created a lot of hype and hoopla due to the live television coverage. Actually, IPL ate into the box-office collections, and all big movies like Kuruvi and Arai En 305il Kadavul received a lukewarm response as prime time evening and night shows clashed with the IPL-T20 telecast.

Says Kalaipuli G Shekharan, a leading distributor and association president, "Last year, the summer box-office, traditionally the best season, was badly hit by the IPL, which was the real box-office superhit." Now, this year too, Kollywood is all set to press the panic button as the summer of 2009 will witness the IPL- Season 2 and Lok Sabha Elections-2009, but out of the country hosting may bring some relief for the cinema owners. Says Ramanarayanan, president of the Tamil Film Producers Council, "Already, the Tamil film industry is in a bad state as there have been no big hits and due to global recession and other factors, the industry is reeling. We had hope for the summer of 2009 as some big and small films were ready for release and they could have revived the industry."

Abirami Ramanathan, a leading exhibitor and spokesperson for the Theatres Association says, "Multiplexes in cities, due to the variety of movies being screened, can cope with the IPL, but it is the single-screen cinemas that will be hit badly, as even the costs of electricity consumed during the evening and night shows cannot be covered."
The movies scheduled for release during this year's April-May period include Vikram's Kanthasamy, Surya's Ayan, Dhanush's Kutty, Jayam Ravi's Peranmai, Vijaykanth's Mariyadai, Mysskin's Nandalala, Cheran's Pokkisham, Selvaraghavan's Aayirathil Oruvan and Ameer's debut film as hero, Yogi.

Due to the IPL, director Vishnuvardhan has brought forward the release of his film Sarvam to March 27. Meanwhile, with the IPL turning out to be last summer's big blockbuster, theatres in the state are looking for a piece of the pie. Ayan, Sarvam and Mariyadai have booked theatres for April 10, while Kanthasamy has confirmed a May 1 release. Suddenly, the Kollywood grapevine is abuzz that several producers are thinking of deferring their releases, as they are just not confident about taking on the double pace attack of the IPL and the elections in the summer heat.

A multiplex owner on condition of anonymity said, "To be frank, the kind of fare dished out by Kollywood in the last one year is not encouraging. So, to minimise losses this year, we are ready to work around show timings and are talking to the IPL board to exhibit the T-20 matches in our cinema halls. If all goes well, at least a dozen Chennai screens will screen IPL-2009 live via DTH, and depending on the opening, more screens can be added." Kollywood, it seems, is definitely going to be on the back foot, as election campaigns and the IPL catch it on a sticky wicket.

A Televisionpoint.com News