Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Film stars and fasting

Early this month, almost all the top stars of the Tamil film industry participated in a Unnavrutham (fast) that was held at the Nadigar Sangam to Ilayathalapathy Vijay (TOI Photo)
protest the killing of innocent Tamils in the war between the Sri Lankan Army and the Tamil rebels in the eastern part of the island nation.

The big stars of the industry — Rajinikanth, Kamal Haasan, Vijaykanth, Vijay, Vikram, Ajit, Surya, Sarath Kumar, Nayanthara, Trisha and almost all who have a box-office pull, made it to the fast.

No other issue has united the industry and brought together all stars under one roof like this one has. They also made lavish donations to the Sri Lankan relief fund. Rajinikanth topped the list with a contribution of Rs 10 lakhs.

A few days later, Kamal Haasan did not celebrate his birthday as he was hurt by the happenings in the neighbouring island. And last Sunday, Ilayathalapathy Vijay, along with thousands of his fans, went on a fast to protest the happenings in Sri Lanka.

Not to be left behind, the next day, Surya joined hands with techies to form a human chain in front of Tidel Park to express solidarity with the Lankan Tamils.

Why is Kollywood on the boil regarding the Sri Lankan Tamil issue? Why are the stars falling over each other in their one-upmanship games to show their concern for an issue that was not on their agenda till recently?

The answer is simple — the overseas Tamil box-office is controlled by the Sri Lankan Tamils. From a Rs 1 crore market (for Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan films) in 2000, it has burgeoned to a Rs 10 - 12 crore market for the superstars, mainly due to Sri Lankan Tamils and new markets. Today, overseas or what Kollywood calls the FMS Territory, is the most lucrative of the lot as far as film rights in Tamil are concerned.

London-based K Karunamoorthy of Ayngaran International, a Sri Lankan Tamil and the market leaders in distributing Tamil films abroad, is the man who pioneered and made the overseas market boom.
His Ayngaran International, set up in 1989, was largely responsible for creating new markets for Tamil films in European countries, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, where Sri Lankan immigrants of Tamil origin are settled.

Today, Ayngaran is the leading production house in Kollywood, and most big-budget movies are funded by them. Says Karunamoorthy, “The overseas market was booming before the current economic slowdown. The total box-office gross collection of Tamil cinema is today one-fourth of Bollywood outside India and growing every year, and is basically star-driven.”

Says veteran Madurai-based distributor Thangavelu, “During MGR days, NSC (North and South Arcot, Chengalpet), TT (Tiruchi and Thanjavur) and Madurai were the most important territories, but in the late 90s, after Rajinikanth and Kamal became superstars, the overseas market became bigger, thanks to the large number of Sri Lankan immigrants. Today, the next superstar in Tamil cinema, whether it is Vijay or Ajit, will be determined by what the trade calls the overseas vote bank.”

Vijay, with his typical Dravidian looks, mass movies and his concern for the Sri Lankan Tamils is fast emerging as the fastest rising superstar in the overseas market.

Vijay’s movies have already captured the markets in UK, Europe, Canada and Australia and are making deep inroads into the traditional old settlement areas like Malaysia and Singapore.

It is not difficult to see why this cause is particularly important to Kollywood actors

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