This has been a question to many of us, at least to me, for a long time. Why aren't these highly paid actors/directors of Kodambakkam, don't invest their money back in Kollywood. Except Kamalhassan who has a string of failures and success with his own money, not many popular celebrities invest in Tamil cinema. Let's take at least the top two of them, whom I think should be doing it. Obviously, it's their money and in a capitalistic economy, we have no say on who wants to invest and who wants to sit on their money.
Having seen this dude, whose factory is just churning out movies, actors and directors, I've a long time crib that we haven't got a Ram Gopal Varma for Tamil. Thats one primary reason why I never liked RGV. I felt the pressure of him taking over Bollywood to new extremes that Tamil cinema couldn't even dream of. Kollywood has some of the best of the best in Indian Cinema. From Mani Ratnam to Kamalhassan to Illayaraja to Rahman to P C Sreeram, there are at least a hundred very talented cinema people. But is it just because bollywood has a bigger market than Tamil movies, we are lacking behind in many technical/business aspects of cinema. I don't think so. I think we have a bunch of people who are purely selfish and just too timid to invest back from where they have earned.
Either we should be going in for the studio system like in Hollywood or create an company like Factory to manufactures movies like Chinese goods. We don't have both. We only keep shouting like what is said in the previous para, From Mani Ratnam to Kamalhassan to Illayaraja to Rahman to P C Sreeram, there are at least a hundred very talented cinema people. Case in point, 2005 sucks for Tamil cinema. Kollywood could be feared as an endangered species if this trend continues. So what do we do ? Hire a bunch of people who know cinema selling. Not the MBA types. (Especially now, we don't believe many MBA schools !!) Someone multi-skilled like KB's assosiate Ananthu would do. Actually we need Ananthus in dozens. Rope at least two best people in the cinema industry. Even one could do for that matter. Float a production company called Pattarai( the Tamil word for factory/workshop) or Chennai Kalaignargal(Artists of Chennai). Get Ambani or Tata to finance the production house. Ram Gopal Varma has tied up with Ad-labs/Reliance for 100 crores. Get at least 50 crores. Kick start a small budget but high tech picture. The best one we have seen in this category is Kakkha Kakkha. Get Goutham Menon to direct a movie on the first copy basis. He must be surely stringent in spending and would finish a Kakkha Kakkha Part 3(Part 2 is Vettayadu Villayadu). Give some rest to Harris Jeyaraj. Request ARR to tune in the music. Get the film rolling. Make sure the title song is the hot selling tune in the market. The film could be a sure shot hit. Now call Balaji Shakthivel, Murugadoss and Dharani. Hypnotize them to forget the costly dudes like Vijay, Vikram, Surya. Kamal and ofcourse Super Star(we don't have 20 crores on hand as of yet). Hand over 2 crores to each of them alongwith a production assistant. Tell them they can play with it and if they don't come back with a good movie, no producer would book them for the next 5 years. Now call KS Ravikumar. Get him the Chimbu, Dhanush and Sidharth's call sheet. Give him 50 lakhs. He would come back in 15 days with a sure shot success flick. Don't release it. Wait for Dharani's movie to be ready. Now release Dharani and KS Ravikumar's on consecutive fridays. Go on like this with the rest of them. After you are done with one round, try to locate independent talents. For more consultancy, I can fly down to Kodambakkam, for a meager $100 a day.
I am sure that was sucking paragraph of mere fiction. We could do that or realistically do something constructive. Make Mani Ratnam, Kamal Hassan and Rajinikanth (optional Shankar) produce 3 movies a year for the next 3 years.
Mani Ratnam, who owns and runs Madras Talkies, has been making movies ever since he moved out of GV camp. After directing Roja, for K Balachander's Kavithaalaya Productions, all his flicks were partly/fully produced by him. With the banner of Aalayam and Madras Talkies, Mani Ratnam chooses to make films that interests him. With an external producer, there would be pressures and compromises needs to be made on various levels, from story to even shoot locations. While he makes, one film a a year, I think he should be using Madras Talkies as a base to produce good movies that would sell and at the same time heighten the level of Tamil cinema. I don't see any fun in making one movie in two years and nothing in-between. There seems to be a huge gap between his consecutive flicks and he should be encouraging new talents and project them through his popular banner. While he has produced few films including Dhasarathan, Naerukku Naer and Dum Dum Dum, gimme more Mani Saar !!
Rajinikanth, the eternal superstar of Tamil cinema, is rumored to be paid in crores of rupees, which Indian cinema wouldn't have dreamt, until now. After Valli, Rajini Arts, his production house hasn't produced a movie yet. Why not now ?
Agreed, Kamal Hassan has been dumping his money back in Tamil cinema. Raj Kamal's latest Nala Damayanthi failed. But why should he stop there ? Why not sure shot, tight budgeted flicks with the help of upcoming directors like Cheran, Susi Ganesan or even the talented Selva Raghavan. With Kamal Hassan as the producer imagine a Selva Raghvan flick. Won't that be a dream date with kollywood ?
I should get some sleep. I'm dangerously blog dreaming !!
It's becoming colder in Seattle. Its raining, windy and pleasantly cold. The kind of iira nilam that one would love to live. They have been telling me that as winter coses it, you would be terrible out of mood, blame it on the absence of sun. But for me it's becoming the other way. I do enjoy the sun but the cold weather combined with semi-frequent coming of the rains. This evening it was so windy with rain drizzles that I had my spirits uplifted. A different kind of feeling, that for a moment, makes you forget projects, go-lives, status reports, MOMs and what not.
