Will Diwali light up the box-office?

By Moviebuzz | Monday, 05 November , 2007, 10:51

Kollywood is pinning a lot of hope on Diwali-2007 releases to bring some succour to an industry reeling under a series of flops. The last big hit of the year was Rajnikanth’s Sivaji, which released in June! Since then 32 Tamil films were released small and medium size, but only two of them Kireedam and Malaikottai will break even for the distributors. What went wrong? There was total audiences apathy towards small films mainly debut ventures of industry children, who wanted to transform themselves overnight into a Rajnikanth or a Vijay! These wanna-be superstars spoke punchlines that made you laugh, cracked stale jokes, romanced with two or three glamour girls from Mumbai who could not emote and with their fragile body; they fought an army of baddies single-handedly! The basic thing that these youngsters should learn is that our viewers are not fools; nobody likes something to be thrust down their throats. Instead of being carbon copies of superstars, they should have a style of their own and create their own slot. Please note that Rajnikanth and Vijay did not become stars overnight, it took years of hard work, patience and dedication to fall into the groove. Tamil cinema is superstar driven. There is an opening only for superstar films, as proved by Kireedam during this period. There are just five saleable stars with an opening in Tamil films. Earlier each of them had two to three releases a year, but today some of them have only one release in a year. Says Abirami Ramanathan: “ I strongly believe that superstars should have more number of releases a year to bring in the audiences, and they should have non-festival releases also.” Meanwhile all the focus is on the Diwali 2007 releases. A lot is riding on Vijay’s Azhagiya Tamil Magan, the biggest movie of the festival season. ATM should be able to lift the sagging spirit of Kollywood, along with Vel, the other biggie. The feedback from the trade is that all Diwali films on their face value looks interesting including Polladhavan, Machakaran, both action masala entertainers. Added to that if Kannanmoochi Yenada is liked by the multiplex audiences, it has bigger potential than Mozhi in B&C, as Sathyaraj is a big draw there. On the whole the Kollywood is pinning a lot of hope on Diwali releases, to bail them out of the tight spot that they have got into. If one or two of these films turn out to be hits, then industry will be celebrating by next Monday!