Tamil cinema
Posted on: April 27, 2011
Tamil cinema
| BY. Aswinkarthik |
| South Asian cinema |
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Tamil cinema (Tamil: தமிழ் சினிமா) is the Tamil language film-making industry, based in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. It is based in the Kodambakkam area of Chennai, where Tamil language feature films are produced, which has led to a reference to the district and industry as Kollywood (Tamil: கோலிவுட் kōlivūṭ), a portmanteau of the words Kodambakkam and Hollywood. Tamil cinema is known for being India’s second largest film industry in terms of revenue and worldwide distribution[1][2] with its main audiences being people of the four southern Indian states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andra Pradesh, and Karnataka.
Silent movies were produced in Chennai since 1916 and the era of talkies dawned in 1931 with the film Kalidas. By the end of the 1930s, the State of Madras legislature passed the Entertainment Tax Act 1939. Tamil Nadu cinema has had a profound effect on the film making industries of India, with Chennai becoming a hub for the film-making industries of other languages, including Telugu cinema, Malayalam cinema, Kannada cinema, Hindi cinema, Sinhalese cinema and Sri Lankan Tamil cinema in the 1900s, and today includes post-production services for Bollywood.[3] Tamil–language films are further made in other countries. Today, Tamil films are distributed to various overseas theatres in Asia and North America, including Japan and South Korea; as well as Southern Africa, Western Europe, and other significant Tamil diaspora regions.
Film studios are bound by legislation such as the Cinematography Film Rules 1948, Cinematography Act 1952 and Copyright Act 1957, et al.
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Etymology
The term ‘Kollywood’ has evolved from the two words ‘Kodambakkam’ and ‘Hollywood’ which is the name often used for American film industry. But the reason Kollywood is different from Hollywood is that Hollywood is actually a physical place which exists in the USA after which the film Industry was named.
The term Kollywood dates back to the 1950-80’s when the term began to be widely used for describing Tamil cinema, the age when the term Bollywood was also starting to be used widely. It is an unknown fact of who first used this word even though many sources assign the credit of using the word to many places. But Kollywood was inspired only after Hindi Cinema started using the word Bollywood. The word ‘Kollywood’ later was being used by many people to depict the Tamil Film Industry which became India’s second largest film Industry generating enormous amounts of revenue.
History
A scene from the Tamil movie Chandralekha released in 1948.
A visiting European exhibitor first screened (date unknown) a selection of silent short films at the Victoria Public Hall in Madras. The films all featured non-fictional subjects; they were mostly photographed records of day-to-day events..
Early exhibitors
In Madras (now known as Chennai), the Electric Theatre was established for the screening of silent films. It was a favourite haunt of the British community in Madras. The theatre was shut down after a few years. This building is now part of a post office complex on Anna Salai (Mount Road). The Lyric Theatre was also built in the Mount Road area. This venue boasted a variety of events, including plays in English, Western classical music concerts, and ballroom dances. Silent films were also screened as an additional attraction. Samikannu Vincent, an employee of the South Indian Railways in Trichy, purchased a film projector and silent films from the Frenchman Du Pont and set up a business as film exhibitor. He erected tents for screening films. His tent cinema became popular and he travelled all over the state with his mobile unit. In later years, he produced talkies and also built a cinema in Coimbatore.
To celebrate the event of King George V’s visit in 1909, a grand exhibition was organised in Madras. Its major attraction was the screening of short films accompanied by sound. A British company imported a Crone megaphone, made up of a film projector to which a gramophone with a disc containing prerecorded sound was linked, and both were run in unison, producing picture and sound simultaneously. However, there was no synched dialogue. Raghupathy Venkiah Naidu, a successful photographer, took over the equipment after the exhibition and set up a tent cinema near the Madras High Court. R. Venkiah, flush with funds, built in 1912 a permanent cinema in the Mount Road area named Gaiety Theatre. It was the first in Madras to screen films on a full-time basis. This theatre is still functioning, although under different ownership.
In tent cinemas, there were usually three classes of tickets: the floor, bench and, chair. The floor-ticket purchaser sat on sand to watch the movie, but he enjoyed certain advantages that other patrons did not. He could sit as he pleased, or he could turn over and take a short nap when the narrative was particularly dull and roll back again when the action was again to his liking—luxuries in which the upper class could never indulge.
Impacts for Tamil Cinema
The Tamil Cinema has been impacted by many factors due to which it has become the second largest film industry of India. The main impacts of the early cinema were the cultural influences of the country. Tamil was a language which was nearly as ancient as Sanskrit and many plays and stories which were written using rich Sanskrit present in the ages as early as the Cholas. They were highly stylized and nature of the spectacle was one which could attract the people. Along with this, music and dance were one of the main entertainment sources.
The Bharata Natyam dance was the oldest dance of India and so impacted the cultural heritage to a very great extent. The word Natyam was derived from the Sanskrit word Nrit, meaning to Dance. Usually the kings sitting in the court were seen admiring dancers, and enjoying the music and dance along with the courtiers. These kind of themes were commonly found in the movies. The theory of rasa dating back to ancient Sanskrit drama is believed to be one of the most fundamental features that differentiate Indian cinema.
Along with the music and dance of ancient India, the novels and books written by many authors were used for making the movies and sometimes, the entire story was adopted from the book alone and made into films. The ancient Indian epics of Mahabharata and Ramayana which have exerted a profound influence on the thought and imagination of popular Indian cinema, particularly in its narratives. Examples of this influence include the techniques of a side story, back-story and story within a story. Indian popular films often have plots which branch off into sub-plots which were common in the early Tamil cinema.[4]
The American film Industry, commonly known as Hollywood, where musicals were popular from the 1920s to the 1950s, though Indian filmmakers departed from their Hollywood counterparts in several ways. “For example, the Hollywood musicals had as their plot the world of entertainment itself. Indian filmmakers, while enhancing the elements of fantasy so pervasive in Indian popular films, used song and music as a natural mode of articulation in a given situation in their films. There is a strong Indian tradition of narrating mythology, history, fairy stories and so on through song and dance.” In addition, “whereas Hollywood filmmakers strove to conceal the constructed nature of their work so that the realistic narrative was wholly dominant, Indian filmmakers made no attempt to conceal the fact that what was shown on the screen was a creation, an illusion, a fiction. However, they demonstrated how this creation intersected with people’s day to day lives in complex and interesting ways. The basics of film making were adopted from the Hollywood industry and Indian cinema could not be imagined without the American Cinema.[5]
Film studios
AVM studios in Chennai
The year 1916 marked the birth of Tamil cinema with the first Madras production and South Indian film release Keechaka Vaadham (The Destruction of Keechaka).[6] During the 1920s, silent Tamil-language movies were shot at makeshift locations in and around Chennai, and for technical processing, they were sent to Pune or Calcutta. Later some movies featuring M. K. Thyagaraja Bhagavathar were shot in Pune and Calcutta. In the 1930s AVM set up its makeshift studio in the town of Karaikudi, and during the same decade, full-fledged Movie studios were built in Salem (Modern Theatres Studio) and Coimbatore (Central Studios, Neptune, and Pakshiraja). By the mid 1940s, Chennai became the hub of Studio activity with two more movie Studios built in Chennai, Vijaya Vauhini Studios and Gemini Studios. Later, AVM Studios shifted its operations to Chennai. Thus, with the undivided Madras Presidency being the Capital to most of South India, Chennai became the center for Tamil- and Telugu-language movies. Also, most of the pre-independence era drama and stage actors joined the movie industry from the 1940s, and Chennai became the hub for South Indian–language film production and Sri Lankan cinema before independence.
Film making process
Once the producer has made the necessary arrangements for the finance of the movie, the production can start. The extras and the dance troupes are generally paid on a daily basis. The cameramen, technicians and other members of the film crew operate on contractual basis. The star cast of the movie generally accepts a staggered payment schedule basis spread over the course of the completion of the movie.[7]
After the production is complete, which might also include outstation shooting, the film is edited and dubbed. Editing and dubbing require specialized skills and equipment which are available on a restricted scale in India. After the film is edited and dubbed, it is submitted to the Central Board of Film Certifications (CBFC) for certification. The members of the CBFC, after a series of private screenings, may suggest alterations in the film. Upon such alterations being carried out, the film is ready for release.
The timing of the release of a film is normally determined after considering factors such as festivals, examinations, cricket matches, etc. The release of a film is also generally timed to avoid confrontation with any other film from a rival banner.
Cast and Crew
The Tamil film industry employs a variety of people for portraying different characters and roles. The Tamil cast and crew are a mixture from all over India. Tamil Cinema has attracted major actors and actresses along with other supporting actors who play a major role in films, who become hopeful of getting a break. Models and beauty contestants, television actors, theatre actors and even common people come to the industry to gain popularity and for showering entertainment to the people. There have been large number of films from the Tamil Cinema which have been shot in a variety of different places outside India. So, different people from other countries are employed to act in the films where most of them till date have been hits.
Many foreign actors who mostly act for supporting roles are successful in the industry, as it offers a wide range of roles from villains to fathers. The roles are made in such a way that it satisfies the person who plays it and it is appreciated by the people who play a major role in judgement of the film. There have been many blockbusters compared to failures in this industry where foreign artists are portrayed.
The status or position of a performer acknowledged to be a star, commonly referred to as Stardom is a bit volatile, which makes the actor or actress to choose the scripts carefully, failing which their status in the industry rapidly rises and falls.
Multi-starrer films, which are films having more than one major hero, are not very common in Tamil Cinema though however two major stars Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan have acted in quite a lot of films in their early careers. The Vijay-Suriya starrer films, Nerukku Ner and Friends were well received and appreciated by the people. Between the period of 2005 and 2010, lots of multi-starrer films were coming from different directors and most of them were successful. Often, extreme hard work is put by the crew members who are one of the major reasons for the film’s success.
The Tamil industry’s crew and the relatives of film-industry insiders have an edge in getting coveted roles in films or being part of a film’s crew. Industry connections are no guarantee of a long career: competition is fierce and if film industry scions do not succeed at the box office, their careers will falter.
Sound
[8] Sound for Tamil films is done in locations and rarely done in studios. Sync Sound is not present in a major part in the industry. If it is done so, the actors simultaneously speak their dialogues along with the video on the screen. This process is called Automated Dialogue Replacement. Sound effects are added later to enhance the quality of music. This creates several problems, since the sound in these films usually occurs a frame or two earlier or later than the mouth movements or gestures. The actors have to act twice: once on-location, once in the studio—and the emotional level on set is often very difficult to recreate. Commercial Indian films are known for their lack of ambient sound, so there is a silence underlying everything instead of the background sound and noises usually employed in films to create aurally perceivable depth and environment.
In the times of silent movies, it is the ‘talkies’ who gave their voice. Standing by the side of the screen they used to tell the story, the conversations and the background of the story. This was how the global trend was and the Tamil films just followed that trend. In 1926, Warner Brothers Studio of Hollywood introduced the Vitaphone system. In this method, large discs were recorded with the audio and played to synchronise with the conversations in the film. During the shooting of the film, both conversations and music were recorded with the help of the mike. The first Tamil film ‘Kalidas’ adopted this system. In 1931, the Vitaphone method was given up. In that year,LD Forrest, an American, invented ‘Movietone,’ a method of recording the audio directly on the film. The next improvement on ‘Movietone’ was DAT technology.
This technology enabled fine recording of audio in eight tracks. Then DAT gave way to 2DAT. There are 16 tracks in 2DAT. This technology helped recording of fine audio for the movies. Soon movies started using Computerised Unlimited Tracks technology. This raised the refinement in audio recording to the ultimate. Along with it, the quality of audio has attained its high point.
From being mono, the sound quality has been raised through Dolby and DTS. The base frequency is what makes the difference between mono and Dolby and DTS. In the DTS sound system, three CDs are recorded with the audio and are made to run with the film. The projector will read the code in the CD and the system will start working. The first film to have used the Dolby system was Kamal Hassan’s ‘Kurudhipunal’. Similarly the first Indian film to have adopted DTS system was Abavanan’s ‘Karuppu Roja’. These are just two examples to show the advancements and accomplishments of Tamil films in Indian cinema. After DTS, SBBS is a high tech advancement which within a few years of being introduced in Hollywood, found its way into Tamil cinema too.
In the invention of L D Forrest, Movietone helped record the sound on the edge of the film. In the recently introduced Super 35 mm technology, sound is recorded on the image itself. This way, not only the image will have super clarity, but the sound too would be crystal clear. Selvaraghavan’s ‘Pudupettai’ and Kamal’s ‘Vettaiyadu Vilayadu’ adopted this Super 35mm technology. AR Rahman does the recording in his own studio for his Hollywood film assignments. There are quite a few such studios in Tamilnadu. The answer to a question if the Tamil cinema stories are anyway comparable to the international films will be forthcoming very hesitantly. But in sound technology, Tamil films are matching the global trend.
Film Music
Tamil Cinema is well known for its talented composers. Ilaiyaraaja and A. R. Rahman are music directors from the Chennai film industry and have an international following.[9][10] AR Rahman has won two academy awards for his composition in Slumdog Millionaire. Other prominent Tamil film score and soundtrack composers in the industry include Harris Jayaraj, Yuvan Shankar Raja,Vijay Antony,Deva, Karthik Raja, Vidyasagar ,G. V. Prakash Kumar and Shankar Mahadevan who is part of the band commonly called Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy who composes for Bollywood as well. Several international composers have used Chennai’s studios to record music for projects, as have composers from other film industries. S. Rajeswara Rao was based in Chennai from the 1940s. K. V. Mahadevan was an outstanding music director who won two national film awards, one in 1968 and another in 1980. During the 1950s and the 60s film composer M. S. Viswanathan was popular, with interest in Tamil film songs being re-ignited with the audio revolution.[11] The film music of Tamil Nadu is widely known for its innovation and eclecticism. Scores may showcase blends of Carnatic, Western and other instruments, with a range of melodic and rhythmic patterns. Orchestral themes and minimalist songs often feature. Recent trends show the prevalence of synthesizers and other electronic instruments.
Song and Dance
Dance plays a major role in Tamil Cinema as it is usually accompanied by music and forms a major part of a film. Songs are generally pre-recorded by professional playback singers, with the actors then lip synching the words to the song on-screen, often while dancing. Some actors in the last thirty years have sung one or more songs themselves; for a list, see Singing actors and actresses in Indian cinema. Playback singers are prominently featured in the opening credits and have their own fans who will go to an otherwise lackluster movie just to hear their favorites. The composers of film music, known as music directors, are also well-known. Their songs can make or break a film and usually do. Remixing of film songs with modern beats and rhythms is a common occurrence today, and producers may even release remixed versions of some of their films’ songs along with the films’ regular soundtrack albums.
The base for modern Tamil film dancing has been the old style of Bharata natyam. The dancing in films, especially older ones, is primarily modelled on Indian dance. In modern films, Indian dance elements often blend with Western dance styles, though it is usual to see Western pop and pure classical dance numbers side by side in the same film. The hero or heroine will often perform with a troupe of supporting dancers. Many song-and-dance routines in Indian films feature unrealistically instantaneous shifts of location or changes of costume between verses of a song. If the hero and heroine dance and sing a duet, it is often staged in beautiful natural surroundings or architecturally grand settings. This staging is referred to as a “picturisation”.
Songs typically comment on the action taking place in the movie, in several ways. Sometimes, a song is worked into the plot, so that a character has a reason to sing. Other times, a song is an externalisation of a character’s thoughts, or presages an event that has not occurred yet in the plot of the movie. In this case, the event is often two characters falling in love. The songs are also often referred to as a “dream sequence”, and anything can happen that would not normally happen in the real world. Usually romantic dances are shot in foreign countries, mostly USA and Europe for a few high budget films. A physically attractive female character (the “item girl”), often completely unrelated to the main cast and plot of the film, performs a catchy song and dance number in the film which is quite common on modern Tamil Cinema. The most famous dancers today are Prabhu Deva and Vijay who are very popular for their tireless dancing.
The most famous style of dancing is Dappan koothu. Unlike classical Indian dances such as bharata natyam, koothu is relatively informal: it has no structured, repeated steps and dancers do not learn through formal dance classes. It shares its emphasis on percussion with older folk dances of Tamil Nadu, such as kummi and kolattam. A percussion instrument called the Tharai thappattai drum, resembling a tambourine without the jingles, is often used for Dappaankuthu. Unlike normal tambourines, this requires a wooden to play. The urumee drum is also often used. A customised trumpet is also sometimes employed. The rhythm of the Dappan koothu (the “Tharai Thappattai” sound) is often signified by a mix of beat patterns layered and flowing into one another. Other percussion instruments may be employed in Dappan koothu. Loud clapping and whistling by spectators often accompanies the Dappaankuthu dance. Spectators are also known to set off firecrackers called locally as “Pattaasu” on the ground during the performance.
Politics
C. N Annadurai
Tamil cinema has played a vital role in Dravidian politics in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Films have been influential in Indian politics since the days of the British Raj, when movies were used for anti-British propaganda. Nevertheless, the leaders of the Indian National Congress viewed movie media with contempt. It was the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), a Dravidian party, that made extensive use of this media for propaganda purposes. Adversaries of Dravidian parties despised the use of films and screen popularity for political gain, and Congress leaders like K. Kamaraj, the chief minister of Tamil Nadu questioned the possibility of movie stars forming governments.
C.N. Annadurai, the first Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu from a Dravidian party, was the forerunner in introducing Dravidian ideologies into movie scripts. Of the movies made by Dravidian politicians Parasakthi(1952) starring Sivaji Ganesan making it his debut movie was a turning point, as it was a huge box office hit and made radical comments against the social hierarchy set by the caste system and glorified the Dravidian movement. M. Karunanidhi, who currently is serving a fifth term as Chief Minister, scripted the screen play for Parasakthi, in which Sivaji Ganesan and S.S. Rajendran, two founding members of the DMK, made their screen debuts.
Movies produced by the DMK Party received severe censorship from the then ruling Congress government. According to Murasoli Maran, a former Union Minister from DMK, the censors would remove parts of the movies, so that the coherence of the screen play was lost, making the movies a box office failure. The script writers used equivocating phrases and words to evade the censorship. Five out of seven chief ministers from Dravidian parties were actively involved in Tamil cinema either as writers or as actors. M. G. Ramachandran was the most successful. He launched his own Dravidian party after personal differences with the leaders of DMK, and rose to power as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu mostly with the help of his movie fans and low level cadres. The legacy of politics in Tamil filmdom still continues, though less prominently than in the 1950s to 1970s.
Tamil cinema, like its counterparts in other languages in India, is known as a melodramatic entertainment form plotted around twists of fate set in exaggerated locales, and filled with songs and dances. Although a few stars from other southern states have tried to use film popularity as a stepping stone in politics, such as N. T. Rama Rao (Andhra Pradesh), S.P Rajkumar (Karnataka) and Prem Nazir (Kerala), it was in Tamil Nadu that it was most prominent, with five of the seven Chief Ministers from Dravidian parties hailing from the Tamil film industry. J.Jayalalitha, the present leader of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam was also an actress previously. Vijayakanth, leader of DMDK has acted in more than a hundred and fifty films in the period of 1980-2010 and is one of the most successful actors in Tamil Cinema. Napoleon, who has made many contributions to Tamil Cinema is an MP.
Distribution and popularity
The Tamil Cinema is the second biggest Indian film industry in terms of distribution and popularity of films. Tamil films constitute India’s most popular films along with Hindi films.[12] They have one of the widest overseas distribution, with large audience turnout from the Tamil diaspora alongside Hindi films. The Chennai film industry produced the first nationally distributed film across India in 1948 with Chandralekha.
Tamil films have enjoyed consistent popularity among populations in South East Asia. Since Chandralekha, Muthu was the second Tamil film to be dubbed into Japanese (as Mutu: Odoru Maharaja[13]) and grossed a record $1.6 million in 1998.[14] In 2010, Enthiran grossed a record $4 million in North America.
Ayngaran International and BIG Cinemas have emerged as the top distributors for Tamil films in the Western markets. Within India, companies such as Aascar Films, Pyramid Saimira, AGS Entertainment handle distribution. Dasavathaaram, was distributed by Walt Disney Pictures in Canada.
Many Tamil-language films have premiered or have been selected as special presentations at various prestigious film festivals across the world, such as Mani Ratnam’s Kannathil Muthamittal, Vasanthabalan’s Veyyil and Ameer Sultan’s Paruthiveeran. More recently, Kanchivaram, directed by Priyadarshan, was selected to be premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. Films like Thevar Magan, Indian and Jeans had been selected by India for Best Foreign Language Film for the Academy Awards. Mani Ratnam’s Nayagan (1987) was included in Time magazine’s “All-TIME” 100 best movies list.[15]
Tamil films enjoy significant patronage in neighbouring Indian states like Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharastra, Gujarat and New Delhi. In Kerala and Karnataka the films are directly released in Tamil but in Andhra Pradesh they are generally dubbed into Telugu. Many successful Tamil films have been remade by the Hindi and Telugu film industries. It is estimated by the Manorama Yearbook 2000 (a popular almanac) that over 5,000 Tamil films were produced in the 20th century. Tamil films have also been dubbed into other languages, thus reaching a much wider audience.
Tamil language films are produced in other cinema hubs. The film My Magic directed by Singaporean Eric Khoo became Singapore’s first film to be nominated for the Palme d’Or at Cannes. There has been a growing presence of English in dialogue and songs in Chennai films. It is not uncommon to see movies that feature dialogue studded with English words and phrases, or even whole sentences. Some movies are also simultaneously made in two or three languages (either using subtitles or several soundtracks). Chennai’s film composers have popularised their highly unique, syncretic style of film music across the world. Quite often, Tamil movies feature Madras Tamil, a colloquial version of Tamil spoken in Chennai.
Genre Conventions
The Tamil language films are of many genres. The most common are the Masala and Musicals. The Masala films originated in the late 1970s and came to the Tamil Cinema and became one of the most common and successful genres. The word masala means spice in many Indian languages, most commonly used in Tamil and Hindi. This represents the Masala’s which are a mixture of many ingredients. Similar to that, the films which come under that genre usually contain a mixture of action, comedy, romance, drama or melodrama. These films tend to be musicals that include songs filmed in picturesque locations. The early Masala film actors were Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan who were the first people who influenced the convention to a major extent are still important icons in the cinema industry today. Sivaji Ganesan in the early 1960s is said to have set the base for this category. Then later as this style became more and more common in the world of cinema, more and more actors adopted to this genre. These included Joseph Vijay, Ajith Kumar, Surya Sivakumar, etc. Many actors from other film industries acted in Tamil masala films. Action and Thriller films usually are of the masala movie type.
Another genre is the musical film genre. The musical film is a film genre in which several songs sung by the characters are interwoven into the narrative.The musical film was a natural development of the stage musical. Typically, the biggest difference between film and stage musicals is the use of lavish background scenery which would be impractical in a theater. Musical films characteristically contain elements reminiscent of theater; performers often treat their song and dance numbers as if there is a live audience watching. In a sense, the viewer becomes the deictic audience, as the performer looks directly into the camera and performs to it.
The third genre is Melodrama. This is where the plot and story are exaggerated to overcome emotions, etc. This is quite common in Tamil Films, where the hero usually becomes emotional and as a result exercises melodrama in the scene. This is also possible in a romance scene, where the hero and the heroine fight or get back. Melodrama can be part of an action film too. In some scenes, angry parents and love triangles, family ties, sacrifice, corrupt politicians, kidnappers, conniving villains, courtesans with hearts of gold, long-lost relatives and siblings separated by fate, dramatic reversals of fortune, and convenient coincidences tend to exert melodrama into the scene. In the early cinema, the art of kissing and sex was very common in the Tamil cinema and is still common today in many scenes though these are not directly shown which is illegal.
The fourth and final genre is Science fiction. There have been a few science fiction movies in Tamil and all of them were well received by the people. In fact, the first two Indian Science fiction movies were made in Tamil, namely Kaadu and Kalai Arasi. The 2010 movie Enthiran The Robot, starring Rajinikanth and Aishwarya Rai was the most expensive and highest grossing Indian movie till date made with a budget of 
162 Crore grossing nearly 400 Crore.[16]
Actors
Union associations
The industry includes several groups who organize their own events based on different issues of major concern. Rather than forming separate and distinct groups, each association occasionally collaborate for certain events. These associations are based on profession in the industry, such as a directors’ association or producers’ association.
The most notable association is the South Indian Film Artistes’ Association which is a group of all prominent Tamil film actors. Formed in 1952 under the leadership of actor Sivaji Ganesan[citation needed], the association has continued to conduct several protests and hunger strikes for certain political and humanitarian issues, in efforts to make positive changes in the Indian and Tamil society. Specifically, they govern film or media-related problems or conflicts that may arise to its members. The current president of the association is the actor-turned-politician R. Sarath Kumar.
Other associations include the Association of Tamil Film Directors which is headed by director Bharathiraja and the Tamil Film Producers’ Council, headed by film producer Rama Narayanan, who often meet to make cinema-related decisions. A more general association that incorporates all kinds of film personalities (actors, directors, producers, cinematographers, composers, etc.) include the well known Film Employees’ Federation of South India (FEFSI). They often successfully pledge for the welfare of low-income film workers, such as lighting technicians and stunt coordinators.
Business model
There are 3 major roles in the Tamil film value chain viz producer, distributor and exhibitor.[17]
Distribution business model
The distributor purchases theatrical distribution rights from the producer for exhibiting the film in a defined territory. The distributor performs enhanced functions such as:
- part-financing of film (in case of minimum guarantee / advance based purchase of film rights)
- localised marketing of film
- selection of exhibition halls
- managing the logistics of physical print distribution
There are three popular approaches to transfer of distribution rights via distribution contracts:
- Minimum Guarantee + Royalty – Here, the producer sells the distribution rights for a defined territory for a minimum lump sum irrespective of the box office performance of the film. Any surplus is shared between the producer and distributor, in a pre-set ratio (typically 1:2) after deducting entertainment tax, show rentals, commission, print costs and publicity costs. Effectively, the distributor becomes a “financier” in the eyes of the market. This is the most common channel available to high budget producers.
- Commission – Here, the distributor pays the producer the entire box office collection after deducting commission. So, the entire risk of box office performance of the film remains with the producer. This is the most common channel available to low budget producers.
- Outright Sale – Here, the producer sells all distribution and theatrical rights for a defined territory exclusively to a distributor. Effectively, the distributor becomes a “producer” in the eyes of the market. So, the entire risk of box office performance of the film remains with the distributor.
Exhibition business model
There are four popular approaches to transfer of exhibition rights via exhibition contracts:
- Theatre Hire – Here, the exhibitor pays the distributor the entire box office collection after deducting entertainment tax and show rentals. So, the entire risk of box office performance of the film remains with the distributor. This is the most common channel for low budget films, casting rank newcomers, with unproven track record.
- Fixed Hire – Here, the exhibitor pays the distributor a maximum lump sum irrespective of the box office performance of the film. Rental is not chargeable per show. Any surplus after deducting entertainment tax is retained by the exhibitor. Effectively, the exhibitor becomes a “producer” in the eyes of the market. So, the entire risk of box office performance of the film remains with the exhibitor. This is the most common channel for high budget films, casting established front-runners, with proven track record.
- Minimum Guarantee + Royalty – Here, the exhibitor pays the distributor a minimum lump sum irrespective of the box office performance of the film. Any surplus after deducting entertainment tax and show rental is shared in a pre-set ratio (typically 2:1) between the exhibitor and distributor. But risk of deficit remains with the exhibitor. This is the most common channel preferred by single screens.
- Revenue Share – Here, the exhibitor shares with the distributor, in a pre-set ratio (typically 1:2), the entire box office collection of the film after deducting entertainment tax. Rental is not chargeable per show. So, the entire risk of box office performance of the film is shared between the exhibitor and distributor. This is the most common channel preferred by multiplex screens.
Industrial trends
Annual film output in Tamil market
Average annual film output in Tamil film industry peaked in 1985.
Given below is a chart of trend of box office collections of cinemas in Tamil Nadu with figures in millions of United States Dollars. The data excludes the market segments of in-film advertisement, celebrity branding, mobile entertainment, stage, DVD and other intellectual property rights.
The Tamil film market accounts for approximately 0.1% of the gross domestic product of the state of Tamil Nadu. In the year 2007 a record 108 movies were released.[18] For the purpose of entertainment taxes, returns have to be filed by the exhibitors weekly (usually each Tuesday).[19] Costs of production have grown exponentially from just under 
40 lakhs in 1980 to over 11 crores by 2005 for a typical star-studded big-budget film. Similarly, costs of processing per print have risen from just under 2,500 in 1980 to nearly 70,000 by 2005.[citation needed]
The Tamil Nadu government has made provisions for an entertainment tax exemption for Tamil movies having pure Tamil word(s) in the title. This is in accordance with Government Order 72 passed on July 22, 2006. The first film to be released after the new Order was Unakkum Enakkum. The original title had been Something Something Unakkum Ennakkum, a half-English and a half-Tamil title.
Domestic exhibitors
In Tamil Nadu there are more than 1,800 cinema halls. In greater Chennai alone, there are 120, while Chennai has 80.[20]
See also
- Cinema of the world
- List of Tamil actors
- List of Tamil music directors
- Cinema of India
- Filmfare Awards South
- Tamil Nadu State Film Awards
- Vijay Awards
- International Tamil Film Awards
- List of highest grossing tamil films
aswin017 
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