Last year, Rajinikanth’s Lingaa fetched Rs. 21 crore, the highest ever for a Tamil film in the overseas markets. And in the first five months of 2015, four films have done extraordinary business – Shankar’s I , Mani Ratnam’s O Kadhal Kanmani , Raghava Lawrence’s Kanchana-2 , and Ajith’s Yennai Arindhaal . Kamal Haasan’s Uttama Villain and Jyotika’s 36 Vayadhinile have also performed well in the US market.
O Kadhal Kanmani , whose overseas rights were sold for Rs. 2 crore, grossed approximately $714, 000 (Rs. 4.42 crore ) from the US market alone. OKK is one of the biggest hits of all time in the USA, as its acquisition price was very low compared to its business. It came after Mani Ratnam’s previous film Kadal , a flop, which had grossed only $80, 000.
The overseas rights of Raghava Lawrence’s Kanchana-2 , went for a paltry Rs. 1 crore but the film is reported to have done business in the range of Rs. 7 crore to Rs. 8 crore. The film did best in Tamil cinema’s traditional overseas markets of Malaysia, Singapore and Europe.
Among Indian films, Tamil films have the second biggest market overseas in all foreign countries except the US, where Telugu cinema occupies the number-two position. Tamil cinema does business equivalent to one-fourth or - in some countries – one-third of Bollywood films. Kollywood’s key markets remain the traditional ones – Malaysia, Singapore and Sri Lanka, where Tamil films have been screened in theatres from the 1960s. 60 to 65 per cent of the total overseas business of Tamil cinema comes from this area.
Later, with the Eelam wars and migration from Sri Lanka, the UK-Europe, Canada, and now Australia territories also became big. The 90s Gulf boom helped Tamil cinema create a new market, hitherto a Hindi cinema citadel. Kollywood and Tollywood discovered the potential of the North American market during the last decade, as many Tamil and Telugu-speaking techies in the IT sector migrated from TN and Andhra to the US. Today, three individual players operating out of Chennai and the London-based veteran K. Karunamoorthy (owner of Ayngaran International) control the overseas business of Tamil cinema.
A leading overseas distributor of Tamil films said: “The foreign market for Tamil films is very star-driven. It is only the big stars like Rajinikanth, Kamal Haasan, Vijay, Ajith and Suriya or directors like Shankar and Mani Ratnam who have an overseas market. Among the younger lot, the emerging stars are Dhanush and Sivakarthikeyan. There is an ocean of difference between what works in each country. Mass content like Kanchana-2 works best in Malaysia, Singapore and Gulf, while class movies do better in US and UK, as proved by O Kadhal Kanmani .”
Ram Muthu, the Managing Director of Atmus Entertainment, a leading US-based distributor of Tamil films, says: “The USA market is becoming bigger by the year and can do $1.5 million — $2 million business. But that kind of business happens only for Rajinikanth films. USA audiences like Rajinikanth films the most, followed by films from Shankar, Mani Ratnam and Kamal Hassan. Kamal’s Uttama Villain , a failure in India, did $585,000 in the US market. These four people can bring more than $500,000 in revenue. The highest for Vijay, Ajith and Suriya were all under $400,000. Now, Vijay has Kaththi at $620,000, Ajith has Yennai Arindhaal at $515,000 and Surya might do the magic with next week’s big release Masss .”
Ram Muthu added: “Among the new-generation actors, Dhanush has recently crossed the $100,000 mark with two of his latest films, Velai Illa Pattathari ($220,000) and Anegan ($135,000). All the others are grossing under $100,000. Sivakarthikeyan’s Kaaki Sattai was able to do $75,000. The other heroes do not sell as well and are below $20,000 and may not recover their VPF (virtual print fees) and publicity cost. There are exceptions like Karthik Subbaraj’s Jigarthanda which did $185,000 and the Arya-Nayantara starrer Raja Rani which grossed $200,000.
Wide overseas releases have also helped the industry. In 2005, Rajinikanth’s Chandramukhi was released in 75 odd locations in foreign countries. Today, Suriya’s Masss is going to release in nearly 600-plus overseas locations. The opening weekend and the paid premieres on Thursday evening and night help to garner huge numbers. Ticket pricing is also market-driven unlike in TN, where it is government-controlled.
The rise of the overseas market is also attributed to the growth of social media (Twitter and Facebook) and a large number of Tamil-cinema-specific sites. The 24x7 coverage of Kollywood has caught the eye of the new generation. Dilani Rabindran, a Toronto-born youngster, became crazy about Tamil films hearing Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan stories from her parents who immigrated to Canada in the 80s from Batticaloa, Sri Lanka. Today Dilani, an MBA graduate, works for the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) as a full-time Financial Analyst, and as a film tracker who helps choose South Asian movies for the festival. She also writes for a popular website.
Dilani says: “I too love to be there for first-day shows of Rajinikanth, Vijay and Ajith films — cheering along with everyone. 60 to 70 per cent of Toronto Tamil audiences reserve their attention for big-hero films, but there is a large artistic Tamil community here of burgeoning actors, writers and filmmakers who are very interested in all types of movies. Some of my favourite Tamil films of the past year have been non-big-hero films, like Mysskin’s Pisasu ; which is why I wish we had a better distribution set-up here, so such films could be guaranteed a widespread theatrical release in North America as well.”
Trade analysts in Chennai say that in three years’ time, 40 to 50 per cent of the theatrical revenue of Tamil films is going to come from the overseas markets. The local market remains stagnant due to the government-controlled cap on ticket rates. Ticket prices in Tamil Nadu have not been increased for the last eight years. A leading exporter of Tamil films concludes: “The market for Tamil films is growing. But producers and stars should not kill the goose that lays the golden egg by asking for ridiculous prices. Releases should be planned well in advance, and prints should be delivered to overseas distributors a week in advance.”
Currently, the hottest films for which a bidding war is going on in the international market are Vijay's Puli , Ajith's next (tentatively called Thala 56 ) and Suriya's 24 .
