CHENNAI:The invite said 4.45 pm. When it’s Nehru Stadium, you have a tendency to try and get there a little earlier. After all, stampedes aren’t fun.
The stage is set for Cheran’s big day - the launch of his controvery-fraught baby, Cinema 2 Home (C2H). As you walk in, it’s almost overwhelming how much branding the director’s company has done, stretching all the way to the garish centre stage. Understandably, his staple composers Sabesh-Murali are sound-checking some of the songs that made Cheran a hum-worthy hero.
Fast forward to an hour later and aside from the three thousand odd people who have trooped in - a cross section of people, who wouldn’t have looked out of place on a parade float showing the various sub-cultures that exist between Kancheepuram and Kanyakumari. When Cheran’s company told us that they had 5000 dealers across Tamil Nadu, you may have thought it to be a trumped up number, a practice well within the ambit of fair trade these days. But if hips don’t lie, then the eyes can’t be too far behind.
Strangely, there’s still no sign of the man who made Autograph more than something you asked Sachin Tendulkar. The three power centres of the curiously divided world of Tamil Cinema have arrived - the Nadigar Sangam’s Sarath Kumar, Vikraman from the Director’s Union and Kalaipuli S Thanu, who has been creating waves ever since he swept the Producer’s Council Elections in January.
6.20 pm. Cheran rushes in to a cheer from the hordes of distributors and dealers seated in the gallery. After greeting what must have seemed like a day’s worth of pilgrims visiting Tirupati, he finally gets on stage. His look, normally that of a jocular, even jolly man, was weary. Care-worn perhaps. Apologetic for sure. “I didn’t know whether I would come here till 5.55 pm. I have never been late, ask anybody at home,” he says. A loan had to be repaid at the last minute. He didn’t know how to mobilise the funds. his friend Perarasu, who hit pay dirt with commercial potboilers like Vijay’s Tirupachi and Sivakasi, let us in on the secret, “It was Sarath Kumar who made five calls. And the problem disappeared, that’s why Cheran came.”
On Saturday, his film JK Enum Nanbanin Vazhkai, which has been in hibernation since December 2012, will be door delivered on DVD to lakhs of homes across Tamil Nadu - opening the door to streams of movie releases that are beyond the theatre. Obviously, the TN Theatre Owners Association - the same men who derailed Kamal Haasan’s plan to release Vishwaroopam on DTH - wouldn’t hear of it. “These last one and a half years have been a really different experience. Every time our release was pushed back, my dealers borrowed money, pawned jewels did everything they could to stay afloat. But eEvery minute there were twists and turns, so much more than in any of my movies,” he takes a weak stab at humour.
Even now the talks with theatre owners, mediated by a cool-headed Thanu, are at a stallmate, “He asked me for one more week to try and convince them, but I begged his forgiveness and organised this launch today. If I hadn’t done this today, I wouldn’t have been able to do it any day.” he adds. “What ego do they have in this? They kept dragging it and delaying us from launching. So I decided, when I started C2H, that it didn’t matter whether our movies released in theatres or not. They may say that they will ban films and actors who go to C2H, but we say that if you wish to exhibit our films, we will give it to you. I assure producers that they will earn thrice what they make in theatres.”