COLOMBO: The Sri Lankan Tamil film industry is virtually dead. In its 49-year history, only 31 films have come out of it. And most of these, including the most recent ventures, “Sharmilavin Idhaya Raagam” (1993) and “Orey Naalil” (2011), had bombed at the box office.
“Lankan Tamil films have failed to attract crowds not only because they are technically and cinematically inferior in comparison with the productions coming out of Chennai, but also they have no star value,” said Thambiayah Thevathas, Lanka’s only Tamil film historian.
“The only way out of the rut is to cast a well-known star from Tamil Nadu. Even a retired or sidelined star like Sivakumar, Karthik, Prabhu or Mohan will do,” he told ‘Express’.
Citing examples from the past, he said that the 1979 film “Maamiyar Veedu” was a relative success because it featured the known TN actor S V Subbaiah. “Raththathin Raththamey” released in 1980, ran for 100 days because Jaishankar and Radhika were in the lead.