Controversies are great when it comes to arousing audience interest in a film. Producers in tinseltown have even been known to let a controversy or two rage on with their films to draw people to the theatres. The company who made Vadivelu’s comeback flick Tenaliraman were fed to the back teeth with opposition from Telugu groups, but realised that much of the initial buzz that translated to collection was thanks to the heat from the controversy. “We have to thank them for the extra publicity. It really helped,” chuckled one of the producers.
But all of this extends only up to the point where they don’t have to postpone a film beyond the announced release date. “Every day is money. Interest rates being what they are, every day that the film is stalled costs a lot of extra money, because there are very few financiers who give us leeway when it comes to adding interest to their loans,” says a producer and distributor who has worked with Vijay Sethupathi.
Tamil Film Producers Council President Kalaipuli S Thanu, who has bankrolled several big budget films over the past three decades, admitted, “These days, even producers are aware that only 10 percent of the films that release have a chance of doing well. Now, if most of them are made to struggle so hard and go through legal hurdles just to get to the theatres, then how will the industry survive?”
Kamal Haasan’s Viswaroopam is a case in point. Between the issue that came from his direct DTH release plans and the violent outburst from Muslim groups over his portrayal of their religion, Kamal’s film didn’t release in it’s primary market (TN) for over two weeks — by which time pirated prints had flooded torrent sites.
“It is one of the first times that a film released after such a gap of it’s international release and actually made up its Rs 95 crore budget,” said a representative of the actor-director-producer-singer et al. “It may have made a lot more if it had released when there was so much hype,” he had added. The delay did cost Kamal though, who said that he had pledged his property to make the terrorist-drama.
He was lucky. Others like R K Selvamani haven’t had the same streak. Selvamani’s Pulan Visaranai 2 (in pic), the sequel to his blockbuster with Vijayakant, began in 2005 and went to the censors three years later. With a squabble raised by a civil rights group and financial struggles, the film stayed put till a hotch-potch version finally released this January. He’d faced similar trouble with his film Kuttra Pathirikai, which had the Lankan Civil War and Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination as the backdrop — as a result of which, the 1991 film released only in 2007. The financials of both were “best not spoken about,” as he admitted.
With producers still having to resort to film financiers for their last mile money needs — lab processing, release publicity, artist remuneration and so on — interest rates are still very much on their minds. The producers of Komban, Studio Green’s K E Gnanavel Raja, may not appear to be in dire financial straits, but he was already stretched because they had deferred the Karthi-starrer by two months, “The initial plan was to have it out for Pongal because we figured this film would work well at that time. But after a discussion with the Producers Council, we backed out of that race and agreed to have it release at the end of March,” says a source with the production unit. That delay did hurt, he adds, “When we had to push to April 2 because of all this drama, nobody was happy, but when it was suggested that we wait another week, Raja sir wouldn’t hear of it,” he concludes.
The other problem with having a film that runs into heavy weather, legally or otherwise, prior to it’s release is that theatres are reluctant to screen it. After SPI Cinemas had their glass door shattered the night before Vijay-starrer Kaththi was to release, several other theatres too have been cautious with controversial films. But a seasoned producer says that it’s merely a tactic to drive the price down, “During negotiations with the distributor, theatre owners often city every reason imaginable to drive the minimum guarantee amount and deposit down.
This is just another reason” that gives room for more negotiation, he dismisses.