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March 24, 2012

Kollywood vs Tollywood vs Bollywood

I am completely ill at ease to use borrowed and convoluted terminologies used for linguistic film industry. That all of them, except of course some pockets in Hindi film industry, are struggling is evident from the public reactions and responses.

Thanks to Maran Brothers, I stopped believing in the box-office collections, after the truth on monstrous manipulation of numbers, be it theatre bookings or audience numbers. They actually were excelling in converting their black money into white by showing full cinema halls, where in reality there were none.

My view on the linguistic film industry performance:

Kollywood (Kodambakkam Hollywood?) or Tamil தமிழ் film industry:

Every time I switch on either SunTV or StarVijay TV, I keep seeing a guy by name Dhanush in a number of (unwatchable) movies. He is neither good looking nor does have a personality, trying to imitate senior successful actors. Understand Aishwarya (daughter of Superstar Rajnikanth) married him. So, he can become another Rajnikanth? The number of movies they are churning out with him as hero, despite series of flops, to say the least, it is impossible to watch even 5 minutes of his movies.

Thanks to this Dhanush, I see a number of similar looking, unattractive youngsters joining the bandwagon. Even TV anchors have started to have a fling at Tamil movies. Almost every one and any one can produce, act and direct a movie and painfully do pre-marketing of their pathetic movies with captive audience like us.

Tollywood (Telugu Hollywood?) or Telugu తెలుగు film industry:

Contrary to Tamil industry, Telugu film industry is crowded with sons (of famous actors, directors, producers). In Andhra Pradesh, there is a very thin veil between film industry and politics. Can we say they are interoperable? A Vijayshanthi can lecture you on a need for a separate state, a LakshmiParvathy can lecture you on cinema being the shortcut to politics. A Jayasudha can lecture you on loyalty, political or otherwise.

These 'sons' use Telugu film industry as facilitator to enter assembly or parliament. They want to make money. If they find that their movies are found on youtube or daily motion or youku, they lecture you that the artistes and state are losing money. It is not my intention to support illegal viewing these movies. But, have these guys shown correct accounting and paid their taxes on all the money that they receive??? Certainly not.

Bollywood (Bombay Hollywood?) or Hindi हिंदी film industry:

Unlike, the Telugu film industry, in Hindi film inudstry, the process is in reverse direction. Politicians and their sons enter the movie industry in a big way. For example, a Paswan, a Deshmukh. There are many. For them there is no difference between politics and cinema. Both the place they earn handsfull and keep acting to their heart's content.

With the increased use of the Internet and social media networks, both current and earlier generations are realising that they can choose what they want.



24 comments:

  1. haha great comparison !
    and also true !

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    1. Thanks Indiwood for your comment. Happy you liked it. Regards,

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    2. Good one, my friend. You were most correct about how the Maran brothers converted all the black money into white with a number of Vijay and Danush movies.

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  2. Hi Ravi, from my limited knowledge of Tamil cinema, I'd say the industry takes more risks than Bollywood, experimenting with non-commercial themes and small/new actors.
    In Bollywood, cinema still goes by labels - art/commercial/parallel/indie etc whereas Tamil cinema seems to be able to make space for all cinema, and the audiences too seem more willing to accept the same.
    Wonder if it's a reflection of the kind of audiences that actually go to the theater.
    I'd be interested to read how you apply the yardsticks used in your post to Hollywood.

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    1. Hi icyhighs, You probably are right that Tamil industry takes more risks but the point is for common folks presentation still is very important. I am not sure audiences are accepting all these. Rushes to these movies are true reflections of audience acceptance. But as I said in my blog, these numbers are manipulated not just by Maran brothers. Some times, these arty movies are produced just to get the subsidy from the governments.

      My exposure to Hollywood movies is not as much as Indian 'woods'. Hollywood is different ball game altogether. The size, audience, relevance, story line, authenticity, technology used are totally of a different scale. I don't think I would take the risk of comparing Hollywood with our 'woods'.

      In any case, I thank you for your comments. Really appreciate them.

      Regards,

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  3. Replies
    1. Thanks A Homemaker's Utopia. Happy that you liked it. Will be following up with a part 2 :)

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  4. There are much more surya, vijay, and Kamal movies than dhanush. LOL. GOod one, though!!!

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    1. Dear Rohan, Thanks for enjoying the post. Yeah you are right, there are quite a few movies of surya, vijay, kamal. But some total of those with elite stars is probably less than the new movies that are coming out with new actors, if you may call them.

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  5. You hit the nail on the head. I really do not understand how the Tamizh public lap up underrated actors and their movies! It is not as if there is dearth of talents.

    The industry churns out pot -boiler fantasies for time-pass , and not for serious viewing/social relevance.

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  6. Thank you for your comments Vetrimagal.

    The Tamil movie industry is rudderless. In my opinion, these dud movies are not commercial hits. Many of them are produced to claim subsidies offered by government and some are produced to cover profits made in other areas or movies.

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  7. Just adding to what you wrote..tten and yes there is more of independent cinema in hindi or a tamil industry but I see less of it in telugu industry...hope that changes

    a very well written blog and its nice to have known you

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    1. Thanks for the addendum, Bradz. Agree.

      Same here. Nice to know you too through the blogs. Thanks for kind words. Appreciate it. Regards.

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  8. Sharing the same opinion on Tamil, Telugu and Bollywood industry of film making. Sometimes these movie makers estimate us viewers as fools as themselves. :-)

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    1. Precisely, Speak Ur Mind. The way this dirt in the name of a movie thrown at us is terribly insulting. The only lesson we can give them is to ignore all such movies and concentrate on on line content and on Olympics2012, Champions Cup etc

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