Kollywood or Kodambakkam (holly) wood, a euphemism for Tamil cinema industry, as I understand, is on a treacherous trajectory. Kodambakkam is a locality in Chennai (or Madras) city where a number of film studios existed/exist.
Here is the link to a well written story revealing the plights of Tamil cinema industry by TOI reporter Sangeetha Kandavel.
There is a new complication thrown in by a famous actor Kamal Hassan. Here are the snippets of this interesting case.
Kamal Hassan is in the process of releasing his new movie Vishwaroopam in Tamil, Telugu and Hindi (Vishwaroop). Yes, he is the producer, director, lyricist, choreographer, actor etc., In his own admission he appears to have spent Rupees 95 crores producing the movie.
To thwart any attempts at illegal distribution of his latest movie, Kamal Hassan is planning to release this movie on DTH network, 8 hours before it is released in the theaters, despite selling the distribution rights of the movie to the theater owners.
Well, for a moment I thought this is a good move and that this guy is generous that he is releasing the movie even before it hits the theaters. Hold on there is a catch.
- DTH operator will charge Rupees 1,000 for one view for Tamil and Telugu versions and Rupees 500 for Hindi version
There lies a financial ingenuity. In addition to the tidy sum that is paid by the theater owners, an additional sum (reportedly around Rupees 50 crore) is likely to be paid by DTH operators for a recording-disabled-only-one-view telecast.
Take a look at the economics just from Tamil telecast alone.
Total households in four metros: 94,00,000 (source article)
Households in Chennai (@15%): 6,20,000
Tamil Nadu population: 6 crore
Chennai population: 1 crore
Households for rest of Tamil Nadu at 6 crore population: 30,00,000
Total households in Tamil Nadu: approx. 36,00,000
1/6th buy the cinema on DTH: Rupees 60,00,00,000
In addition, there will also be money from Telugu and Hindi versions!
No wonder Kamal Hassan surprisingly appeared in a reality musical show Super Singer T20 on Vijay TV, telecast on 26th December, to hard sell his concept.
The theater owners especially in Tamil Nadu, who paid their money are getting scared about losing money with this move.
Be prepared, once this model is successfully proved, the cinema viewing experience is going to be massively transformed.
And you need to be extremely careful of the button called 'VoD' on your remote control of DTH transmission and double, triple check your cable bills for any such one time charges.
Here is the link to a well written story revealing the plights of Tamil cinema industry by TOI reporter Sangeetha Kandavel.
There is a new complication thrown in by a famous actor Kamal Hassan. Here are the snippets of this interesting case.
Kamal Hassan is in the process of releasing his new movie Vishwaroopam in Tamil, Telugu and Hindi (Vishwaroop). Yes, he is the producer, director, lyricist, choreographer, actor etc., In his own admission he appears to have spent Rupees 95 crores producing the movie.
To thwart any attempts at illegal distribution of his latest movie, Kamal Hassan is planning to release this movie on DTH network, 8 hours before it is released in the theaters, despite selling the distribution rights of the movie to the theater owners.
Well, for a moment I thought this is a good move and that this guy is generous that he is releasing the movie even before it hits the theaters. Hold on there is a catch.
- DTH operator will charge Rupees 1,000 for one view for Tamil and Telugu versions and Rupees 500 for Hindi version
There lies a financial ingenuity. In addition to the tidy sum that is paid by the theater owners, an additional sum (reportedly around Rupees 50 crore) is likely to be paid by DTH operators for a recording-disabled-only-one-view telecast.
Take a look at the economics just from Tamil telecast alone.
Total households in four metros: 94,00,000 (source article)
Households in Chennai (@15%): 6,20,000
Tamil Nadu population: 6 crore
Chennai population: 1 crore
Households for rest of Tamil Nadu at 6 crore population: 30,00,000
Total households in Tamil Nadu: approx. 36,00,000
1/6th buy the cinema on DTH: Rupees 60,00,00,000
In addition, there will also be money from Telugu and Hindi versions!
No wonder Kamal Hassan surprisingly appeared in a reality musical show Super Singer T20 on Vijay TV, telecast on 26th December, to hard sell his concept.
The theater owners especially in Tamil Nadu, who paid their money are getting scared about losing money with this move.
Be prepared, once this model is successfully proved, the cinema viewing experience is going to be massively transformed.
And you need to be extremely careful of the button called 'VoD' on your remote control of DTH transmission and double, triple check your cable bills for any such one time charges.
