Kollywood
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Kollywood (Tamil : கோலிவூட்) is a name often applied to Tamil Cinema, based in Chennai (formerly Madras) in the state of Tamil Nadu in South India. The name is a conflation of Kodambakkam and Hollywood, and mirrors the adaptation of Bollywood by the Mumbai-based film industry. Kodambakkam is an area in Chennai, in and around which there is a high concentration of film studios, and where many people involved with Tamil cinema live.
In 2003, according to the Central Board of Film Certification, the Tamil film industry stood third in terms of number of films produced (222 Hindi movies, 155 Telugu movies and 151 Tamil movies were certified in 2003.[1].) Kollywood witnessed three new releases on average every week in 2005 and annual turnover of over Rs.23,205 million ($526 million) on ticket sales of 700 million. Silent movies were produced in Kollywood since 1916 and the era of talkies dawned in 1931. By the end of the Thirties, the industry was booming so much that the Madras legislature passed the pioneering 'Entertainment Tax Act 1939' with little opposition.
Tamil cinema has the widest overseas distribution after Hindi cinema. It has enjoyed consistent popularity among Tamil speakers in India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore and other South East Asian countries. Tamil-language films have recently become popular in Japan, South Africa, Canada, and UK. Many movies such as Chandramukhi and Anniyan were also simultaneously released in the USA. Many successful Tamil films have been re-made by other film industries such as the Hindi and Telugu film industries. Kollywood has also remade a fair amount of Hindi, Telugu, Malayalam and other language films in Tamil.
It is estimated by Manorama Yearbook 2000 that over 5,000 Tamil films have been produced in the 20th century. For a complete list of Tamil films see the List of Tamil-Language Films. Tamil films have also been dubbed into other languages, thus reaching a much wider audience. Examples of those dubbed into Hindi include such hits as Minsaara Kanavu, Roja and Bombay. Anniyan, a recent Tamil film became the first Indian film to be dubbed into French. See popular Tamil films.
There has been a growing presence of English in dialogues and songs as well. It is not uncommon to see movies which feature dialogues studded with English words and phrases, or even whole sentences. Some movies are also simultaneously made in two or three languages (either using subtitles, or several soundtracks). Quite often, Tamil movies feature Madras Bashai which is the version of Tamil spoken in Madras. Many Tamil movies also exhibit anti-Brahmin sentiments, reflecting the political establishment (see Anti-Brahmanism). Website's like www.sify.com, www.behindwoods.com and others update latest news on tamil movies.
Movies Come To Tamil Nadu
A visiting European exhibitor screened a bunch of silent short films at the Victoria Public Hall, Madras. The films all non-fiction and told no story. They were mostly photographed records of ordinary events.
In Madras (Chennai) City, the "Electric Theatre" established where silent films were shown. It was the favourite haunt of the British community in Madras. The theatre was closed after few years. This building is now part of the Post Office Complex on Anna Salai.
Mr. Cohen built "Lyric Theatre" in Mount Road area (now Anna Salai). Here, plays in English, Western music concert and ball dances took place regularly and silent films were also shown as additional attraction.
Samikannu Vincent an employee of South Indian Railway, Trichy purchased a film projector and silent films from Frenchman Du Pont and set up business as film exhibitor. He erected tents for screening films. The tent cinema became popular and he went all over with his mobile unit. In later years he produced talkie films and also built a cinema house in Coimbatore.
To commemorate the event of George V's visit in 1909 a grand exhibition was organised in Madras. Its major attraction was the screening of short films with sound. A British company brought "Crone-megaphone", made up of a film projector to which a gramophone with a disk containing pre-recorded sound was linked and both ran in unison producing picture and sound simultaneously. However, there was no lip-synch dialogue. Raghupathy Venkiah, a successful still photographer took over the equipment after the exhibition and set up a tent cinema near the Madras High Court.
R. Venkiah flushed with funds built in 1912 a permanent cinema house in Mount Road area named "Gaiety". It was the first in Madras, to screen films on full time basis. This theatre happily functions though under different ownership.
In tent cinemas there were usually three classes of tickets, the floor, bench and chair. The floor ticket purchaser sat on sand to watch the movie but he enjoyed certain advantages, which other patrons did not. He could sit as he pleased or even he could turnover and take a short sleep when it is boring him and again roll back when the screen shot upto his liking! Luxuries, the upper class could never indulge in. Surely those were the days!
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[edit] Industrial trends
Average annual film output in Tamil film industry has risen steadily in the 20th century:
- Thirties - 22.5 releases per year on average
- Fourties - 22.1 releases per year on average
- Fifties - 32.6 releases per year on average
- Sixties - 43.0 releases per year on average
- Seventies - 62.5 releases per year on average
- Eighties - 104.6 releases per year on average
- Nineties - 101.2 releases per year on average
For the purpose of entertainment tax, returns have to be filed by the exhibitors weekly (usually each Tuesday). http://www.tnsalestax.com/briefent.htm This is a chart of trend of box office collections of Kollywood with figures in millions of Indian Rupees.
| Year | Tamil film Box Office |
|---|---|
| 1980 | 808 |
| 1985 | 1,564 |
| 1990 | 3,133 |
| 1995 | 7,820 |
| 2000 | 14,110 |
| 2005 | 23,205 |
Tamil film industry accounts for 1% of the gross state domestic product of Tamil Nadu. Costs of production have grown exponentially from just over Rs.3 million in 1980 to nearly Rs.200 million by 2005 for a typical star-studded big-budget film. Similarly, cost of processing per print have expanded from just under Rs.2,000 in 1980 to nearly Rs.67,000 by 2005. Tamil Nadu government has given entertainment tax exemption for Tamil movies having chaste tamil word(s) title name. This is vide the Government Order 72 passed on 22/07/06. and the first movie to release after the new G.O was " Unnakkum Ennakum ". Previously the movie had a title "Something something Unakkum Ennakkum", a half english and a half Tamil title.
[edit] Exhibitors
There are about 1,800 permanent exhibitors in Kollywood of which around 125 exhibitors are located in Chennai district. This is a list of the most prominent exhibitors in the box office.
- Sathyam - 1,266 seats (Chennai district)
- Albert - 1,225 seats (Chennai district)
- Devi - 1,212 seats (Chennai district)
- Melody - 998 seats (Chennai district)
- Abirami - 927 seats (Chennai district)
- Kasi - 917 seats (Chennai district)
- Sangam - 877 seats (Chennai district)
- Maharani - 733 seats (Chennai district)
- Udhayam - 700 seats (Chennai district)
- Santham - 567 seats (Chennai district)
- Padmam - 540 seats (Chennai district)
- Suriyan - 480 seats (Chennai district)
- Devi Bala - 369 seats (Chennai district)
- Subham - 306 seats (Chennai district)
Show rentals range from Rs1,750 in C-centres to as much as Rs7,000 in A-centres for an average 700-seat screen. Unlike Hollywood, super stardom is deeply ingrained into Kollywood economics. So distributors are prepared to not only finance the films of super stars with proven track record but are also in turn able to secure minimum guarantees for those films from exhibitors! Rise of multiplexes in the Nineties has stunted the growth of large screens.
