Chennai city and its audiences set the trends in Kollywood, influencing how cinema is looked at in other regions. Actors and technicians who work in Kollywood live in and around Chennai city and its suburbs, which ironically enough is the smallest area in Tamil film business. As a matter of convenience, Tamil film producers and directors prefer to shoot in and around Chennai city. Traditionally, the city has been the hub of all South Indian regional film production, before other non-Tamil film productions migrated to their respective state capitals.
After Mumbai, Chennai is India’s second-biggest film capital, and has been in the forefront of innovation and change. Tamil film production is completely carried out in Chennai, which also has some of the best screens in the country. Till early 2000, Kollywood commercial cinema and its makers were targeting the small towns and rural areas known in trade parlance as B and C centres.
In the 1980s and 1990s, there existed a clear divide between a ‘class’ film and a ‘mass’ film. ‘Class’ films used to work only in Madras, as the city was called then, and to a certain extent, in Coimbatore area. For example, a Mani Ratnam film used to collect 85 per cent of its lifetime theatrical share from Chennai city and Coimbatore, while a ‘mass’ movie from a director like S. P. Muthuraman got the lion’s share of its gross collections from other centres. Says veteran producer ‘Sathya Jyothi’ Thyagarajan, “I still remember that my production Moondram Pirai (1982) made its maximum distributor share from Chennai and Coimbatore, while my father-in-law R. M. Veerappan, who produced Baasha (1995), made almost 90 per cent of its total gross from outside of Chennai and Coimbatore. But now, everything in filmmaking revolves around Chennai city and its suburbs in Chengalpet area.”
Today, most films cater to the taste of Chennai audiences, who seem open to new ideas. Earlier, all the stars — from MGR to Rajinikanth — wanted to be known as a ‘B-and-C’ star. Now though, the recent crop of hit films has changed this scenario, with top stars playing sophisticated urban characters and coming out with punch lines in English.
Now, popular heroes like Ajith, Vijay and Suriya, enjoy a phenomenal opening due to the fan-following they command among the urban Chennai youth audiences. The internet and social media have helped expand their reach.. Almost all upcoming actors make it a point to establish their on social media, to try and stay connected with these urban fans.
Abirami Ramanathan, a leading Chennai-based exhibitor and distributor, says, “Earlier, a Tamil film would get released only in three theatres, situated in Mount Road, Purasavakkam and North Madras area respectively. Only in the 1990s did Kodambakkam get added to this list. Films used to run for a minimum of 25 days, up to 100, or in some cases, 175 days. I was the first to break the system and release Rajinikanth’s Sivaji (2007) in 19 screens across Chennai city. Presently, a big film releases in 30 to 35 screens in the city, with the maximum run time for a hit film being about 25 days.”
Currently, in Chennai city, there are very few single screens, as most of them have made way for multiplexes. Audiences have shifted to multiplexes due to the comfort they offer, better projection systems, and affordable and uniformly priced ticket rates.
Chennai multiplexes have the highest occupancy in the country. Says Archana Kalpathi of AGS Cinemas, “Our newly opened multiplex in T. Nagar is doing well, as Chennai audiences want the right ambience and movie experience at affordable rates.” Now, even Bangalore wants to follow Chennai by having a cap on cinema ticket prices. Another driving factor is that films in other languages (English, Hindi, Telugu, and Malayalam) are becoming more popular in the Chennai market. The multiplexes in the city have a wide variety of films on offer, which has helped the market to grow.
Swaroop Reddy of Sathyam Cinemas, the market leader in Chennai city, concludes, “During the last decade, restrictions on the number of release screens have changed; there has been rapid modernisation of existing screens and also a growth in the number of multiplexes. Chennai has always been a movie-crazy city and the affordable pricing of tickets has resulted in high footfalls. Technology has also played an important role, with audiences preferring to watch movies on screens equipped with 4K projection, Dolby Atmos sound system and IMAX screens. The future looks exciting and Chennai looks set to become an even bigger market.”