‘Tis the season to be making unseemly remarks about actresses – in Kollywood, at least. Only a few weeks ago, National Award winning editor B Lenin had made obscene comments about actress Amala Paul, referring to a recent interview of hers in a daily. Actresses Sai Dhansika, Jyothika and Athulya Ravi too, were subject to tasteless commentary for what they had said or done.
On Wednesday, theatre owner and producer Abirami Ramanathan, at the audio launch of Aaram Thinai, began his speech with a few jokes. References to Bhagyaraj and murungai later, he spoke about the subject at hand: the supernatural, for Aaram Thinai is a horror film. Trying to deconstruct the idea behind making a movie with supernatural elements, he said, “For instance, people (gendered male) take an interest in things they cannot see, or can’t have – why would they flock to a Nayanthara film, otherwise?”
Some hesitant laughter later (including the woman who stood behind him), he directed his ire at Ponraj, the former scientific advisor to Kalam. “Ponraj says theatres loot money, which leads to the death of small films. The past year alone, I’d distributed 50 movies. Four, including Baahubali and Mersal were big. The rest were small,” he declared, “Vijay has a huge image now, but his first movie was obviously a small one. If we hadn’t distributed it, how would he have attained stardom?”
Kaaka Muttai fared well, and so did Aruvi, said Ramanathan. “If we hadn’t financed Aruvi, would it have done well?”
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Ramanathan then commented on the profit-sharing model currently in place in the industry. “Earlier, during the days of Bhagyaraj, directors and actors believed in their films, rented our theatres and let us make money as long as the film ran. But now, we have to split theatre collections with the producer. In that case, I have no other choice than to stop small movies that don’t see many footfalls,” he said, “But there are some films like Aruvi that run full house right from day one; the audience knows they are good. If we had the intuition that the audience has, every film would be a hit. But we are not able to judge. Kaaka Muttai was all about a couple of lads running wild, the camera just followed them, but look at its success.”
Soon, theatres will disappear, Ramanathan proclaimed. “For, new films are out on Amazon Prime in 15 days – even the big ones. I request producers to not turn their movies over to online viewing platforms for a month at least. You need to realise that Baahubali made a lot of money only because of theaters. Amazon couldn’t have given you such collections.”
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Read: From Sai Dhanshika To Amala Paul, Why Do Actresses Make Easy Targets For The Men in Kollywood?