The first Tamilsilent film,Keechaka Vadham, was directed byR. Nataraja Mudaliar in 1918.[8] The first Tamiltalkingfeature film,Kalidas, a multilingual directed byH. M. Reddy was released on 31 October 1931, less than seven months after India's first talking motion pictureAlam Ara.[9] Tamil cinema has been noted for its advanced narratives and diverse films, with several productions in the 1990s and early 2000s cutting across ethnic and linguistic barriers. Such films includeRoja (1992),Bombay (1995),Indian (1996) andEnthiran (2010).[10][11] Tamil cinema has since produced some of the most commercially successful actors, directors and films of Indian cinema.
By the end of the 1930s, thelegislature of theState of Madras passed the Entertainment Tax Act of 1939.Madras (now Chennai), then became a secondary hub forHindi cinema, other South Indian film industries, as well as forSri Lankan cinema.[12] Over the last quarter of the 20th century, Tamil films established a global presence, enjoying strong box office collections among Tamil-speaking audiences inSri Lanka,Malaysia, andSingapore. Tamil films are also distributed throughout theMiddle East,Oceania,Europe,North America, parts ofAfrica, andJapan.[13][14] The industry also inspired independent filmmaking amongTamil diaspora populations in Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore, and theWest.[15]
M. Edwards first screened a selection of silent films at theVictoria Public Hall inMadras in 1897 during theBritish Raj. The selected films all featured non-fictional subjects; they were mostly photographed records of day-to-day events. The film scholar Stephen Hughes points out that within a few years there were regular ticketed shows in a hall in Pophams Broadway, started by one Mrs. Klug, but this lasted only for a few months. Once it was demonstrated as a commercial proposition, a Western entrepreneur, Warwick Major, built the firstcinema theatre, the Electric Theatre, which still stands. It was a favourite haunt of the British community in Madras. The theatre was shut down after a few years. This building is now part of a post office complex onAnna Salai (Mount Road). TheLyric Theatre was also built in the Mount Road area. This venue boasted a variety of events, including plays in English,Western classical music concerts, andballroom dances. Silent films were also screened as an additional attraction.[16]Swamikannu Vincent, a railway draftsman fromTiruchirapalli, became a travelling exhibitor in 1905. He showed short movies in a tent inEsplanade, near the present Parry's Corner, using carbide jet-burners for projection. He bought thefilm projector andsilent films from the Frenchman Du Pont and set up a business asfilm exhibitor.[17] Soon, he tied up withPathé, a well-known pioneering film-producing company, and importedprojectors. This helped new cinema houses to sprout across thepresidency.[18] In later years, he producedtalkies and also built a cinema inCoimbatore.[19]
To celebrate the event ofKing George V's visit in 1909, a grandexhibition was organised inMadras. Its major attraction was the screening of short films accompanied by sound. A British company imported a Cronemegaphone, made up of a film projector to which agramophone with a disc containing prerecorded sound was linked, and both were run in unison, producing picture and sound simultaneously. However, there was no syncheddialogue.Raghupathi Venkaiah Naidu, a successfulphotographer, took over the equipment after the exhibition and set up a tent cinema near theMadras High Court.[16] With this equipment, he screened the short filmsPearl Fish andRaja's Casket in the Victoria Public Hall. When this proved successful, he screened the films in a tent set up in Esplanade. These tent events were the true precursors of the cinema shows. Naidu travelled with this unit to Burma (nowMyanmar) andSri Lanka, and when he had gathered enough money, he put up a permanent cinema house in Madras—Gaiety, in 1914, the first cinema house in Madras to be built by an Indian. He soon added two more, Crown Theatre in Mint and Globe (later called Roxy) inPurasawalkam.[20][21][22]
Swamikannu Vincent, who had built one of the first cinema halls ofSouth India inCoimbatore, introduced the concept of "Tent Cinema" in which atent was erected on a stretch of open land close to atown orvillage to screen the films. The first of its kind was established inMadras, called "Edison's Grand Cinemamegaphone". This was due to the fact that electric carbons were used for motion picture projectors.[23]
Most of the films screened then were shorts made in theUnited States andBritain. In 1909, an Englishman, T. H. Huffton, founded Peninsular Film Services in Madras and produced some short films for local audiences. But soon, hour-long films, which narrated dramatic stories, then known as "drama films", were imported. From 1912 onwards, feature films made in Bombay (nowMumbai) were also screened in Madras. The era ofshort films had ended. The arrival of drama films firmly established cinema as a popular entertainment form. More cinema houses came up in the city.
Fascinated by this new entertainment form, an automobile dealer in the Thousand Lights area of Madras,R. Nataraja Mudaliyar, decided to venture into film production. After a few days' training inPune with thecinematographer Stewart Smith, the official cinematographer ofLord Curzon's 1903 Durbar, he started a film production concern in 1916.
The man who truly laid the foundations of Tamil cinema was A. Narayanan. After a few years in film distribution, he set up a production company in Madras, the General Pictures Corporation, popularly known as GPC. Beginning withThe Faithful Wife/Dharmapathini (1929), GPC made about 24 feature films. GPC functioned as a film school and its alumni included names such as Sundara Rao Nadkarni and Jiten Banerji. The studio of GPC was housed in the Chellapalli bungalow on Thiruvottiyur High Road in Madras. This company, which produced the most Tamil silent films, had branches inColombo,Rangoon andSingapore.
The Ways of Vishnu/Vishnu Leela, which R. Prakasa made in 1932, was the last silent film produced in Madras. The silent era of south Indian cinema has not been documented well. When the talkies appeared, film producers had to travel toBombay orCalcutta to make films. Most films of this early period were celluloid versions of well-known stage plays. Company dramas were popular among theMadras audience. The legendary Otraivadai drama theatre had been built in 1872 itself in Mint. Many drama halls had come up in the city where short silent films were screened in the afternoon and plays were enacted in the night.
The scene changed in 1934 when Madras got its first sound studio. By this time, all the cinema houses in Madras had been wired for sound. Narayanan, who had been active during the silent era, founded Srinivasa Cinetone in which his wife worked as the sound recordist.Srinivasa Kalyanam (1934), directed by Narayanan, was the first sound film (talkie) produced in Madras. The second sound studio to come up in Madras was Vel Pictures, started by M. D. Rajan on Eldams Road in the Dunmore bungalow, which belonged to theRaja of Pithapuram. Before long, more sound studios came up. Thirty-six talkies were made in Madras in 1935.
The main impacts of the early cinema were the cultural influences of the country. TheTamil-language was the medium in which many plays and stories were written since the ages as early as theCholas. They were highly stylised and nature of the spectacle was one which could attract the people. Along with this,music anddance were one of the main entertainment sources.[24]
There is a strong Indian tradition of narrating mythology, history,fairy tales and so on through song and dance. Whereas Hollywood filmmakers strove to conceal the constructed nature of their work so that the realistic narrative was wholly dominant, Indian filmmakers made no attempt to conceal the fact that what was shown on the screen was a creation, an illusion, a fiction. However, they demonstrated how this creation intersected with people's day-to-day lives in complex ways.[25] By the end of the 1930s, the State of Madras legislature passed theEntertainment Tax Act 1939.
In 1916, a studio, the first in south India,[citation needed] was set up in Madras at 10 Millers Road, Kilpauk. He called it the India Film Company. Rangavadivelu, an actor from Suguna Vilasa Sabha, a theatre company then, was hired to train the actors. Thirty-five days later, the first feature film made in south India,The Extermination of Keechakan/Keechakavatham, based on an episode from theMahabharata, was released produced and directed by R. Nataraja, who established the India Film Company Limited.[26]
Despite a century of increasing box office takings, Tamil cinema remains informal. Nevertheless, there are few exceptions like Modern Theatres,Gemini Studios,AVM andSri Thenandal Films that survived beyond 100 productions.
In 2017, opposing the dual taxation ofGST (28%) and entertainment tax (30%),Tamilnadu Theatre Owners Association announced indefinite closure of all cinemas in the state from 3 July 2017.[27][28] The strike has been called off and the cinemas will be playing the movies starting Friday 7 July 2017.[29][30][31][32] Government has formed a committee to decide on the existence of state's 30% entertainment tax. It was reported that, per day business loss during the strike was around ₹ 20 crores.
Annual admissions in Chennai multiplexes and single screens averaged 1.1 crore tickets with a standard deviation of ±10 lakh tickets during 2011–16. The Chennai film industry produced the first nationally distributed film across India in 1948 withChandralekha.[33] They have one of the widest overseas distribution, with large audience turnout from theTamil diaspora. They are distributed to various parts of Asia, Africa, Western Europe, North America and Oceania.[34]
Many successful Tamil films have been remade by other film industries. It is estimated by theManorama Yearbook 2000 (a popular almanac) that over 5,000 Tamil films were produced in the 20th century. Tamil films have also been dubbed into other languages, thus reaching a much wider audience. There has been a growing presence ofEnglish in dialogue and songs in Chennai films. It is not uncommon to see movies that feature dialogue 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).Chennai's film composers have popularised their highly unique, syncretic style of film music across the world. Quite often, Tamil movies featureMadras Tamil, a colloquial version of Tamil spoken inChennai.
Keechaka Vadham (1918) was the firstsilent film made inSouth India.[35]Kalidas (1931) was the firstTamiltalkie film made in 1931.[36]Kalava (1932) was the first full-length talkie made entirely in Tamil.[37]Nandanar (1935) was the first film for American film directorEllis R. Dungan.[38]Balayogini released in 1937 was considered to be first children's film of South India.[39] It is estimated by theManorama Yearbook 2000 (a popular almanac) that over 5,000 Tamil films were produced in the 20th century. Tamil films have also been dubbed into other languages, thus reaching a much wider audience. There has been a growing presence of English in dialogue and songs in Chennai films.
Tamil films have enjoyed consistent popularity among populations inSouth East Asia. SinceChandralekha,Muthu was the second Tamil film to be dubbed into Japanese (asMutu: Odoru Maharaja[43]) and grossed a record $1.6 million in 1998.[44] In 2010,Enthiran grossed a record $4 million in North America.[45]
Average annual film output in Tamil film industry peaked in 1985. The Tamil film market accounts for approximately 0.1% of the gross domestic product (GDP) of the state ofTamil Nadu.[48] For the purpose of entertainment taxes, returns have to be filed by the exhibitors weekly (usually each Tuesday).[49]
TheGovernment of Tamil Nadu made provisions for an entertainment tax exemption for Tamil films having titles in words from theTamil-language only.[50] This is in accordance with Government Order 72 passed on 22 July 2006. The first film to be released after the new Order wasUnakkum Enakkum. The original title had beenSomething Something Unakkum Ennakkum, a half-English and a half-Tamil title.[50] In July 2011, strict norms on entertainment tax were passed which stated that films which were given a "U" certificate by theCentral Board of Film Certification alone were eligible for tax exemption and those with an "A" certificate could not fit into this category.[51]
There are three major roles in the Tamil film value chainviz producer, distributor and exhibitor.[52] The distributor purchases theatrical distribution rights from the producer for exhibiting the film in a defined territory. The distributor performs enhanced functions such as:
part-financing of film (in case of minimum guarantee / advance based purchase of film rights)
localised marketing of film
selection of exhibition halls
managing the logistics of physical print distribution
There are three popular approaches to transfer of distribution rights via distribution contracts:
Minimum Guarantee + Royalty – Here, the producer sells the distribution rights for a defined territory for a minimum lump sum irrespective of the box office performance of the film. Any surplus is shared between the producer and distributor, in a pre-set ratio (typically 1:2) after deducting tax, show rentals, commission, print costs and publicity costs. Effectively, the distributor becomes afinancier in the eyes of the market. This is the most common channel available to high budget producers.
Commission – Here, the distributor pays the producer the entire box office collection after deducting commission. So, the entire risk of box office performance of the film remains with the producer. This is the most common channel available to low budget producers. By the first decade of 21st century, about 90 per cent of the films were released on commission basis.[53]
Outright Sale – Here, the producer sells all distribution and theatrical exhibition rights for a defined territory exclusively to a distributor. Effectively, the distributor becomes aproducer in the eyes of the market. So, the entire risk of box office performance of the film remains with the distributor.
There are four popular approaches to transfer of exhibition rights via exhibition contracts:
Theatre Hire – Here, the exhibitor pays the distributor the entire box office collection after deducting tax and show rentals. So, the entire risk of box office performance of the film remains with the distributor. This is the most common channel for low-budget films, casting rank newcomers, with unproven track record. In Chennai, a moderate theatre with AC and DTS can fetch around₹1 lakh as weekly rent.[54]
Fixed Hire – Here, the exhibitor pays the distributor a maximum lump sum irrespective of the box office performance of the film. Rental is not chargeable per show. Any surplus after deducting tax is retained by the exhibitor. Effectively, the exhibitor becomes adistributor in the eyes of the market. So, the entire risk of box office performance of the film remains with the exhibitor.
Minimum Guarantee + Royalty – Here, the exhibitor pays the distributor a minimum lump sum irrespective of the box office performance of the film. Rental is not chargeable per show. Any surplus after deducting tax and show rental is shared in a pre-set ratio (1:2) between the distributor and exhibitor typically.
Revenue Share – Here, the distributor shares with the exhibitor, in a pre-set ratio (typically 1:1), the entire box office collection of the film after deducting tax. Rental is not chargeable per show. So, the entire risk of box office performance of the film is shared between the exhibitor and distributor. This is the most common channel preferred by multiplex screens.
Film studios in Chennai are bound by legislation, such as the Cinematography Film Rules of 1948,[96] the Cinematography Act of 1952,[97] and the Copyright Act of 1957.[98] InTamil Nadu, cinema ticket prices are regulated by thegovernment. Single screen theatres may charge a maximum of₹50, while theatres with more than three screens may charge a maximum of₹120 per ticket.[99]
Bhaskaran, Theodore, Sundararaj (1996).Eye of The Serpent: An Introduction to Tamil Cinema.Chennai /University of Michigan: East West Books.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
Chinniah, Sathiavathi (2001).Tamil Movies Abroad: Singapore South Indian Youths and their Response to Tamil Cinema. Vol. 8. Kolam.
Guy, Randor (1997).Starlight, Starbright : The Early Tamil Cinema.Chennai.OCLC52794531.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Hughes, Stephen P. (25 February 2005). "Tamil Cinema as Sonic Regime: Cinema Sound, Film Songs and the Making of a Mass Culture of Music".New Perspectives on the Nineteenth and Twentieth Century. Keynote address: South Asia Conference at the University of Chicago. Chicago, Illinois.
Ravindran, Gopalan (18 March 2006).Negotiating identities in the Diasporic Space: Transnational Tamil Cinema and Malaysian Indians. Cultural Space and Public Sphere in Asia, 2006. Seoul, Korea: Korea Broadcasting Institute, Seoul.
Nakassis, Constantine V.; Dean, Melanie A. (2007). "Desire, Youth, and Realism in Tamil Cinema".Journal of Linguistic Anthropology.17:77–104.doi:10.1525/jlin.2007.17.1.77.S2CID145685533.
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