Kollywood, so far, hasn’t really tried to expand its reach and make films for the global audience. But it looks like the trend is slowly changing now. Right from doing projects in association with international production houses to hiring cast and crew from across the world, filmmakers are now creating content, which would cater to foreign audiences as well.
For instance, Idhu Vedhalam Sollum Kadhai (IVSK), directed by Rathindran Prasad, is a Tamil language film, which boasts cast and crew from across the Europe. Another Tamil project, Jallikattu 5-23, has now been backed by Kazuko Kurosawa, daughter of acclaimed director Akira Kurosawa, through ‘Kurosawa Studios’ and Shankar’s magnum opus 2.0 is also being dubbed in multiple languages.
DC speaks to filmmakers and experts as they open up about how it is high time for Tamil cinema to expand its market.
Director Rathindran, whose upcoming film IVSK, which stars Ashwin Kakumanu and Guru Somasundaram from Kollywood, Bollywood actor Abhay Deol and British actor and stunt master Greg Burridge, states that right now is the best time for Tamil filmmakers to make global cinemas. “If not now, there would never be a right time! Especially with the digital platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime, we filmmakers have a lot of avenues to resort to and make movies for wider audience,” he asserts.
Speaking about what inspired him to make a Tamil film that would have a global appeal, he states, “I want to do something in which I truly believe in and not do projects just to cater to the market. That is one of the reasons why I
waited for so long so that the industry is ready to accept something like this. Also, I’ve a strong urge to work with technicians from various countries. Every time you work with a different set of people, you learn something new because the way they see films could be completely different from the way we see it.”
Explaining why he feels projects like IVSK are so important, Rathindran opines, “As we get into more and more of a global age, we shouldn’t see this just as an expansion of markets, but more as an expansion of culture and ideas. Korean, Thai and Turkish films which we get to see here, are made for global audience — this kind of trend hasn’t come here yet. I’m not just talking about art-house films; I’m just talking about interesting concepts, which will appeal to the audience from every part of the world.”
On the other hand, Santhosh, the director of the upcoming film Jallikattu 5-23, which is being dubbed in Japanese by Kurosawa Studios, says, “These kinds of attempts enhance Tamil films’ stature in global arena. If you take my film for instance, it is about the Tamil people’s pride over their language and culture. This resonated with Japanese culture — as they also hold their language and culture with great respect. So, they had this connect. That’s why the production house was willing to come forward to take this project to Japanese audience.”
Santhosh adds, “Taking the film outside borders is not necessarily a new thing. Recently, Baahubali 2 was released in Germany and China and turned out to be a huge hit. Similarly, Dangal, too, turned out to be a blockbuster in China. The core theme of films can be sometimes universal — that’s why it turns out to be successful.”
When ask about the challenges involved in making such films, Rathindran replies, “Pitching our films to foreigners might be difficult — because the moment we say Indian cinema, all they think of is Bollywood and people running around the trees! I would really want us to change this attitude — how they see India and Indian cinema. We’ve immense dimensions that needed to be explored. I can safely say that pitching a Tamil film to a foreign producer is 100 times difficult than pitching it to a Tamil producer!”
He continues, “To be honest, any aspiring filmmaker, who wishes to direct films for a wider audience, should start making small films. Through our production house Whole Wide World Films, we are planning to give an opportunity to exciting young filmmakers and come up with small independent films for international audiences.”
In certain cases, Tamil filmmakers have also gone a step ahead and made Hollywood projects with a mix of technicians and artistes from both the industries. Lake of Fire, one such project by Raj Thiruselvan, stars Indian-American actor Parvesh Cheena and renowned Hollywood actor Christopher Atkins. In an earlier interview with us, Raj stated, “We want to show that Indian talent is equal to that of Hollywood. And we should definitely start doing global projects in order to really compete with other industries.”
(With inputs from Kirubhakar Purushothaman)
