For most fanatics of Mr. Rajnikanth, Diwali was celebrated on October 1st this year when Endhiran was released. And for the rest of the world, the last week had us all immersed in the festive fervor. Lots of smiles, sms and facebook greetings exchanged but one more Diwali sweet to be offered to me is certain to shoot up my sugar level, fat content and subsequently my BP up. So much of heavy-duty sweets uncontrollably consumed in the last week that in spite of having a usually large sweet tooth, I was left craving for something spicy even for a dessert! I was equally craving for an Ajith or Suriya or a Vikram film to catch this Diwali and wished at least one of them had a Diwali release. Nevertheless, this is still a memorable Diwali, thanks to Mr. Obama’s first official state visit to India defining, in his words, ‘one of the landmark partnerships of the 21st century’. Wish SRK knew about his coming before he went searching for the President in the film ‘My name is Khan’. That would’ve been much easier on him and the audience watching his inexorable banal journey.
Mr. President spoke about our 60 glorious years of democracy, our historical and political achievements, and his inspiration from Gandhiji, widening trade relations, the civil nuclear agreement, their support for our UNSC seat, and meeting all global challenges as an already-emerged superpower country. He also experienced a miniscule sample of India’s cultural flavor in his longest trip ever to any country as a US president. And finally with 6 billion people on the planet and 1 billion plus in India alone propelling the growth worldwide, it is only imperative to acknowledge that India is indispensable to realize the vision of America.
So what do these macro external affairs’ memos have to do with movies? One may call it a ripple effect or a trickle-down theory or whatever terminology but the first couple’s visit to India is bound to have a bullish rub-off on the Indian film industry. It may not be an obvious arrangement but with a strong Indo-US relationship, our shooting locales are bound to increase in US and vice versa with easier visa clearances. More Indian producers are likely to set up distribution offices for overseeing releases and more NRI entrepreneurs will probably experiment with producing Indian films post the rejuvenated relationship between the two countries.
It is a known fact that for Hollywood, India is an important market and has already teamed up with Bollywood production houses for new films or acquiring completed films’ release rights to get a foothold in India. But Hollywood is very much likely to join hands with Kollywood on a much larger scale making it indispensable for expanding their Hollywood dreams in Indian soil. That Fox Studios has tied up with director AR Murugadoss and Gautham Menon’s production company being listed in London Stock Exchange is only the start point for Tamizh film industry.
Just to give you a small sample (sorry didn’t I tell you it’s the Diwali sweets hangover), I actually meant a small ‘example’ of the larger picture, the Indian box office potential is likely to double to $ 4 Billion dollars by 2012 according to a FICCI/PWC report. Dreams and numbers are big and the investment is not going to be a one-film movie-making business. Sony, Warner Bros., Disney have all produced and burnt their fingers with ‘Saawariya’, ‘Chandni Chowk to China’ and ‘Roadside Romeo’ respectively. But many Hollywood biggies are only going to pump in investments where the return looks promising more than ever if reasonably right films are made.
Indian movies have long gone global from ‘Mother India’ to ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ and have opened the floodgates of cultural exchange. More recently, there’s no other Tamizh film to prove that better than the success of Sun Pictures’ ‘Endhiran’ worldwide. But, what will be interesting for us to watch out for is how major Hollywood production companies will now be wooing the Tamizh film audience with the Tamizh film associations / sangams and individual production companies. The white screen is mounted and the projector is also loaded with the ‘Hollywood meets Kollywood’ reel. What remains to be seen is if the output would be as colorful and entertaining as it is expected to be.
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