Boycott Kamal; No films on TV

Shobha Warrier in Chennai

A war is brewing between the Tamil Film Industry and the television channels.

The Tamil Film Industry Federation [TFIF] has threatened to boycott Kamal Haasan, Urvasi, Vasundhara Das, Simran, Monal, directors Saran and Rajiv Menon and art director Thotta Tharani, if they defied the TFIF and gave interviews to these channels.

The TFIF also asked singers, music directors, lyricists and choreographers to avoid giving interviews to television channels.

The ratio of the number of channels to television viewers in Tamil Nadu is unusually high. Channels compete against each other by showing films and the same kind of film-related programmes.

With the decision of the newly formed TFIF to boycott all satellite television channels, the channels will find it tough going.

Formed by the Tamil Nadu Film Distributors' Federation, the Tamil Film Producers' Federation, the Tamil Directors' Association, the Theatre Owners' Association and the Artists' Association TFIF was formed on December 31, 2001 to save the Tamil film industry from an untimely death.

The industry had been going through a rough patch for the last few years. Films have been flopping and producers and distributors went bankrupt.

Then Sun TV started KTV, a 24-hour film channel. According to L Suresh, President of the Tamil Nadu Film Distributors' Association, KTV has done maximum damage to the industry. "It's entry has affected the industry very, very badly. The results are disastrous."

Almost all the films released last Diwali bombed. Even Aalavandhan [Abhay in Hindi], the costliest Tamil film ever made, bombed. The industry has not recovered from the shock.

Suresh says, "The problem is television channels also air various scenes from new films. As people get to see almost the entire film bit by bit, on various channels, they don't feel like going to the theatre at all. That is why we have decided to boycott all television channels."

The Federation does not object to showing one-and-a-half minutes of a song or a three-minute long trailer on television, like it is done in Mumbai. The problem in Chennai, observes Suresh, is different channels are given different clippings of new films. Entire songs are often aired on television.

The Federation has banned television channels from covering the poojas connected with films, music releases and other celebrations. These restrictions will continue for a year, Federation authorities said, after which time the situation will be reviewed.

Suresh confirms that ever since the Federation boycotted the television channels (January 1, 2002), theatre collections are looking up. "We have noticed a marginal increase and hope it will improve." Sun TV, Raj TV and Jaya TV refused to comment on the same.

Only time will tell whether this decision is a good one as they are losing one of the strongest mediums to promote their films. Instead of improving the quality of the films to woo the audiences back to theatres, the film industry has decided to blame the television channels for their present plight.

Meanwhile, films like Lagaan and Dil Chahta Hai are still running in Chennai where Hindi is not understood by a majority of the people. The English film Matrix ran for months here.

What then is the real problem?

The Tamil film industry doesn't seem to have any answers.