Documentary on S S Rajamouli angers Telugu viewers - Rajini confirms Vettaiyan delay

Trailor of NETFLIX documentary on S S Rajamouli has angered Telugu audience as the Stars NTR Jr, Ram Charan, Prabhas, Rana Daggubatti among others have their voices in Telugu dubbed and the English conversation in the original voice. Ram Charan said in the trailer, “Sometimes I am shocked. I see myself as a third person when I see his films.” As well as Jr NTR says, “This person is born to make films, and he’s born to tell stories that have never been told. I haven’t met someone like that.”. The trailer starts with an epic line by Rajamouli , “I want to tell an incredible story”.It ends with “The only thing that I am a slave to is my stories”. Netflix, Applause Entertainment, and Film Companion Studios partner for this upcoming biographical documentary feature titled Modern Masters: SS Rajamouli. A great section of the Tamil film viewers think that Director Shankar is more greater a person when it comes to telling stories with grandeur. When Indian 2 got released, the inevitable comparison between Shankar and Rajamouli began. Many felt that without Sujatha’s pen, Shankar is nobody. In reply, many said that if Rajamouli father Vijeyandra did not write, the situation could be same. Releasing on August 2nd. Directed by Raghav Khanna, , who is a former head of Netflix’s documentary production in Asia-Pacific, As NETFLIX studio executive, he was also behind the Academy winner Elephant Whisperers . He directed a documentary Road to Cannes that is hosted by Anupama Chopra and about the Cannes Film Festival. It featured among many others, interview with Dhanush. Singapore-based production group Beach House Pictures has teamed up with executive Raghav Khanna to launch new unit Riverland Entertainment in Mumbai. For morel https://horseshoemedia.co/raghav-khanna

Soubin Shahir known to non Malayalee viewers through Manjumel Boys is joining Coolie cast in Chennai. Fahad Faasil had dropped out. Out.Rajinikanth in a media interaction confirms that Vettaiyan will not come in October as some more dubbing remains to be done. This is what we told you that ten days of work remains and it involves Rajinikanth. As dubbing started, it looked like that Vettaiyan was on track for Diwali. Now we hear that a full length song featuring Rajini with 500 dancers are to be shot. We had told you that Rajini who usually completes a movie fully and moves to another , had this time to change his policy as the Director Gananvel was full of confusion and asking for perfection. Read ; https://southfilmy.blogspot.com/2024/06/rajini-to-start-coolie-as-vettaiyan-is.html Lyca has now the choice to release Ajith’s Visamuyurchi before Vettaiyan as the film wound up the Azerbaijan shoot and now will have a South America schedule. Here too , Ajith is trying to finish it as quickly as possible as he kickstarted work on his next. For Lyca, Diwali festival will see Sivakarthikeyan’s Amaran ready for release. More so the film is distributed by Red Giant, cp=producer of Indian franchise and produced by Kamal banner.

Indian 2 on August 2 - Thalapathy backs Chiyaan rival film - Cheran in Tovino film

Decades later two blood relatives and both Stars too are clashing with each other at the box office. We are talking about TOP STAR Prasanth and Chiyaan Vikram. On August 15th, the Prasanth starrer Andhagan and Vikram’s Thangalaan are releasing. Prasanth is first cousin as his father is maternal uncle of Vikram. Vikram’s mother is Rajeswari is youngest sister of Thiagarajan , father of Prasanth. Vikram’s real name is Kennedy John Victor and his father Vinod Raj was an actor. It seems almost 23 years back Prasanth’s Majnu and Vikram’s Kasi clashed at box office. Kasi gave Vikram a good name as he played blind man in it while Majnu was a big hit. Reports indicate that Thalapathy Vijay will release Andhagan anthem song sung by Anirudh and Vijay Sethupathy and cisual concept by Prabhu Deva and choreographed by Sandy. Prasanth is sharing scrn space with Vijay and Prabhu Deva in G O A T. Prasanth as hero was Johny released in 2018 and co starred in a Telugu film with Ram Charan and released in 2019. Vikram last release was PS 2 last year. Thangalaan trailor has created a huge buzz for the looks of Vikram and also that it is directed by Pa Ranjith , who has a great following among the youth. Ravi Teja film Mr Bachchan is also releasing on same date and it will be a competition to Vikram film in two Telugu States. It seems that the OTT company that holds Ravi Teja film had wanted this date for theatre release. Mr. Bachchan is a Telugu remake of the popular Ajay Devgn starrer Raid.

Indian 2 South languages will stream from August 2 on NetFlix . As per multiplex rules, Hindi will not release till 8 weeks after theatre release. Shankar’s next Game Changer will release on Christmas said Producer Dil Raju at pre- release event of Rayaan in Hyderabad.

Director- Actor Cheran is making his acting debut in Malayalam with Naarivetta directed by Anurah Manohar and has Tovino in the lead. It is produced by Indian Cinema Company. They are also producing a film with Fahadh and S J Suryah and directed by Vipin Das.

OTT and Hindi dubbing rights saves flop Tamil films

 Laabam and  Thalaivi, two Tamil films, rejected by the  theater going audience , was a profit earner for the producer- thanks to OTT -  Hindi dubbing and  Satellite rights. The main reason for this is presence of  Vijay Sethupathi in Laabam and Kangana Ranaut in Thalaivi who have become the favourite of the OTT  platforms. In case of Vijay Sethupathi, the reason is that his presence as villainy - character actor across multiple languages  and opposite top Stars has given him a pan Indian image and hence the OTT platforms believe that the film of his will get viewers in  non Tamil languages.

The  business details of Laabam is - Rs 10 crores invested by Seven Seas banner and Rs 10 cr remuneration of Vijay Sethupathi. Big payment made-  Rs 2 cr to director Jananathan - Rs 1 cr to Sruthi Haasan and Rs 50 lakhs to Music director D .. On the table profits -  Total Rs 18.50 cr . Breakup : Rs 8 cr from Netflix,  Hindi dubbing rights - Rs 2 cr,  Sun TV - Rs 6 cr and overseas Rs 50 lakhs.  Theater revenue :  Rs 3.5 cr got as MG from distributors for theater release ( though need not be given but  will be refunded since it is a disaster. Close to Rs 1 cr on publicity and Qube charges for distribution by producers in many areas were also added to loss. Out of Rs 6.50 cr on table profit, nearly 5 crores had to be  forgone due to theater loss.  Net Result is that Vijay Sethupathi is left with Rs 5 cr . In short if he was just an actor he would made Rs 10 cr .

If Netflix and Hindi dubbing rights  money was not so huge, Laabam would  have left producer with just Rs 3.5 cr . It was Vijay Sethupathi's pan South presence that saved the day.

Thalaivi was produced  at Rs 75 cr ( including Rs 10 cr incurred for interest due to shooting being stopped due to Covid 19) The film was bought by Zee for Rs 85 crores. The film was certified in Tamil - Telugu versions. Producers made a profit before release.  Zee sold the film on a  profit sharing basis to Trident Arts. Two weeks theater run in Tamil Nadu is sort of no loss - no gain for distributor- Zee.  If  producers had not got the Zee deal, and followed the four week window norm by theaters  plus OTT , they would have got not more more than Rs 45 cr ore from OTT.

Presence of Kangana Ranaut ( said to have been paid  close to Rs 30 crores for dual versions) had got Zee intrested in the Jayalalithaa biopic. Apart from the sale to Netflix and Amazon OTT which gave Rs 42 crore , Zee would market the film's Telegu- Tamil versions in all the four  South languages TV channels it owns. It also will screen in the Zee's multiple Hindi channels.

Boomika review : NETFLIX hell bent on giving Tamil cinema a bad name on a pan-Indian level

  

Boomika is yet another con game by putting names like Karthik Subburaj as the presenter of the film and then hyping it as Eco Thriller. Happens to be Aishwarya Rajesh 25th film ( as if all she did so far were gems). Yet another reason is director Rathindra Prasad who directed an episode in Navarasa. 

Rathindra Prasad does what he did in Navarasa. He started off well and concentrated on the camera- music - editing ( but somehow the CGI looked bad). He mucked up the content. Now such films get made and sold to an unsuspecting Netflix  by a super marketing hype . First you put across the subject - not just horror but eco- horror. Bhoomi (Earth) takes revenge on those who play with it. Right stuff for all the educated environmentalists and those who eat only organic food and use only paper bags. They are the ones who pay Rs 800 PM for subscription.  Second is cast- Aishwarya Rajesh. She takes up women centric roles and mind you not the Nayanthara type but that of a bold women fighting for a cause. This is her 25th film and a eco mixed horror film is just the thing. Last but not least is Kartik Subburaj . He is a champion of causes- don't you remember Mercury ?. ( for a living he will do a masala dishoom movie with likes of Rajnikant and Vikram). As a producer, he picks only the best . ( Penguin was a horror film that Amazon picked up despite such bad content just coz it had Keerthi. Last minute addition was Rathindra Prasad the director. If Mani Ratnam can pick him then he is best.

Netflix falls for this hype. Result is Boomika. A film which has no horror to keep you rooted and a bunch of  characters who do some clowning. I think the director  himself turned a critic and put in a dialogue - First time a psychologist who psych's the ghost.

This is what happens through out. Now a flashback sequence makes a good watch as the girl who plays the one with autism does a neat job and so also her father. I think her name is Avantika 

In case you are so immersed in the horror aspect, director brings you back to the core theme - Mother Nature and need to preserve it. The film has been dubbed into several languages ( I saw it the next day after I saw the Tamil). Netflix is hell bent on giving Tamil cinema a bad name all over India.

Vijay Sethupathi films for Sun TV- Netflix ?

 Vijay Sethupathi films that have been completed are to come straight on Sun TV channel and later on Netflix. This news comes soon after Sun Pictures is said to have signed a three film deal with Sivakarthikeyan, the other young draw of Tamul cinema. The next film of Vijay Sethupathi to come on OTT ia the sci-fi comedy film Annabele Subramniam in which he plays a double role and directed by Deepak Sunderajan. Tapsee Pannu has the major chunk of the film says sources. The fact that Tapsee Pannu is also a big draw on OTT is a major contributor to the film getting lucrative offers from OTT. Her Hassen Dilruba recently released is a hit on OTT.

Vijay Sethupathi's Ranasingam came on Zee5 as pay per view and despite this it did reasonably well.  The film content was however seen as not suited for OTT viewers. Next in line is Thuglak Durbar in Sun - Netflix and followed by the Deepak Sunderajan film. After that the next OTT release is Kadaisi Vivasayi of Sethupathi.  According to trade, Vijay Sethupathi is the MEGASTAR of OTT like Fahadh Faasil from Malayalam films. There could be atbleast 16 films that are already completed and two more that shooting is in progressing.

Sethupathi also has a Malayalam film in which he plays the hero and was made for OTT release.Similarly in Teugu, he has been approached to do the sequel to Rakshadu ( Telugu remake of Tamil film Ratchasan ) Bellam Konda Srinivas acted in the first part. Director Ramesh Varma is waiting for Sethupathi's dates. After Telugu hit Uppena, Sethupathi has become a big hit with Tollywood viewers. Recently he was in Bengaluru for shooting of Sun TV reality show Master Chef. In an interactin with media he narratted the Kannada dialogue said three years ago in his debut  Kannada film  Akahaada starring Vasanth Vishnu and him as the baddie. 

Tapsee Pannu last South outing was Game Over ( Tamil- Telegu). She has signed Mishan Impossible a Telugu film directed by Swaroop.   Looop Lapeta, an official remake of the 1998 German film Run Lola Run, Anurag Kashyap's thriller Dobaaraa produced by Ekta Kapoor and sports dramas Rashmi Rocket and Shabaash Mitthu are her other films. She launched her own production banner and started work  on Blurr. An official remake of 2010 Spanish film Julia’s Eyes, directed by Guillem Morales and written by him and Oriol Paulo. Oriol Paulo, interestingly, later directed The Invisible Guest (2016), that was remade in Hindi as Badla (2019), also starring Taapsee Pannu. The same Julia Eyes  is being remade in Marathi ( Ritesh Deshmukj- Manjari) , Bengali with Rituparna Sengupta, Esha Chawla in Telugu and Gayathrie Shankar in Tamil. All these versions are directed by cinematographer Kabir Lal.