Hollywood makes fun of Thalaivar- Amazon rift with Suriya - NASA names STAR after Hansika- Meera backed by B'Town director ?

Did American band make fun of Thalaiva ? Suriya and Amazon Prime part ways? NASA named a celestial Star after Hansika Motwani? Meera Mitun has the backing of a maverick director? These questions were raised by many of the netizens today. The answers. Black Eyed Peas the American band in a music video `Action’ features scenes from films like Rajinikanth’s Enthiran, Vishal’s Aambala, Ajay Devgn’s Singham, among others. The action scenes are identical to the original, except for the faces of the actors, upon which Black Eyed Peas member’s will.i.am, apl.de.ap and Taboo have superimposed their own faces through deep fake technology. Scenes from the Swedish movie Kopps and Maryada Ramanna also appear in Action’s music video. Now Thalaivar, who is completing 45 years in Cinema on August 15th and basking in the praises flowing from his colleagues finds that his fans are unhappy with this music video. Fans say that it actually makes fun of the action scenes in Enthiran ( Robot). The makers wrote, “Check out our video for #ACTION inspired by #BOLLYWOOD…ive always loved music from india…#Elephunk and #MonkeyBusiness were inspired by Indian Culture…thank you india for your vibrancy and contribution to the world…” Music Maestro AR Rahman approved of the music video and quote-tweeted will.i.am’s tweet, “The borders are blurring through art! #tamilcinema @directorshankar #rajnikant #india.” Watching the video the fans do have a point. When the Common DP is making waves, the timing of the music video seems ill-timed. 

Now Suriya’s 2D Ent was the first to let Amazon Prime have a premiere release of their film Ponmaghal vandhal. He is to act in a web series helmed by Mani Rathnam for the same company. Now what went wrong? Why was 24 pulled out by the OTT?. Nothing to worry. Viewers said that audio quality is bad and it will be back with a bang soon says Amazon. 

No NASA did not name any celestial star after actress Hansika Motwani. A few friends paid the amount to the website https://www.star-registration.com/. In case you want to gift a STAR, pls visit the website. They give you a certificate that has a lifetime validity. So Hansika at 29 years need not worry about stardom. To further clear the query- Hansika never mentioned about NASA. It was an overzealous web portal. 

Yes, Meera Mitun announced that she is launching her production company in Delhi on Ganesh Chatuthurthi day She thanked her politicians-financier friends. Bhartiraaja who is to head the active producer’s council has warned Meera not to cross the line in her attacks on Stars. She called wives of Suriya and Vijay as woman with bad past. Her ex manager alleges that a big director in Mumbai is sponsoring her attacks on Kollywood. Talking about NASA, my astrologer says it has rearranged positions. Now my astrological planet sign has changed and should follow new sign. That is why I missed the prediction of COVID 19.

Producers should not miss the OTT bus

The postponement of the opening of cinema halls and film shootings has further entrenched the OTT platforms and given audience time to cultivate the habit of watching entertainment from home. Theaters are gung-ho on the simple belief that there is a large population in the rural India known as Bharat that has this pent-up feeling of not seeing a film in a theater with the family or friends. Once the curtains are up and a Star driven film is released, all the fears of Covid 19 will vanish and it will be business as usual. The theaters in Tamil Nadu cite the case of crowds coming back to TASMAC after a long closure. As some producer’s pointed out that the theaters equating them to TASMAC shop closure is mis placed. The people going to a theater to see a film and a tippler going to buy his drink every day from TASMAC are two different entities. There are two reasons that work against the theater viewing experience, when they reopen. The urban class known as India has shown a tremendous shift in habits and there is a spike in subscriptions to OTT platforms. A report says the fall in outdoor entertainment like theme parks, events and theaters, where social distancing is a must will take a hit. The urban class especially in the cities that have been severely hit by Covid will shift to home entertainment. In the case of smaller cities and rural areas, there has been a reverse migration of population and halt in economic activity would mean that spending on theaters and even on paying extra subscriptions for OTT would not be on the spending list. If the closure further continues, the OTT subscription model will gain momentum in both the urban and non-urban areas. Given that the theaters are opened with a 50% crowd capacity, monetization by theaters could take much more time. In this scenario, the digital rights will be more lucrative than the theatrical rights. Many production companies have already moved OTT platforms with proposals for web series and films exclusively for them. Top directors too are in the bandwagon. Mani Rathnam, Vetrimaran and Gautam Menon are those already signed up. Malayalam film industry has cashed the most from the OTT demand as the patronage by other language viewers for the dubbed versions is in great demand. Khalid Rahman, director of hits like Anuraga Karikkin Vellam and Unda , finished his movie starring Shine Tom Chacko and Rajisha Vijayan in the lead, and has been titled Love. It was shot for 23 days following the Covid precautions and is soon to hit an OTT platform. Though the theater owners are putting up a brave front saying that OTT has stopped buying films after the flop of Ponmaghal Vandhal and Punguin, the reality is that the business module that these films were acquired by the OTT has given both the parties a sizable profit. At present, OTT’s are advancing money for making `original’ films and web series. This may change as situation changes due to restoration of normalcy or more producers’ lining up. Use of AI by OTT to get to the root of user preference and need to have more cash liquidity as technology grows, will cut advance spend. OTT too has to grapple with the low advertising budgets of consumer- auto, e-commerce companies and recovery of money. The time is ripe for those who feel that CONTENT IS KING. An actor like Suriya has agreed to work in an episode of a web series as he wants to use the remuneration to donate to worker’s federation. Will many others follow?