Why Rajinikanth's Hukum still rules Tamil Box Office ?

No wonder Rajinikanth’s Jailer 2 promo released today continues to break the internet. Rajinikanth film Vettaiyan is in the 12th position of Indian Box Office of 2024 as per Ormax survey. Two other Tamil actors in this list are Thalapathy Vijay’s GOAT and Sivakarthikeyan Amaran. This is the answer to those who said that Vettaiyan is a flop !!! In 2024, two Regional film industries that did exceptionally well are Malayalam filmdom and Gujrati films. Kerala filmdom went on a historic high from collections of Rs. 572 crores in 2023 to Rs. 1165 crores in 2024. The industry crossed the Rs. 1000 crore mark for the first time ever and main factor was Manjumel Boys and Premalu. Gujrati filmdom from Rs. 50 crores in 2023 to Rs. 84 crores. A major factor behind it was the success of the horror comedy Jhamkudi, which collected Rs. 20 crores plus. Among the Indian actor’s , Ajay Devgan had two films in top list – Shaitaan and Sigham Again. As per The Ormax Box Office Report 2024, while the total gross box office collections of 2023 were Rs. 12,226 crores, the 2024 earnings dropped by around 3.32 % and stood at Rs. 11833 crores. The three saving grace films of the year were Pushpa 2 – The Rule, Kalki 2898 AD and Stree 2. These were the only films that crossed the Rs. 500 crore mark. The Tamil cinema finally made an entry to the list at the seventh and eight positions with Thalapthy Vijay’s The Greatest Of All Time (Rs. 305 crores) and Sivakarthikeyan’s Amaran (Rs. 258 crores). By collecting Rs. 174 crores, Rajinikanth’s Vettaiyan made it to the twelfth position. Malayalam film for first time entered the list. Manjummel Boys collected Rs. 170 crores .

Backed by Kalanithi Maran’s Sun Pictures, there have been no official announcements about the cast and crew of Jailer 2. Will it bring back Vijay Kartik Kannan who created magical frames for the film? Will the movie see the return of Shivarajkumar, Mohanlal, and Jackie Shroff? Will newer stars enter this galaxy? The four-minute teaser begins with the news channel announcing the impending Fengal cyclone, as we see Anirudh Ravichander and Nelson Dilipkumar discussing their project. Their conversation is interrupted by men who are being shot and attacked black and blue. Petrified by the sight, we see the most-awaited entrance by none other than Rajinikanth. A bomb comes rolling towards the duo, as Rajinikanth walks out of the house. We see some people with snipers pointing towards Rajinikanth, he takes out his eyeglass and we see through it the snipers blown away by torpedoes coming from behind him. It ends as the teaser is accompanied by Hukum soundtrack from Jailer. The promo ends with the duo announcement of Jailer 2.

Illaiyaraaja sues Rajinikanth Coolie Producer

Sun Pictures faces a lawsuit filed by Music composer Illaiyaraaja for using the tune from the film Thanga Magan starring Rajinikanth and released in November 1983. The BGM was used by Anirudh for the upcoming Rajinikanth film Coolie directed by Lokesh Kanagraj and was used in the video released. Lyricist Vairamuthu at a public meeting said that the role of lyric writers in formation of a song was as important as a composer and quipped that it would be good if ganani understood this. Illaiyaraaja is called Isaignani by his fans. Vairamuthu comment was a vieled reference to the lawsuit filed by Illaiyaraaja on Echo Recording for not paying him the royalty for the songs that he composed. Sources say that the legal notice to Sun Pictures has asked the company to pay an adequate compensation for using the BGM and also make changes in the video and give Illaiyaraaja due importance. In short, the production company will have to release a revised version and shell out a hefty amount. The said Va Vaa Pakaam Vaa song sung by SPB and Vani Jayram and lyrics by Muthulingam. It was filmed with Poornima and Ravichandran taking part. Sources in Raaja camp say that the legal notice was necessary as said song too comes under the ambit of the ongoing case against Echo Recording. They inform us that Sun Pictures had bought the song rights from Sathya Movies and also the soundtrack. If it goes unchallenged, the current case over copyright would be weak for Illaiyaraaja points out source. Anirudh had announced that a full fledged cover version of the Disco song was in the way. In the court, during arguments, the Judge observed that if the same reason that music composer was owner of the song and not the Producer or the company that bought it, then even lyric writers too had a stake in it. On April 24, The Division bench ruled that the music composer alone was not the only owner of the song and lyricist – singer too had the same right. The court said that in June second week it would take up the petition in detail.

Rajini - Lokesh film confirmed - Sneha in Vijay film - Poorna confirms Andrea nude scenes

Rajinikanth fans are double excited with the Sun Pictures announcement of Thalaivar 171 directed by Lokesh Kanagaraj with music by Anirudh and stunts by Anbu Arivu duo. The teaming of Lokesh with kamal resulted in Vikram which created box office history and that was broken by Rajinikanth’s Jailer. Now coming of two record breakers has excited the fans. Sun Pictures gifted 300 unit members of Jailer a gold coin and hosted a dinner. Meanwwhile Kerala movie goers are asking why Vinayakan who played the badde Varman was not given a car as Rajini- Nelson and Anirudh were given BMW.

Those in the know of things say that Nayanthara was paid Rs 11 crores for Jawan. If this is true then she is the first South actress to get a double digit renumeration for a Hindi debut. She might now up her price for South films too. Actress Poorna in an interview confirmed that Andrea had acted in nude scenes in Pisasu 2. Poorna is also acting in the film and said that Myskkin had confirmed it. She added that she does not have the courage to act in nude scenes and added that she cannot reveal anything more about it.

Sneha will be playing the lead opposite Thalapathy Vijay in Venkat Prabhu film She is paired opposite the father character and in Priyanka Mohan is paired opposite son character as Vijay playing a dual role, Sneha and Vijay acted in Vassgaran ( 2003) and in Venkat Prabhu direction film Goa (2009), Film will start on October 1 in Chennai and major portions are in Chennai.

Rajinikanth says I am Superstar at Jailer audio release

Rajinikanth explained why he still retains the Superstar title and on the lyrics of the film song interpreted as targeting Thalapathy Vijay. At the audio launch of Jailer , Rajinikanth spoke about how the title Superstar was causing a big burden as he had to live up to it. At one point of time, he decided that he would not use the tag anymore. At that time, many said that he was scared of losing it and that made him rethink on giving it up. This was a veiled reference to Thalapathy Vijay fans who claimed that their hero’s box office had long back overtaken Rajinikanth. To douse a fan war, Rajinikanth said that the lyrics of song Hukum from Jailer has been interpreted as aimed at some one and said that a group always indulged in such interpretations. He said this after having narrated a short story of how an eagle who flies high in the sky just ignore a crow that is crowing at him. He left it to the imagination of who was crow and eagle. Director Nelson who directed Beast with Vijay said that it was Vijay who gave him the guts to go and narrate the subject to Rajinikanth. He made it clear that after Rajinikanth okaying the subject, he was still not confirmed by Sun Pictures, The reports then said that after mixed reviews came in for Vijay’s Beast directed by Beast, Rajinikanth had doubts on going ahead with same director. Nelson said that Sun Pictures who produced Beast decided to go ahead as they did not suffer financial losses. Those who were in the censor panel say that the vintage comic hero Rajinikanth has come alive in this film Jailer and would bring back the family audience back to theatres. Speculation is on about who is the actor who was asked to leave the set as he could deliver what Director wanted. An AD said that when Rajini saw the actor being dismissed, he said not to sack him and instead include in a frame with him and so can get mileage from it. Is it the drunken actor who shot off his mouth against a political leader ? Ayangaran International and Prime Media are releasing the film on August 10 in USA.

Beast review : Rajinikanth needs to have a rethink on Nelson direction

Beast shows again that young directors lose their grip on the narrative when they have a STAR  who is a Thalapathy to his fans.  Nelson is confused as to how to treat a wafer thin story with a larger than life Vijay's image and more so confine the hostage drama  within a Mall. He has to bring in a Sylvester Stallone kind of Vijay during action and then shift to kid sentiment and comedy. Finally, he hits a roadblock. How do we end the film ?. The happenings so far are so limp and merely gunning down the bad guys will not do. So hero takes off in a fighter jet ( not provided by Indian Airforce) to fly to POK and do a URI surgical. JAI HIND.

The best of Beast is all there in the trailor.  Anirudh BGM is so loud and even drowns out dialogues. The songs and choreography with camerawork ( Manoj ) is a plus. Pooja Hegde ??? . Comedy ??? . Merely sporting a swag, style and playing Mr Cool, Vijay to an extent satisfy his fans but is this all that is needed in a Thalapathy film to be a hit at box office ?. It so then Sun Pictures can laugh their way to the bank. 

Rajinikanth who is teaming up with Nelson for his next has to doubly cautious. Nelson is not able to balance the Stardom of Vijay and combine his narrative style seen in two of his earlier films.  It can worst with Thalaivar as hero.Tbere is director Selvaraghavan in a role that only Nelson can describe and as per a Biz report on Beast Selvaraghavan was paid Rs 2 cr. Sun got ripped off.

In a first : Tickets for Beast trailor at black rates - Vijay 's Sun TV interview after 10 years

Thalapathy Vijay's Beast is the first film whose tickets for a Trailor of a film was sold at the black market for a premium. After 10 years,Actor Vijay will appear on Sun TV for a interview with Nelson , director of Beast. Finally, with help from Actor Shime Tom Chacko, the main baddie was spotted in the trailor of Beast.

Usually, trailor of big ticket films are released in theaters along with films that are running in the hall. There have been instances where the shows of flop movies got housefull boards after the trailor screened. Many theaters like Rohini in Chennai screened trailor on open screen ooutside the hall as a bonus to fans. This time however, trailr screening became organised and converted it to a channel of revenue by theater owners. In many Districts trailor of Beast was screened for Rs 50 per head ticket. In some halls the celeberation of fans went over board and glass windows - seats were damaged. YouTube critic Blue Sattai Maaran in a tweet showed shots of a ticket sold in a theater in Madurai. Tirupr Subramanian , Exhibitors Association said that by allowing unlimited crowds inside the hall or outside the hall to watch trailor was risky if any untoward happened, He said that the theater license would be cancelled. In Chennai suburbs, theaters for Rs 1 a ticket allow fans to watch trailors and no one without tickets are allowed inside. So over crowding does not appen and usual security for a fan film release is put in place. In another first, Vijay interview is coming on Sun TV at 9 PM Sunday April 10th and it is after his last apperance on this channel for an interview in 2011 as promotion of film Velayutham. The actor's audio release for films produced by Sun Pictures has appeared.

After the trailor appeared, many started asking where is Shine Tom in the film. Some reviewing the film also spoke about a bald foriegner coming as a bad guy. Now Shine put a clue in his insta post with his makeover look.

Are theater owners helping PMK to stall Suriya film release ?

 Are theaters pulling out from screening Etharkkum Thunindhavan  for their own selfish gain and using PMK opposition as a reason ?. Sun Pictures ,the producer is seeing many theaters announcing in many districts that screening ET will be a risk and hence are screening Valimai as usual.. The reason being that Valimai run into third week will only give profits to theater owners. The PMK opposition to release of ET is on the grounds that Suriya's previous  film Jai Bhim released on OTT had hurt the sentiments of Vanniyar caste and the actor should tender a public apology. The youth wing head of PMK has asked theatres to not screen the film ET.

Though theaters in  North Districts being cautious can be reasonable as PMK can create trouble, In other areas too the film is being cold shouldered by movie halls. In Madurai, the film has lesser number of screens than what a usual Sun Pictures film gets. Valimai State distribution is done by Madurai Anbu.

Sources say that there is a conspiracy to yank the film off saying that Prabhas film Radhe Shyam is doing better as it is releasing one day later. Two weeks later comes RRR and ET will totally vanish. As  Suriya gave all his films ( acted and produced ) to OTT during Covid time, theater owners were wanting to teach him a lesson. As it was Ruling party backed Sun Pictures, there was nothing much to do. Now PMK has come as a  cover to hide behind  to hit at Suriya.   

PMK is politically weak and in last two polls got trounced badly.. However, the scare it can create in some Districts might keep the audience away. In Chennai, 16 shows per day are booked.in every release theater. 

In this proxy war between Theater owners and Suriya, caught is Sun Pictures. Sun Pictures  will get police backup and probably have PMK trouble makers picked up today night but theaters unwillingness and a silent word of mouth publicity  is what stumps them. Will Suriya fans help to turn the tide ?,

Suriya 's litmus test with Etharkkum Thunindhavan

 

Suriya's Etharkkum Thunindhavan releasing in theaters on March 10th is his first theater release since September 20 2019 , when Kappaan was released. In the period it between , he kept himself in public  by releasing his films on OTT platform. Soorarai Pottru and Jai Bhim are the two releases in last 2  years andmon Amazon Prime. Both the films were big hits on this  platform. 

Theater box office records his last release Kappaan as average which means that it gave a marginal profit. Just before  that in same year NGK was released. It received bad reviews all over and with OTT- TV rights, it could have covered the cost but for theaters it was a loss. In 2018, Suriya  gave a hit with Thaana serandu kootam. Suriya's Andhra - TS market will be also dicey as Prabhas Radhe Shyam is releasing on March 11.

Theater owners still have a grudge against Surya for giving two film to OTT. As ET producer is Sun Pictures, this will not be an issue. Secondly, Ajith's Valimai has not been the gold mine that theatres had hoped it would be. So ET is the next bet.

On the ground, realities are different. Firstly are the fan clubs mechanism operational at releasing stations and on social media ?  After a two year hiatus , are the fan clubs battle ready ?. Second is that unlike Ajith who came after Nerkonda Paarvai in 2019 and received a bumper opening with Valimai, Suriya is no King of Opening. Here again, March 10 is no festival date. The drawing power or the connect that he has kept through OTT releases with his core audience will be put to test. One is that a chunk of those who likes his films on OTT might wait it out to see on small screen and it means that ET will show whether he has his STAR power still intact or lost sheen. ET is said to be one of the big ticket films for Sun Pictures. As they hold the TV - digital- OTT rights, the investment will be recovered. The box office is very crucial for Surya as he comes after more than 2 years to seek theater goers approval, the real backbone of any movie Star The film is releasing in 5 languages
Career wise Suriya's future film outings are promising- a film with director Bala and Vetrimaaran

Rajinikanth next- Nelson direction- Anirudh music- Sun TV producer

Putting to rest all speculation, Sun Pictures officially announced that Rajinikanth 169 will be directed by Nelson and Anirudh scores. the music. Nelson is directing Thalapathy Vijay in Beast for same production company.  Sun Pictures gave an announcement alert saying that it coming at 6 PM on twitter. Since yesterday, fans were waiting for the announcement. It was confirmed that Sun Pictures was to produce it. Rajinikanth had taken for a photo shoot for advt announcement just before his public appearance at opening of a hotel in Chennai.

Sun tweeted - “#Thalaivar169BySunPictures: https://youtu.be/EtXQqufHoAk Presenting Superstar @rajinikanth’s #Thalaivar169 directed by @Nelsondilpkumar and music by @anirudhofficial (sic).”

elson, sharing the same on Twitter, wrote, “Feeling elated to announce my next film with the legendary SUPERSTAR @rajinikanth sir , happy to have associated with @sunpictures and my dearest friend @anirudhofficial once again! #respect #humbled #thalaivar169 (sic).”

The announcement comes at a time when Nelson is going through a busy phase on the work front. The director's new movie Beast, starring Vijay and Pooja Hegde, is slated to hit the screens this April. It will be his first big outing after Doctor, which...is releasing on April.

Suriya's Pan Indian entry with Etharkkum Thunindhavan ?

 

Among the young crop of Tamil heroes, Suriya will be first  mass heroe to have a Pan Indian release of his film Etharkkum Thunindhavan directed by Pandiraj. The reason for the move to ave All India release is said to be the demand from Bollywood trade that the film be promoted as a straight Hindi film. Bollywood trade feels tat Jai Bhim has given Suriya a wide reach iamong North Indian audience. The film has given the actor a far reach to the Hindi hinterland. Audiences in the B- C tier cities and villages that had access to OTT have watched it and liked his performance and the film.

Producers Sun Pictures have planned a Feb 4 release. Surprisingly the film Soorarai Pottru in which Suriya played the role of Capt. Gopinath did not take him beyond the metros. It was Jai Bhim that has taken the actor to the common man in Hindi belt. Sun Pictures does have the resource to promote the film . Pandiraj two previous outings ( Kadaikutty Singam) were blockbusters. The rural subject would appeal to Hindi audience, feels trade

The coming line up of films by Suriya are with directors Vetrimaaran, Bala, Sudha Kongara, Siva ( Annaatthe fame)), and Lokesh Kanakraj ( revive early project Irumbukai Maayavi) . Suriya is also producer of Soorarai Pottru in Hindi. Etharkkum Thunindhavan will be a theater release for Suriya after a long time. SP released last week in Thiruvanthapuram saw actors fans celebrate it in a big way.

Rajinikanth's Annaathe adopts Kerala model distribution

Sun Pictures Annaathe starring Rajinikanth- Nayanthara has  adopted the Kerala model of film distribution in Tamil Nadu. Ironically, Antony Perumbavoor is asking Kerala theaters  to adopt the MG system of Tamil Nadu for Marakkar. Similarly, Sun Pictures has directly entered overseas market and entrusted Real Image the company that operates Qube digital transmission in India to distribute worldwide. Instead of selling it outright and not knowing  collection figures and countries it was screened, Real Image would provide a full details and take a service charge on it. In fact this would be an eyeopener to the real business of Tamil cinema abroad.

Usually, a star film is sold to a single distributor and he in turn re-sells it to various distributors in districts. These distributors in turn take a MG ( minimum guarantee) from theaters and passed on to main distributor. If the film collections fall short of MG, the distributor has to pay back to theaters and if it exceeds, the outflow is shared as per mutual agreements.

 Sun Pictures entrusted Udhayanidhi Stalin's Red Giant to call all theater owners to Chennai and ask them to deposit an advance amount as per their calculation. After a price was agreed among theater owners in districts and profit sharing percentage, the agreements were drawn up between them and Sun Pictures. Red Giant was only a facilitator and got a fee for it. This way theaters had no compulsion to pay as per distributor demand and amount was safe with a brand like Sun Pictures. Profit sharing rates were uniform  for all single screens and usually here it varied according to locations but it was not so this time. Multiplexes who are united and governed by corporates always had a unified sharing percentage. 

Theaters did not have to cough up heavy amounts to get the film and take it to a blind game of gambling. This way, Sun Pictures got the real picture of collections through Red Giant that monitored it.  In Kerala, Sun distributes the film through PVR theater  chain on just advance amount. Usually a non Malayalam film  is bought outright and no body knows what it collected. Same applies to Karnataka. Only in Andhra, it has been sold outright.

This system does away with district wise distributors and giving them commission. Distributors are not overtly worried as only big banners with Superstars can do business this way . Others would be cash starved and want to make a fast buck at the earliest. In USA alone, Annaathe has got 550 screens and for first time the names have been listed.

Sun TV to focus on Kerala- Andhra markets - focus on Reality shows and satellite rights

 

Sun Network will be investing more in the Surya TV – Gemini TV markets hereafter. It will be putting out 40-50 episode non -fiction (reality shows) got from International markets. For the time being, the network will concentrate on reality shows and finishing committed movie apart from buying movies satellite rights ,   web-series for the OTT platform is not on the cards. The present method to show medium budget films first on Sun NXT and later premiering on Sun TV  will continue.

Sun will be pumping in Rs 30 cr per show of nonfiction genre. On the movie front, the network has allocated Rs 1200 crores to be spend in 2 years. 8 movies are in the pipeline, four of them are under production. one movie is almost nearing completion. Shooting for a couple of movies are 30% to 40% complete. The fourth movie has just commenced shooting. Two of the eight movies are big ticket releases with South Indian megastars in the lead role. In view of uncertainity surrounding shooting due to Covid 19 restrictions, the network will be clearing the pending commitments. This helps as these films add to the networks film library.

v  For the stock market share investor sharp reduction in dividend payout to 13% versus average of 49% over the last five years, despite cash and cash equivalents of Rs 4140 crore, is a big disappointment. The 2020 Ad revenue fell by 26% but DTH connection subscription has risen by 10%.The promoters' massive compensations have remained intact whilst investors have been short changed. In the case of Sun TV,  promoters and friends and family control almost 80% of the stock. As of date, it has enormous financial assets, excluding non-current assets and trade receivables, of INR 3750 cr. This includes cash, bank and treasury investments. Its gross expenditure net of depreciation and amortization is approximately INR 1150 cr. In other words, the company can survive for 3 years plus with no revenue whatsoever! Surely the management does not believe the pandemic’s impact will be so grave on a company with such a robust business model! -writes Prabal Basu Roy who is a non-executive director, and an Advisor to Chairmen, of corporate boards about the stock market of the network.