Tamil films, which were not screened by theatre owners with the fear of being attacked by pro-Kannada activists have been brought back on screens since last week. This week, hit Tamil film “Remo” has been released.
The market of Tamil films have gone down considerably in last few years in Bengaluru. Except for few star films, none of them manage to do well here. There are certain theatres which only play Tamil films. Most of these situated in belts, where there are majority of Tamilians.
Speaking about releasing Tamil films, a manager of a popular theatre which screens Tamil films in Bengaluru said, “Due to Cauvery issue, we had stopped screening Tamil films. We did not want to hurt anyone. With the situation coming back to normal, we have started to screen Tamil films again. Many distributors had suffered losses due to this. They had purchased the rights of the film few months before. They suffered losses.”
When asked why the theatres are so adamant of playing Tamil films, he said, “It is not like that. As we are situated in place, where there are lots of Tamilians, they come to watch Tamil films. And our theatre has been branded as Tamil theatre. We have also played Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam films in the past. But they did not do well as expected, because of the brand we have. People prefer to watch other language films in other theatres. Even distributors of other languages film do not prefer our theatres.”
Releasing Tamil films in the state capital has upset few Bangaloreans. Vishal Gowda, an IT employee said, “It is sad that Karnataka have started screening Tamil films again. We are suffering so much, but our theatre owners do not care. Last week, Vishnuvardhan’s Kannada which was dubbed in Tamil was not allowed to release anywhere in Tamil Nadu. But we people do not care about that and are trying to prove that we are great. Tamil films should not be allowed to screen here at all.”
But there are few, who disagree with Vishal. Sanjay, a journalist said, ” We cannot mix art and politics. Both are different. And there is lots of money also involved. Banning a Tamil film will not give solution to any problem. Instead we should look at other alternatives.”
The one which benefitted most from no screening of Tamil films were medium budget Kannada films. They were releasing their films in Tamil theatres all these days. Now they will have not have this option.
