Risky moves by tinsel town designers....

When a designer wants to spend his own money, to convert his thoughts into a final product.. the result may be either abundant benefits or a long stay under a shell. This is what is happening in Kodambakkam, nowadays. Each and every director is adding another role to their credit... as a producer.

A news of this week, made my team to do some interesting digging....

Director Shakthi Chidambaram is going into the Producer's mould, after tasting success in several of his earlier ventures. Since those ventures like Ennamma Kannu, Charlie Chaplin, Mahanadigan, Englishkaaran etc., had a decent run in B&C centres, he would have decided to reap the profits himself out of his next venture titled 'Kovai brothers'. I think, he may make more money than the earlier ones in B&C centres, considering some of the pictures released earlier this week. [chk out yourself...... Courtesy: Tring Tring]

Few weeks back, director-turned-comedian Manobala wanted to try out the new role as producer. Few months earlier, K.Bhagyaraj's assistant Mr.Sivakumar (director of Arjun's 'Ayutha Poojai') wished to produce a new movie with his mentor in the key role as director and actor. Will they all be lucky like their predecessors who took up this additional role? Time will tell them...

I believe, most of them take up this new role, due to several reasons... (1) to encash their abilities (2) to strengthen their market (3) if they are unable to find any scapegoats (4) if they are confident of their juniors

Our DBI team made some interesting search, to pull out some of those existing directors who don the producer's role as well.. successfully or otherwise!!!

Let me start with 'Iyakunar Sigaram' K.Balachandar, whose production house 'Kavithaalaya' has carved a place in the industry with a lot of quality movies to its credit. [Was it called 'Kamalaalaya' or 'Kalaalaya' earlier? Something similar to that...]

I remember that in those earlier days, he used to direct most of them produced under this banner. Later, the house's trend of supporting other directors, had definitely converted it into a leading production house. Most of them were hits and I don't remember many flops from this house..

Some of them which I could recollect are Netrikann, Poovilangu, Sigaram, Velaikaaran, Keladi Kanmani, few family dramas of Visu, Roja, Rojavanam, Saami, Thirumalai, Vidukathai, Ayyah etc., Upcoming 'Ithaya Thirudan' (Directed by Saran) with 'Jayam' Ravi in the lead, is also from their house. I'm confident that they will come out with more clean entertainers like they did earlier.

Bharathiraja has rarely produced movies for outside directors, under his home banner 'Manoj creations'. Most of them from his house like Mudhal Mariyathai, Kodi Parakuthu etc., were directed by him. [a lot more, which I'm missing here!!]. 'Alli Arjuna' was the exceptional one, directed by Saran, eventhough the reason behind was known to everyone [BR's son Manoj as the hero]. With a limited scope of making himself & his son successful, he couldn't convert this into a big production house, as everyone is aware.

Maniratnam's houses produced some memorable movies directed not only by him, but also by some other young directors. His initial involvement with 'Aalayam Productions' had churned out Bombay & few more., and subsequent one thru 'Madras talkies' released movies likes Iruvar, Uyirae, Alai Payuthe, Kannathil Muthamittal, Ayutha Ezuthu etc., Those movies directed by outsiders include movies like Chatriyan, Nerukku Ner, Dum Dum Dum, Fivestar etc., I could even recall some of those TV serials like 'Anbulla snehidhiye' 'Punnagai' which were presented well.

Hope we are going to see a lot more quality movies from his house, as I heard recently that he is planning to produce movies for his former assistants like Susi Ganesan & Azhagam Perumal once again.

K.Bhagyaraj had mostly tried only his abilities thru his Saranya Cine Creations. Eventhough this production house had many movies to its credit like Ithu namma aalu,Veetle Vishesanga, Sundara Gandam, Vetiya Madichu Kattu etc., it couldn't make it big. The latest buzz, is that he is behind his daughter's debut movie 'Paarijaatham' as a producer. Probably if it succeeds, I hope he will support new directors to make more money. Otherwise, his house may not become a big one.

Ve.Sekar was one of the low profile directors who ventured into the production arena thru his 'Thiruvalluvar kalai Koodam', which has churned out so many family dramas like 'Pondatti sonna Ketukkanum' 'Varavu Ettana Selavu Pathana' 'Kaalam Maari Pocchu' etc. Of late this production house has started entertaining outside directors as well like Venkatesh for 'Aei' (Sarath/Namitha), Shakthi Chidambaram for his under-production 'Pattasu' (Vikranth / Sibiraj !!) etc., Low Budget, decent returns has become the motto of this house, as I could observe.

Shankar initialised his efforts with 'Mudhalvan' jointly with R.Madesh (director of 'Chocolate' & 'Madurey'), eventhough he didn't continue his own high budget ambitions. However, his support to his former assistant Balaji Sakthivel has definitely yielded a fine movie in 'Kaathal'. Heard that he is going to produce 3 more movies to be directed by his former assistants (including one for Balaji sakthivel). Indeed a clever move with good marketing skills... finding outside producer for his costly ventures and making profits out of his low budget movies. Very smart....

As we all know, SJ.Suryah wanted to have all the credits & debits to him, for his last two ventures 'New' and 'Ah Aah..' Just because, he was able to rake in more money, I pray that he won't produce some more unwatchable 'B' grade movies. He had already gained a name as 'sleaze king'. Hope he comes out clean atleast in his future movies.

Other interesting personalities, who did venture into this new role and are still continuing in the field as most of you know, are ...

R.Parthiban [Several strange attempts like Sarigamapathanee, Housefull, Ivan, Kudaikul Mazhai etc.,]
Rama.Narayanan [His 'Thenandal films' had supported many living creatures in Tamilnadu.. thru several spiritual ventures.]
K.S.Ravikumar [with his hilarious 'Thenali']
Kadhir[With a B.O. bomb 'Kaathal Virus'.. Assume, he couldn't come out of that debacle still]
Cheran [Well crafted 'Autograph' and Vijay Milton directed 'Azhagai Irukirai Payamai Irukirathu' which is under production]
Saran ['Aaru' being directed by Hari]
Bala [Thru his 'B' movies - Surya's 'Maayavi', Ajith's 'Paramasivan' under production]
Thankar Bacchan [A successful attempt in 'Chidambarathil Oru Appasamy' when he couldn't find a producer. Heard that he is planning not to produce his next venture]


If you can observe, only those production houses which are commercial enough to support outside directors had made it big. That's the lesson which most of the young directors had learnt nowadays and profiting out of it.... Smart guys...

Report Courtesy: Our DBI Team

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