Hi I am writing this to reach the ears of some who are unaware of Malaysian Tamil Movie Industry. It is critical that Naana Neeya the movie makes it in terms of collections
because it means that our Malaysian movie makers can bring in the money
for GSC. Why am i supporting GSC? Here is my story of why Naana Neeya
is late to hit the screens ….
LastSept, Crresendo (our company) approached Saimira Pyramid or is it
Pyramid Saimira to give us 7 theatres to screen our movie. The charges
they quoted was RM 13,000 for Digital Transfers, RM 1500 for one key
code only usable at one particular cinema @ 7 which means another 10,
500 for the key codes and the normal either 50:50 from the ticket sales
after the 10% tax deductions. Although, it was pretty exorbitant, in
the hope that the movie will bring in the collections we agreed.
However, 2 days before the HD is to be forwarded to them, i was told of
new terms that on top of these charges already existent we have to fork
out another RM 500 for each show that is screened at each cinema!!
That means assuming that i want to screen at 7 cinemas @ 3 showing daily i
have to pay them 73 500.00 a week!!! I would be a real STUPID business
person to agree to these terms. These are the same persons who claimed
themselves here to contribute to the Malaysian movie industry.
The worst of the worst of this whole experience is the meeting we had with
Mr Chitra Lakshmanan of Pyramid Saimira wherein he expressed himself
very clearly that they will never consider going on any sort of
partnership with our venture and all payments must be made before the
transfers takes place in India.
Not enough, to add insult, without even having seen our movie, he goes
on that all Malaysian Movies are substandard and it is better for all
the local producers and directors to not produce substandard movies and
hurt the local industry.
I was shocked with his comment, i agree our local movies may not be at
par with Kollywood production, but we cannot forget that Tamil Movie
Industry is still an infant industry in Malaysia.
Nevertheless, we have seen efforts like Aathma, Ivanthanda Hero
etc…..personally i think Director Naga is a great movie maker and would
be able to perform even better if he had the same millions of ringgit
to work with.
The sad part is that Kollywood being at least 50-60 years industry still produces substandard movies compared to Hollywood and Hong Kong.
I was pretty devastated that the local tamil movie producers are at the
mercy of vultures like these people…obviously i was forced to decline
their offer. However, i stepped back to observe. I realised all the
movies that was released by them barely survived a week at the theatres.
I was totally down and demoralised because i have already spent about RM
300K in terms of production and promotions for the movie and our
soundtrack album. It is my hard earned savings over the years which I
thought i had blew away just because of passion for Malaysian Tamil
Movie. I simply wanted to give up, i had already invested too much of
time and money and I wanted to abandon this project totally. The 2
years i had spent on this had led me to neglect my duties as a mother
to my kids, I was hardly there for them as my focus was totally on
getting this project of the ground and i really felt that i was an
utter failure.
However, upon the insistence of my distributor who is more like a brother to me,
Kumar, i decided to give Golden Screen Cinemas a try. Kumar sent in our
preview copy to the person in charge and after 2 weeks we received the
call saying that they were interested in the movie. Imagine my shock
cause the person who viewed the movie are mainly Chinese who dont even
understand the language but they still decided to give it ago.
They have no charges, apart from the transfer charges which is not much
because it is in tapes, and we were given 3 weeks starting of with 5
showings a week and the rest depended on the response from the public.
I was truly humbled by this experience. The people whom i thought will
not support us because of color and race actually did because it is to
them business. They were not prententious that they are here to help
the industry grow and all that crap neither are they interested to rip
us just because the poor movie makers are so very passion driven.
In fact, one of them even gave me hints as to how to further cut down
the costs. They are basically business driven. If a product has
potential earning power they are willing to invest in it, in the least
to give it a try. That is how we got this deal. I am beyond speechless
at their integrity and principles as compared to our people in this
industry.
Now it is up to our Malaysian Indian public to keep this platform for us
going. If GSC finds this deal not profitable it will definately effect
whatever following Malaysian Tamil movie lined up to be screened. So i
hope with that in mind all you people please keep the word going about
the movie and help save our industry for without public support there
is never going to be an industry in this country.
Recently, on one of my trips to GSC Mid Valley, I had the opportunity to peek
into the cinemas where Ah Long Pyt Ltd (A Malaysian Chinese Movie) was
being screened. I was overwhelmed by the Malaysian Chinese audience for
this movie. They were packed to the brim. I was moved to tears because
I was totally taken by their support for their movie makers. In matter
of no time the Malaysian Chinese Movie Industry is going to
breakthrough the International platform. It is simply too obvious.
Their secret of their success is UNITY AND SYNERGY.
However, I am truly sad that that will never be the same for us. When is the
Malaysian Indian public going to change its mindset that Malaysian made
movies are no good compared to the ones from India.
How many NS Krishnas, GANAs and Shans are going to become victims to
this industry just because they are passionate about wanting to see
growth in our industry. There are 1.8 million Indians in
this country and we do not even have 10K viewers for our movies but
movies like Shivaji the Boss can collect the same amount like Lord of
the Rings……
As far as the people in the industry are concerned they are simply not
united, not even capable of thinking beyond themselves. The players
themselves mostly anyway, think they are the best, refuse to accept
their shortcomings and improve on it. They think they are the greatest.
This mindset has to change at least I hope it will. I am willing, for
the sake of the industry growth. I would love to see a Shanker, a
Maniratnam, a P Vasu or KS Ravikumar of our own. I would love to see
International Standard productions and Film Festivals and Awards
Festivals in honour of these people and I truly PRAY that it will
happen one day but the glaring truth is that it will simply not be
today, not with the attitude of the existing ones I am afraid. We
need more of the younger generation to get involved and we need to have
properly trained people who feel that movie making as a passion not a
platform just for fame, money and women.
As far as the Indian cinema chains are concerned, they would rather cash in on movies from India.
They would rather keep buying at exorbitant prices and further spend in
terms of marketing as in advertising etc but when it comes to the
Malaysian movie makers they would rather RIP THEM OFF. What more can I
say about this whole sad scenario. I am left speechless and maybe if
this project fails in terms of collections I am going to join the other
directors and move on to Malay movie productions. What's the point of
trying to work something that is going to be a failure? Sadly, being a
tamil movie no sponsor will sponsor us nor fund us in any way and I
know of a few who had to finish up the productions by loaning money
from banks and loansharks. I am truly glad that I did not follow suit.
I worked within what I had and this is the limit. The worst part of it,
my dad told me it will be so….and I refused to listen hoping to make a
change…….HAVE I MADE THE CHANGE?
Dharmavathi
Crresendo Productions
