After reading this, I hope that everyone realise that why we should support our local indian entertainment industry.

Thanks to Novin for the article.

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 ….

Last Sept, 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.

Infact, 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