Chennai: Unlike Hollywood, Tamil cinema has seen very little success whenever sequels were made. In the past few months, over a dozen films saw their next instalment being rolled out, and, sadly, almost all of them manage to create very little buzz in the box-office.
Kannan, an industry tracker, says, “It clearly shows people want fresh and innovative content. They are not for sequels, which in many cases fail to recreate the aura of the original.”
He says though every fourth film was a sequel in the last one year in Tamil cinema, only a few managed to draw people to theatres. The likes of 2.0Â (a sequel to Enthiran), Baahubali 2Â and Thamizh Padam 2Â managed to create some noise, while the rest fell flat.
Even Kamal Haasan is no exception. His much-hyped Vishwaroopam 2Â could not succeed. If the first part released amidst controversy could rake in moolah at the box office, the sequel sank without any trace.
Expectations were high on Dhanush’s Maari 2, Sandakozhi 2Â starring Vishal and Vikram’s Saamy Square. These three films failed to win the hearts of audience and critics. The biggest disaster in the recent times was Prabhu Deva’s Charlie Chaplin 2. The much-hyped film went unnoticed.
Says Gopi, a film distributor, “Uriyadi 2, a political film, was released by Suriya and hence it managed to get maximum screens. It was well-received by critics, but could not do as expected at the box office may be because of elections and IPL matches.”
He says, “producers prefer sequels because there would be enough buzz before the release and it would be easy to find buyers in satellite television market. Besides, audience would connect well with the characters.”
But, too much in the recent past has spoiled the show, he adds. Any day good content will never fail to woo audience. Lawrence understood the tricks of trade and hence his Kanchana franchise had always enjoyed people’s support, he says.