It won’t be wrong to describe director Vignesh Shivan as ‘captain cool.’ But on Friday, he lost his trademark cool after he was ticked off by a tweet from an industry tracker, who suggested his latest film Thaanaa Serndha Koottam, starring Suriya in the lead role, was a flop at the box office. He went on a rant in a series of tweets, some of which have now been deleted.
A tweet by @LMKMovieManiac claimed that January saw no box office hits in Kollywood. And it rubbed off Vignesh in a very wrong way because his maiden project with Suriya was released last month for Pongal. In a tweet, which has been deleted now, he vented his anger saying ‘such negative people are a curse to our industry’.
He also lamented that a film’s success is now judged by the box office numbers and not by its content. “A film’s number game is only a producer’s thing! Audience r here to enjoy,It’s all jus entertainment!Gone r the days whn we used to enjoy every film! Every1 has become critical abt evrything! not needed. It a beautiful life &let’s jus try to be positive (sic),” he wrote on his Twitter page.
He also requested the producers to stop encouraging such practices in the industry. “Dear producers !! Please stop encouraging such people atleast from now on ! Else this is what they wil do !! They make a living out of us! Our blood n sweat !! & then they do this also end of the day! Hard times ! (sic),” he rued.
A film’s number game is only a producer’s thing! Audience r here to enjoy,It’s all jus entertainment!— Vignesh ShivN (@VigneshShivN) February 1, 2018
Gone r the days whn we used to enjoy every film! Every1 has become critical abt evrything! not needed😇
It a beautiful life &let’s jus try to be positive😍#IgnoreNegativity
Not movie maniac!! 👌— Vignesh ShivN (@VigneshShivN) February 2, 2018
Jus maniac !!! 😃
Dear producers !! Please stop encouraging such people atleast from now on !
Else this is what they wil do !!
They make a living out of us! Our blood n sweat !!
& then they do this also end of the day! Hard times !@kegvraja https://t.co/PJ2oDcQ3TT
Trade tracker / film critic / reviewer / media journalist - Competition brought all these roles to one. They feed unnecessary information to audience. Now fans fight on collection than content. Is there nothing to speak about content and performance of actor for fans? SCARY!!— S.R.Prabhu (@prabhu_sr) February 2, 2018
From my heart ...🙏 pic.twitter.com/sLVO1dUW8W— Gaurav narayanan (@gauravnarayanan) February 2, 2018
Vignesh’s rant also elicited similar reactions from the other filmmakers. Producer S.R.Prabhu of Dream Warrior Pictures said how the spreading of ‘unnecessary information’ about the collection of a film was fuelling an unhealthy trend among the fans. “Trade tracker / film critic / reviewer / media journalist – Competition brought all these roles to one. They feed unnecessary information to audience. Now fans fight on collection than content. Is there nothing to speak about content and performance of actor for fans? SCARY!!,” he wrote on his Twitter account.
Director Gaurav Narayanan also weighed in by sharing a few insights on the aspects that decide the commercial success of a film. “Within a week of a film’s release, some of the online reviewers declare whether it is a hit or flop. I don’t know how they arrive at such conclusions. I called up one such person and asked him where did he get such information. He said he got the information from a theater owner,” Gaurav said in a video message that he shared on his Twitter page.
“If a movie releases in 235 theatres, will you be able to seek information from all that theatres. No chance. What’s the budget for a film? On what terms and price it is sold to distributors? At what price it is sold to theatre owners by distributors?” he said these facts should be taken into account in deciding the box office success of a film.
“It takes minimum four weeks for us filmmakers to get a full picture of what’s the net, gross and share of the film. In addition to that, we should consider a film’s business from satellite rights, overseas distributions, digital streaming rights, remake and dubbing rights. I don’t know how do you decide a film’s success in just a week of its release,” he asked.
