A not so good year for the tamil film industry. While a change in government ensured that the dominant trio (Sun, Red Giant and Cloud Nine) went low profile, removing the tax subsidy hurt the distributors badly (a new scheme was introduced recently in 2012). Non availability of theatres for small budget films, heavy rains, elections and cricket added to the distributor's woes.The number of direct tamil films released in 2011 fell below 2010 number. Superstar's ill health was another sore point of last year. Vijay's struggle to get good theatres for his film and film industry boycott of Vadivelu reflects on the political dependencies of the industry. Indeed a sad state. The industry definitely needs to re-think their strategy to infuse fresh oxygen. The year 2011 can be can be classified as "The ICU Year".
Year
Direct Tamil Films
Films Dubbed to Tamil
Total (Direct + Dubbing)
1999
85
64
149
2000
68
72
140
2001
75
80
155
2002
83
85
168
2003
102
107
209
2004
78
112 (41 from Indian Language)
190
2005
100
26 (only english)
126
2006
105
42 (only english)
147
2007
99
12 (only Indian Languages)
111
2008
115
-
115
2009
129
-
129
2010
151
-
151
2011
133
-
133
* Too many movies are getting dubbed and hence stopped tracking them since 2008
Vetrimaran proved that he is no flash in the pan with - AADUKALAM.
The film won several awards including two National award for the director. Suseendran however disappointed. After scoring a hat-trick of good movies with AZHAGARSAMIYIN KUTHIRAI, his fourth movie RAJAPATTAI was a disaster. In 2010 new directors made a mark, in 2011 it was the turn of the experienced ones to repeat their success: Venkat Prabhu, Jeyam Raja, Myskin, Radhamohan, KV Anand and AL Vijay were some of them. New directors like Shiva, Saravanan, Thiagarajan Kumararaja and Shanthakumar showed a lot of promise.
Comedians
Santhanam is again the Comedian of this
year. His comedy played a big role in the success of several films - VELAYUTHAM, SIRUTHAI, DEIVATHIRUMAGAL, VAANAM, etc,. Vadivelu was avoided by film makers for fear of government's wrath.
Music Directors
It was GV Prakash's year and he struck gold in almost all his movies AADUKALAM, DEIVA THIRUMAGAL and MAYAKKAM ENNA. Yuvan was good in VAANAM and MANKATHA. Harris Jeyaraj was brilliant in KO and ENGEYUM KAATHAL. Vijay Antony in VELAYUTHAM, K in YUTHAM SEI, Ghibran in VAAGAI SOODA VA, Sathya in ENGEYUM EPPOTHUM and Thaman in OSTHE were good too.
Heroines
None of the heroines shined. Most of them shined in one movie each: Anjali, Trisha, Anushka, Tapsee, Richa, Karthika, Iniya and Amala Paul. Hansika Motwani was seen in MAPILLAI, ENGEYUM KAATHAL and VELAYUTHAM. Kamal's daughter Shruthi Hassan debuted in tamil.
Tit Bits
It rained National Awards. Actor Dhanush bagged the National award for Best Actor for his film AADUKALAM. Vetrimaran bagged the best director and best screenplay awards for the same film. Saranya Ponvannan received the best actress award for THENMERKU PARUVAKATRU. Thambi Ramaiah for his brilliant performance in MYNAA got the best supporting actor award. Vairamuthu received the best lyrics award (THENMERKU PARUVAKATRU) and the best editing award went to Kishore(AADUKALAM). AADUKALAM also helped Dinesh (Choreography) and Jayabalan (Special Jury Award) to get a National award. Best Special Effects award was received by Srinivas Mohan for Enthiran. THENMERKU PARUVAKATRU was chosen the best tamil film. The prestigious Dadha Saheb Phalke award went to director K Balachander.
The year belonged to Dhanush because his song "Why this Kola Veri - Di" from the yet to be released, "3" became internationally famous. Music was by Anirudh and the song was written and sung by Dhanush. The song was uploaded in You Tube and within few days more than 10million people from across the world viewed the song. Several re-mixed versions of the song started appearing and an excellent marketing push opened the door further. The film which is going to be released in 2012 is hot in trade and has already broken even.
Superstar Rajinikanth's health became a national concern. Rajini was admitted in Ramachandra hospital with some serious health issues in May. Things turned worse and he had to be taken to Singapore for treatment. His worried fans finally smiled when Rajini returned to Chennai in July.
Karthi's SIRUTHAI got into trouble because his screen name (Rocket Raja) was shared by a local politician. The agitations went unnoticed.
Director Goutham Menon also faced agitated Hindu People Party for his NADUNISI NAAIGAL. This experimental but flop film had some controversial scenes which created tension.
More controversy: Dhivya Spandana (Kuthu Ramya) was banned from Kannada films for a year for refusing to participate in an audio function. This ban was later revoked.
Actress Sona filed a sexual harassment complaint against producer and actor, SPB Charan (son of singer SPB). She withdrew the complaint after SPB Charan tendered an unconditional apology.
Other police complaints: Actress Bhakyanjali complained against harassment by Actor Velu. An engineer complained that his wife has been abducted by Snehan (Lyricist/Actor) and an industrialist complained against Bhuvaneshwari on fraud case.
Through his numerous interviews, actor/producer, "Power Star"(!) Srinivasan, kept us entertained.
Prabhudeva divorced his wife and started preparing for his wedding with actress Nayantara. Nayanthara converted to hinduism to make the wedding simpler. Other Separations: Actress Jyothirmayi and Actress Vanitha. Vanitha's separation from her second husband, Anandraj was a surprise. Anandraj supported Vanitha in her fight for the child's custody with her first husband Akaash. Vanitha went back to her first husband!
DAM 999 film was banned in Tamilnadu as the politicians sensed that the film could create tension in Tamilnadu due to the Mullai Periyar Dam issue.
Actor Prithviraj married TV reporter Supriya Menon. The marriage created a lot of bad blood with the kerala press (for being kept in dark!) and this caused severe damage to his image in Kerala. Others who tied the knot. Karthi (Actor), Selvaraghavan (Director),Yuvan Shankar Raja (Music Director), Shakthi (Actor - Director P Vasu's son), Dushyanth (Actor - Sivaji's grandson) and Aparna Pillai(Actress)
Tamil Cinema had to face the loss of Malaysia Vasudevan(Singer/Actor), Sujatha(Actress), Ravichandran(Actor), Gandhimathi(Actress), Ajay (Actor- Ambuli 3D) and Shobana (Comedian).
It rained National Awards. Actor Dhanush bagged the National award for Best Actor for his film AADUKALAM. Vetrimaran bagged the best director and best screenplay awards for the same film. Saranya Ponvannan received the best actress award for THENMERKU PARUVAKATRU. Thambi Ramaiah for his brilliant performance in MYNAA got the best supporting actor award. Vairamuthu received the best lyrics award (THENMERKU PARUVAKATRU) and the best editing award went to Kishore(AADUKALAM). AADUKALAM also helped Dinesh (Choreography) and Jayabalan (Special Jury Award) to get a National award. Best Special Effects award was received by Srinivas Mohan for Enthiran. THENMERKU PARUVAKATRU was chosen the best tamil film. The prestigious Dadha Saheb Phalke award went to director K Balachander. 
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