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2014 witnessed the release of a record 215 direct Tamil films. . That is like 4 releases every week and if you add other languages and dubbed films, there was one new movie to watch every day! Only 18 Tamil movies managed to do well at the box office but the other low budget ones managed to break even due to the television rights. However, there were still many films which could neither manage to get screens nor got any support from the theatres. There were many new producers in fray and this added to the costs. Movies exchanged multiple hands before reaching the end distributor who lost out badly when big budget movies tanked. More than these problems, the bigger problem was due to fringe political outfits and the various court cases that tried to block release of films. The political outfits ensured that there was trouble for movies like INAM and KATHTHI. There were also numerous cases filed for story theft or title issues or loan settlements. The producers had to run from pillar to post to sort out these issues. This started with VISHWAROOPAM last year and the problem has indeed blown-up to an uncontrollable level. Film industry needs to fix this immediately. 2014 can be classified as a "Troubled Year for Tamil Cinema".

Hits of 2014

How They Fared

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Tit Bits

Moral policing continued to play havoc with Tamil films. There were protests against INAM, a film directed by Santosh Sivan. The protestors said the film showed the Sri-Lankan Tamils in bad light and ensured that the producer stopped screening of the film within 3 days of release. A group of lesser known parties started protesting against Vijay's KATTHI because they alleged the producer was a supporter of Srilankan government. They were not even willing to listen to the explanations from the producer. The group went to the extent of hurling petrol bombs on Sathyam theatre. Finally the film released without the producer's name in the film's title!

It was a bad year for Rajinikanth. First, his animation film KOCHADAIYAAN failed at the box office. To satisfy his fans, the superstar decided to come up with a new film LINGAA and release it in 6 months. Some political dialogues made in the audio release function was ridiculed by many and was slammed in social media. Finally Lingaa was released on Rajini's birthday. The film bombed at the box office and the distributors started asking for their money back (I rated the movie low in Gokul's Movie Review and this upset some of his fans who compared my views with other commercial websites. Later it turned out to be that my review matched closely with the larger movie watching audience)

Kamal was too busy acting in movies that he did not have time to release them. There are 3 movies of Kamal that are almost ready and pending release - VISHWAROOPAM 2, PAPANASAM and UTHAMA VILLAN. These films are now likely to release in 2015. Same is the case with Simbu who has not had a release for the last two years. His VAALU, ITHU NAMMA AALU and VETTAI MANNAN are all in the making.

Simbhu was also in the news when he announced his split with actress Hansika. They were in love for almost a year before they split. Leaked photos of Simbhu kissing another actress also created some sensation. Simbhu denied this allegation stating that the person in the photo was not him.

Kamalhassan and Vairamuthu were honoured with a Padmabushan award.

Hollywood actor Arnold Schwarzenegger was invited to launch the audio of Shankar's I. The event was badly organized and the actor decided to leave mid way.

Music director Yuvan Shankar Raja converted to Islam and changed his name to Mohammed Khaliq. His screen name remains unchanged. His second marriage with Shilpa Mohan ended in a divorce this year and there were strong rumours that he is going to marry for the third time (The third marriage happened on the first day of 2015).

An upcoming Hindi movie was titled MAIN HOON RAJINIKANTH. The Super Star went to court and the court has stayed the release of the film until the title is changed.

Director Cheran has given several hit films yet he struggled to release his film JK ENUM NANBANIN VAAZHKAI. He finally started a Direct to Home company, C2H and has planned to distribute the DVDs directly to home.

Actress Roja is now a MLA in Andhra Pradesh. Actress Nagma and Divya Spandana (Ramya) contested in the parliamentary elections but lost.

Actress Rambha's sister-in-law filed a dowry harassment case against her.

An upcoming actress, Priyanka complained to police that director, Kalanjiyam slapped her. The actress claimed that she fainted and was taken to hospital. This is the same director who was involved in a controversy with actress Anjali.

There was a theft in actress Iniya's Kerala home. The police arrested the thief a few days later and he was found to be her sister's fiance!

Actress Bhuvaneshwari who was arrested several years ago for prostitution was fined this year for a similar reason.

Like in the past, Tamil cinema got a few National awards. THALAIMURAIGAL won the award for Best Feature Film on National Integration. THANGA MEENGAL won awards for Best Child artist (Baby Sadhana), Best Lyricist (Na.Muthukumar) and Best Tamil Film. Sabu Joseph won the award for Best Editing in VALLINAM

Actor Ranjith divorced his wife actress Priya Raman and later married Raaga Sudha (who has acted in Ramarajan's film, THANGATHIN THANGAM).

Director Vijay (MADARASAPATINAM) married actress Amala Paul (MYNAA)

Actress Nazriya (THIRUMANAM ENNUM NIKKAH) married Malayalam actor Fahad Fazil.

Others who tied the knot in 2015: Director: Atlee (RAJA RANI), Actress: Meera Jasmine, Sameera Reddy and Padmapriya & Singer: Chinmayee

Tamil cinema lost two of its all time great directors Balu Mahendra and K Balachander.

Another veteran that Indian cinema lost is Akkineni Nageswara Rao.

Actor Uday Kiran (POI) committed suicide.

Tamil Cinema had to face the loss of Actors: SS Rajendran, Meesai Murugesan, Comedy actor Balaji, KAADHAL Thandapani; Actresses: Anjali Devi,Telangana Sagunthala; Music Director: Chakri ; Cinematographer: Ashok Kumar; Director: Rudraiah and Rama Narayanan.