Trends

2015 witnessed the release of a 204 direct Tamil films. Though this was 11 films lesser than previous year, it is still a huge number and the second highest ever. Rain and floods situation was one the reasons for lesser than previous year number. It is still not a healthy situation as most of the films flopped and some of them had no takers. Some of the low budget films broke even but most film suffered a loss. The industry witnessed a change in business dynamics. Few years ago, the audio rights market crashed. This year, producers were shocked to see a crash in television rights market. While the big movies still had the negotiation power, most small producers suffered big time. The number of tamil films increased significantly in the last of couple of years due to first time producers who started making movies with an eye on television rights. However, television viewers preferred to watch known hit films compared to lesser known new films. The supply exceeded the demand and the market crashed. Now, there are several films lying in the box waiting to see daylight. The Nadigar Sangam elections provided more entertainment than most movies. At the end of the election, several skeletons came out of the closet. There were many movies in the horror/horror comedy genre. Every week had a movie with a ghost and most of these were funny ghost movies. Some of them went on to become a big hit. Kanchana 2, Darling, Demonte Colony and Maya are some of the big "Pei" hits. 2015 can be classified as the "Year of the Ghosts".

Hits of 2015

How They Fared

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Tit Bits

The biggest action movie of this year was the Film Actor's Union election. The election was as thrilling as a general election and had the entire state hooked on. A new set of young actors headed by Vishal, Karthi and few others joined hands with Veteran actor Nasser to challenge the empire that Sarathkumar and Radha Ravi were sitting on. A lot of mud slinging happened and especially the Sarath group opted for personal attack and a lot of irrelevant vulgar comments. This made the fans wanting Vishal group to win. When the results were announced, Nasser, Vishal, Karthi and their team won almost all the seats that they contested for.

The action continued even after the election with Sarath's team refusing to handover the accounts and the new team threatening to take the matter to the court. Meanwhile, the agreement with SPI cinemas to build a complex in existing actor's union land has been cancelled by the new team.

In 2014, there were rumours that Trisha was in love with telugu actor Rana and later it was stated that the couple broke-up. This was soon followed up with news that Trisha is dating producer Varun Maniyan. Trisha got engaged to Varun at the beginning of this year. However, within 3 months, there was news that couple split and the marriage is cancelled. Trisha confirmed the news on twitter.

Another love that hit the headlines was the one between Nayanthara and director Vignesh Sivan. The couple apparently fell in love during the shooting of Vicky's film, Naanum Rowdythaan. Nayan who had earlier dated Simbu and Prabhudeva refused to comment on this. However, several industry sources have confirmed this rumour.

Kamalhassan had a policy that he will not act in any advertisement. For the first time, he changed his stance and acted in a textile showroom's advertisement. Kamal claimed that he received a huge salary for this endorsement and he has donated the entire amount to charity.

Kamal got into another controversy when he commented on the tamilnadu government's relief measures during the chennai floods. Kamal's remark on government inaction was received well by general public but angered the administrators. When minister OPS publicly criticized Kamal, the actor went into a truce mode.

Talking about controversy, the king of controversies, Simbu got into a big legal soup this year. He came up with a controversial song (Beep Song) where the cuss words were beeped but the listeners could still understand the words that were actually used. This time Simbu also invited trouble for Anirudh by announcing that he was the music director. Several women's groups agitated against Simbu and Anirudh. Cases were registered against them. Anirudh claimed that he had no role to play in the song and managed to wiggle out. There were rumours that the government had a role to play in this. Simbu and TR apologised to the tamil public. The issue died a natural death.

Illayaraja was participating in a flood relief function when someone asked him for his opinion on the Beep song. Illayaraja lost his cool because of the timing of the question and this irked a section of the media but the public opinion was in favour of Raja.

JK ENUM NANBANIN VAZHKAI became the first Direct to Home tamil movie. The film released directly in CD which was distributed by a mass marketing campaign.

March 2015 created two records: Maximum movies in a day (12) and maximum movies in a month (31).

Na Muthukmar penned lyrics for 33 movies and 94 songs in 2015. For the 12th year in a row, he is the the lyricist who has penned maximum songs in that year.

National Awards for Tamil Cinema - Bobby Simha for Best Supporting Actor (Jigarthanda), Ramesh & Vighesh for Best Child Artists (Kakka Muttai), KAAKAA MUTTAI received the award for Best Children's Film. For their song in SAIVAM, Na Muthukumar and Uthara received the award for best lyricst and best singer respectively. Best Editor award went to Vivek (JIGARTHANDA). KUTRAM KADITHAL was selected as the Best Tamil film.

Yuvan Shankar Raja who embraced Islam in 2014, got married for the third time on the first day of 2015. He married Zafrun Nisarm a Dubai based fashion designer in a simple ceremony.

Others who tied the knot in 2015: Actress: Monica, Bhanu, Saranya Mohan, Babilona, Vijaylakshmi, Sandhya (Kaadhal) Singer: Shreya Goshal Actors: "Allari" Narsh, Arulnidhi, Sandanu Bhakyaraj, Vidarth, Ganesh Venkatraman Direcros: Alphonse Putharen.

Tamil cinema lost two of its all time greats: music director MS Viswanathan (MSV) and comedian Manorama. Music Director MSV has scored music for over 1200 films which starred all the leading actors in the last few decades (MGR, Sivaji, Rajini, Kamal..). He has also scored music for the Thamizh Thaai Vaazhthu. 'Aachi' Manorama has acted in over a 1000 films. She has acted with almost all the top heroes in tamil cinema and is the guinness record holder for acting in most movies.

The following people will be missed in 2015: VS Raghavan, Actress: Arthi Agarwal Producers: D Rama Naidu, Ibrahim Rawther Directors: RC Sakthi, Ameerjan, KS Gopalakrishnan Cinematographer: Vincent, Editor: Kishore Singer: Nagore Haneefa Writer: Jayakanthan.