Trends

2016 witnessed the release of a 203 direct Tamil films. The number of releases was high even in December inspite of CM's death and Chennai cyclone. Though this was similar to previous year, most of them flopped. Like last year, most of the films flopped and some of them had no takers. Television channels continued to be selective in buying the rights and this meant the distributors had to bear the entire risk. Last year, many ghost movies were a hit and this year too there were more than a dozen ghost movies released. However, almost all these films sank without a trace. There were many movies in the horror/horror comedy genre. Almost every week had a ghost movie and most of these were funny ghost movies. Audiences now know the format and decided not to waste the money for the non-scary, non-comical ghosts. 2016 can be classified as the "Year when people stopped believing in Ghosts".

Hits of 2016

How They Fared

Gokul's Movie Review in Twitter Gokul's Movie Review in Facebook

Tit Bits

This being a state election year, many actors and actresses were seen actively campaigning for their political party. While actors Karunas and Vaagai Chandrashekar managed to become a MLA; veterans like Sarathkumar and Vijayakanth lost badly. Actor Raja Krishnamurthy (Kitty) and actress CR Saraswathi were also defeated.

When the Nadigar Sangam office bearers met CM Jayalalitha, they were promised that the state government awards will be re-started. The awards were not announced now for 5 years. However, this promise was not met and now it is 6 years! Hope the awards are announced atleast in 2017 for the previous years.

ARANMANAI 2, SOWKARPETTAI, MEOW, ZERO, PEIGAL JAAKIRATHAI, DARLING2, HELLO NAAN PEI PESUGIREN, JITHAN2, JACKSON DURAI, DHILLIKKU THUDDU, DEVI, NAYAGI, KAASHMORA....are some of the ghost movies that released this year. The audience were terrified more by the poor storylines of most of these pictures and the ghosts disappeared without leaving a mark.

23 movies released in April & December and 22 in September.

Siva Karthikeyan delivered yet another hit. Despite poor reviews, the film did good business. The film had a success meet, where a teary-eyed Siva Karthikeyan broke down and complained that there are people in the industry who are giving him a tough time and trying to hinder with his work.

Director Suraj got into a controversy when he said heroines are paid in crores and they are not supposed to appear fully clad in screen. After Nayanthara and few others reacted negatively to his comment, he apologised for his remark.

Actor Aarya too got into a controversy when he asked, "What is Jallikattu?" on twitter. He was trolled for two days before he clarified that his actual quote was misinterpreted and that he supports Jallikattu.

Kamal and actress Gauthami decided to split. They were living together for 13 years.

Actress Amala Paul and director AL Vijay applied for a divorce within a year after they were married. Rajinikanth's daughter, director Soundarya Rajinikanth has also filed for a divorce. Director Priyadarshan and his wife for 24 years, actress Lissy were officially divorced after a long and ugly court battle.

Illayaraja reached a big milestone. He has composed music for 1000 films. Director Bala's THAARAI THAPPATAI was his 1000th film.

Rajinikanth was awarded Padmabhushan by the Indian government and Kamalhassan received the Chevalier award from French government.

Kamal started the shoot of his film SABAASH NAIDU in the US. The film shoot seemed to be jinxed. In the fourth day of the shoot, the director was hospitalized. Kamal started directing the film but he fractured his leg and the shoot was stopped. Then came Gautami's split and then the US Travel restrictions. Hope Kamal resumes the shoot soon. It has been a long time since we watched a comedy from Kamal.

National Awards for Tamil Cinema -Samuthrakani for Best Supporting Actor (Visaranai), Editor Kishore who passed away last year (Visaranai) and the Jury's Special Award to actress Rithika Singh (Irudhi Suttru). Visaranai was selected as the Best Tamil film. Visranai was also selected as India's official entry to the Oscars.

Actress Samantha got engaged to Nagarjuna's son and actor, Naga Chaitanya. Samantha's engagement saree was trending in Instagram and Twitter.

Actress Kavya Madhavan married Malayalam actor, Dileep. Few years ago, when Dileep divorced actress Manju Warrier. It was rumoured that his affair with Kavya Madhavan was the reason behind the divorce. Manju maintained silence. After the wedding, Dileep said he married Kavya to protect her honour. His misplaced sense of patriarchy was ridiculed by media and film fans.

Actor Bobby Simha married actress Reshmi

Others who tied the knot in 2016: Actors: Nakul, Sethu, JD Chakravarthy; Actresses: Asin, Pooja, Sanghavi, Bipasha Basu, Gajala; Singer: Benny Dayal; Music Director: Aroll Korelli; Directors: Krish, Raju Murugan, Vikram Kumar

CM Jayalalitha passed away in the month of December. She was a well-known actress who has acted in 127 movies (26 of them with MGR).

The industry was shocked by the sudden death of lyricist Na Muthukumar. He was the toast of Tamil music fans and his untimely death shocked his fans. In 2015, Na Muthukmar penned lyrics for 94 songs. He has won the national award twice.

The following people will also be missed in 2015: Cho Ramaswamy, Kalabavan Mani, Kumarimuthu; Actress: Kalpana, Jothilakshmi; Producer: Panju Arunachalam; Directors: AC Thirulogachander, KN Subash, Balu Anand; Singer: Balamurali Krishna; Writer: Vietnam Veedu Sundaram and Film Historian: "Film News" Anandan.

Though not completely relevant, it is important for me to include a personal milestone. I started writing my first book, "Management Lessons from Movies". The book was appreciated by director Karthik Subbaraj, who wrote a testimonial. The book was ready by end of the year and the launch was planned during the Chennai Book Fair in January.