Kollywood 2015: Hits, Misses, Money-Spinners

This year, the Kollywood factory continued to be in top gear, spinning out films that covered the gamut from extravagant to excellent and utter disasters. Here’s a flashback:

Blockbusters

These are films that were super successes at the box-office, raking in the moolah for the producers in terms of ROI. Ajith-starrer Vedhalam, a Deepavali release, was made on a budget of Rs 64 crores and earned twice as much. Critics rated it an average commercial flick, but audiences – comprising mainly frenzied Thala fans – ensured cinema halls were packed.

Kanchana 2 cashed in on the popularity of horror-comedy and made lots of money for its producers. The extravagant Baahubali was also one of the top earners in Tamil cinema this year.

Towards the end of the year, Thani Oruvan, starring Jayam Ravi and Nayanthara in lead roles, set the cash registers ringing at the box-office, with Aravind Swamy earning applause for his performance as the cool villain.

Hit films

There were the films that did pretty good business and also impressed critics.  Mani Ratnam’s simple love story, OK Kanmani, was made on a budget to of Rs 19 crores and did well at the box-office. Nayanthara-starrer, Maya, also a horror film was declared a super-hit and sent the actress’s rating soaring. The actress had another hit in Naanum Rowdy Thaan, in which Vijay Sethupathy played the lead. Demonte Colony was a horror film made on a shoe-string budget which wowed audiences and made waves at the box-office.

Another small-budget film that was declared a super hit was 36 Vayathinile which marked Jyothika’s comeback to cinema after a long hiatus. Dhanush-starrer Anegan didn’t get the critics raving, but still made very good commercial sense.

So-so

Shankar’s mega production Ai, made on a whopping budget of Rs 102 crores, had to settle for being an ‘average’ film. Despite its lead star Vikram’s efforts, an absurd storyline let the movie down.

The much-hyped Yennai Arindhaal, in which Ajith and Gautham Vasudev Menon teamed up, did only average business this year, and that was how it was for Dhanush-starrer Maari as well, despite all the build-up about him playing a wacky rowdy in the film.

Kamal Haasan was in splendid form in Drishyam remake Paapanasam, but the film did only average business at the box-office.

Flop shows

Puli was Ilayathalapathi Vijay’s much-awaited film of the year. But even his massive fan following couldn’t make this one a success. The whole fantasy theme just didn’t seem to work. Kamal Haasan had two films flop this year – Uttama Villain and Thoongavanam, though the latter did manage to garner good reviews. And Vikram’s 10 Enradhukulla sank without a trace.

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