Kanthasamy ‘success meet’
LINK
Vikram – complete with his rooster-inspired mask and cape – has flown up the box office ratings and straight into audiences’ hearts. And, in appreciation, producer Kalaipuli S Thanu threw a success meet for Kandasamy on August 30 in Chennai. All the key players – Vikram, Shriya, music director Devi Sri Prasad, cameraman Ekambaram and director Susi Ganeshan – were at the meet. “Kandasamy may have got some mixed responses from a certain section of the press, but there is nothing to about worry as the film is a super smash hit and has grossed a record Rs 37 crore worldwide in its first week,” Thanu said.
Chiyaan Vikram, who looked suave in designer casuals and goggles, bonded well with his team and the media. “I know there has been a lot of negative talk about the film, but who cares?” he said. “The figures at the box office say a different story. What more can an actor ask for?”
When asked about Susi Ganeshan’s contribution to the film, Vikram said: “Susi Ganeshan is the showman of south cinema – like a Raj Kapoor. Kandasamy is the most stylish film I have ever done.”
Shriya, who looked adorable in a delicate white dress, also had something to add. “I’m proud of Kandasamy because Subulakshmi – the character I play in the film – is the best I have done so far,” she said. “And the film had a relevant message.”
However, Vikram had the last word: “The success of Kandasamy is the best form of revenge against my detractors.” Hear, hear!
August 31, 2009 at 4:11 PM
I am happy Kanthasaamy seems to be doing well. But I am happier that Shriya Saran has grown her hair out again!
August 31, 2009 at 4:15 PM
LOL! I think she was fine in the film too!
August 31, 2009 at 6:38 PM
What is the real name – Kanthasamy, Kandasamy or Kanthaswamy?
August 31, 2009 at 7:19 PM
The first two are really the same.. the same softer d sound is spelled both ways in Tamil. The last is the same word but that is not the film’s title.
August 31, 2009 at 8:02 PM
Satyam: did you really think that was a serious question?
August 31, 2009 at 8:03 PM
PS– based on how some pronounce it, one might even spell it “Kanthachaamy” or “Kandachaamy” (personally I think it’d better to denote the soft “d” by means of a “dh” than a “d”)…
August 31, 2009 at 8:32 PM
Believe me, it was a serious question, not my usual 9and often insensitive pot shot at regional cinema! Because I have seen all three versions. If nothing else, the size of collections does impress me with some of the regional films.
August 31, 2009 at 9:22 PM
Rajen, I know when you’re serious!
August 31, 2009 at 9:28 PM
yes that’s the way it’s done with the IPA.
August 31, 2009 at 8:34 PM
My bad rajen! Your reputation precedes you!
Kidding aside, there is far greater inconsistency in spellings of Tamil film names than there is in spellings of Hindi film names or even Telugu film names…
August 31, 2009 at 9:28 PM
Sometimes this is because the very same letter is pronounced differently in differently in different regions but equally often differently along class lines within the same region. The word ‘azhagan’ could be pronounced with a somewhat hard g sound or with a more aspirated g sound or even almost like an h.
But yes there are some odd conventions in terms of the Latinization. So ‘zh’ for what approximates the sound of d in ‘pada’ (Hindi) is a bit strange.
September 1, 2009 at 12:44 AM
Celebrating in Hyderabad
http://sify.com/movies/telugu/imagegallery/galleryDetail.php?id=ji2ms8gbjed&title=Mallanna_success_meet_in_Hyderabad&scategory=tollywood
I am not a fan but shriya looks lovely in the photos.
September 1, 2009 at 3:06 PM
Thanks Sara! I am a fan and she does indeed look lovely in these pics…
September 2, 2009 at 6:29 AM
welcome. I had Vikram to look at so it wasn’t exactly a hardship. In turn thanks for the Billa clip, I have only seen the recent Prabhas one which was atrocious in almost all departments.
September 1, 2009 at 2:03 PM
Boom time for Kanthaswamy
K.V. Vasudevan [September 1, 2009, 12:58:18 PM]
After Anniyan, Tamil super star Vikram has once again repeated the magic of enthusiastic box-office response to his latest flick Kanthaswamy (Mallanna in Telugu), earning Rs. 37 crore at the box office in its opening week. Sharing the happy news with the media along with Chiyan Vikram and Susi Ganeshan, producer Kalaipuli Thanu said the first week’s collection in Tamil Nadu was 16 crores, Andhra Pradesh (8 crores), Kerala and Karnataka (1 crore each) and the overseas figure of 3 crores in Malaysia.
In a relaxed frame of mind, Vikram said the industry needs the likes of Susi which any actor could rely on. “I do not see reason for directors, their associates and assistants taking to acting. There is no gainsaying the fact that the fate of any movie rests largely on the hands of its director,” Vikram emphasized his point.
Stating that he had spent nearly two and a half years in the making of Kanthaswamy, directed by Susi Ganeshan and produced by Kalaipuli S. Dhanu with a whopping budget of 70 crores, Vikram said that he had faced a lot of physical stress while shooting for the film. “For example, the first fight in the movie was shot in 45 days. The stress was there. Kanthaswamy was shot in different locations,” he said.
Vikram’s musical numbers including ‘Excuse Me, Mr. Kanthaswamy’ have topped the music charts in Kerala and Tamil Nadu and the actor terms his singing assignment as a ‘challenging role’. “I had sung the numbers in different levels. My music director Devi Sri Prasad was very impressed by my voice,” he said.
In a lighter vein, Chiyan said Susi has assured he will not compete with him by taking up acting. So Susi’s cameo role in Kanthaswamy may remain an one-off act.
September 1, 2009 at 3:05 PM
Re: “…earning Rs. 37 crore at the box office in its opening week. … producer Kalaipuli Thanu said the first week’s collection in Tamil Nadu was 16 crores, Andhra Pradesh (8 crores), Kerala and Karnataka (1 crore each) and the overseas figure of 3 crores in Malaysia.”
What about the other 8 crores?
September 1, 2009 at 3:08 PM
must be the US, UK, Canada.
September 1, 2009 at 3:12 PM
ok here’s the complete quote from Thanu:
http://www.jointscene.com/news/Kandasamy-has-collected-a-whopping-Rs.-1,73,43,778–in-first-week…/2433
it is indeed 11 crores overall from overseas.
September 1, 2009 at 3:15 PM
That is a huge North American/European gross. I had not realized the overseas market in the Western hemisphere was so large for Tamil films…
September 1, 2009 at 3:16 PM
Between the UK and Canada (the US not so much) there is a huge Tamil disapora. Other than Malaysia of course.
September 1, 2009 at 2:50 PM
It is good to know that Kandasamy did big business in its first week. 35 cr opening is huge even for a Bollywood biggie. How does this compare with the performance of blockbusters like Sivaji and Dasavatharam? Also wondering if there is any site that keeps track of BO performance of Tamil films? (Like boxofficeindia.com does for hindi films)
September 1, 2009 at 3:06 PM
Sivaji was assuredly ahead of this. Not sure about anniyan but that was ’05 also. Dasavatharam in my view is a film that did reasonably well but didn’t do as much as some of the reporting would have you believe. But with Kamal since the 90s it’s hard to separate the films that were solid hits and the ones that were average/above average but were peddled as such. In terms of the numbers unfortunately it’s very hard to come by credible numbers on Tamil films. I generally get my sense of what’s going on sifting through some of the media reporting (where I know from experience what the agenda is with some sources) but also by way of certain people in India who are in the know.
September 1, 2009 at 3:17 PM
Re: “Between the UK and Canada (the US not so much) there is a huge Tamil disapora.”
Yeah, there are a lot of Sri Lankan Tamils in Toronto; also Norway…
September 1, 2009 at 3:23 PM
Norway. go figure.
September 1, 2009 at 3:25 PM
Norway took in a lot of refugees over the decades from the conflict in Sri Lanka; the country had a relatively liberal asylum policy…
September 1, 2009 at 3:29 PM
interesting.. never knew this..
September 1, 2009 at 3:31 PM
If these figures are accurate, turns out that while Norway has many Sri Lankan Tamils, those figures are dwarfed by the figures for France, Germany, Italy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Lankan_Tamil_diaspora
September 1, 2009 at 5:18 PM
8cr for AP (50% of TN) is huge. I am sure it is for the dubbed version, not the original. Looks like Vikram is well known in AP too!
September 1, 2009 at 6:13 PM
I am no expert on AP box office, but based on what I’ve seen and heard Vikram films have often done very well in Andhra in Telugu-dubbed versions (I myself saw “Aparachitudu” (Telugu-dubbed version of Anniyan) in a sold-out theater in the 5th or 6th week in Secunderabad in 2005). I’ve heard that Vikram dubs for himself in Telugu, as he speaks the language very well, based on his experience as a dubbing artiste during his struggling days. Don’t know if that’s true…
September 1, 2009 at 6:44 PM
Vikram is huge in Andhra. In fact he is truly a pan-Southern star in many ways, the first since Rajni. His Arul which did not even do very well in TN was a still a hit in AP.
September 2, 2009 at 3:23 PM
satyam, thats not right. along with rajni it is kamal hassan who is most popular in telugu. infact in late 70′s both of them were acting in both languages and upon good advice they have decided to concentrate on tamil films more as they were more popular in tamil at that particular time. after them it is maniratnam and shankar who are most popular. arjun is also very popular in telugu even before he clicked in tamil.but he fizzled out until he came back with gentleman which clicked in both tamil and telugu.
vikram actually did some telugu films as second hero and third hero or heroines brother in some of his films before his sethu became a hit in tamil. all his earlier hit films after sethu were remade into telugu by a telugu hero, they were never dubbed. the first vikram movie which dubbed into telugu and became a hit is anniyan/ aparachithudu.it is a shankar movie and all shankar movies are big movies in telugu. never heard of arul or its telugu counterpart. it must be before anniyan but i cant remember it being a hit atall. shivaputrudu is also a big hit the bala movie which had suriya aswell. think it was around the same time. suriya then became hit with ghajini. all his films after that are flops.
mallanna is a big flop in telugu. it was bought by dil raju the famous telugu producer for huge sum and released it with enoromous prints. it made huge losses for him. already removed from all screens in its second week itself. cant remember a recent time when a big tamil heros film is a flop in telugu and became a hit in tamil. so have my doubts about kanthasamy. vikrams mazaa and bheema both did pretty miniscule business. that proves he is not a big star in telugu. I doubt your claims about his status in tamil aswell. as far as I know after rajini and kamal it is ajith and vijay who are most popular followed by vikram and suriya. you and qalandar keeping calling vikram is no.2 after rajini.(not in this post but have read this elsewhere. cant produce those links, may be in naachgaana) where is kamal then? how can vikram be bigger than kamal? I dont understand that atall.
September 2, 2009 at 3:44 PM
Madhu: Disagree completely. Most Kamal movies do nothing in Andhra. He’s a pan-Southern star for sure but his box office fortunes have been quite depressed in TN for about 15 years now let alone AP! On Vikram Anniyan grossed in Telugu close to what it did in Tamil. In fact folks who want to dispute his standing in Tamil suggest it actually did more in AP! It is true that after Anniyan this phase began for Vikram but there was a whole list of his Tamil starrers that were then dubbed and in some instances (Arul) for example the films did better in AP relatively speaking than Tamil. I also know that Surya’s films were dubbed in Telugu too. In general a great many Tamil films are dubbed this way. But Vikram’s standing is of another order. The Ajith/Vijay argument I’ve heard forever. Of course those two stars never land in projects of the scale of a Kandasamy. But it’s a partisan deal in TN where depending on the source all sorts of claims are made. For example online behindwoods is a somewhat anti-Vikram source. The budget of an average Vijay is nowhere close to the budget of an average Vikram film. The openings are nowhere comparable except when Vijay does a Mahesh Babu remake. Other than the latter Vijay has not even had a hit forever (though many of his average grossers are peddled as such). Ajith seemed to be on the verge of extinction till Varalaru did something for him and there’s not been much since. Rajni designated Vikram his heir not any of the others (this was after Saamy). Sure Vikram has hurt himself by disappearing for a couple of years after Anniyan but he’s back now, has his hit in Kandasamy and next up is a Rathnam project. Then he has two other films to follow this including a Selvaraghavan project.
Vikram is bigger than Kamal in an absolute box office sense at the moment and this has been true for some years. Obviously the latter is a legend but one can be a legend without being the strongest box office force out there and frankly Kamal has not been such for a very very long time.
September 1, 2009 at 6:45 PM
yes of course! These are the figures for Mallana (the dubbed version).
September 2, 2009 at 3:50 PM
Madhu: to be honest I don’t really see Kamal as part of any “numbers game” in Tamil, and I don’t think I have ever put Vikram ahead of Kamal, as, at present, the status of the latter is neither dependent on box office success nor star rankings.
On Ajith and Vijay, this is an old story. It depends on perspective: they both have very loyal fans, and a habit of delivering one hit every few films. The box office track record does not inspire much confidence, it is consistent only in being highly inconsistent. That being said, the fan base loyalty does mean they have a permanent status (Salman Khan comes to mind, albeit his phenomenon is on a smaller scale), and I would personally place Vijay much ahead of Ajith, but that’s just my impression.
On Mallana being wiped out in Andhra: if this is true, then the claim that the film has grossed 8 crores in Andhra in the first week by the producers is a blatant lie. At this point I do not know which of the two stories to believe.
September 2, 2009 at 3:55 PM
Agreed completely, particularly in that Kamal is pretty much beyond numbers in any sense.
September 2, 2009 at 3:55 PM
Just read satyam’s comment above, which makes some of the same points. Only thing I would add is that Ajith’s Billa also did pretty well as far as I know. Not sure about Agean, someone had told me this took a big opening and then faded, but I personally don’t know anything about it.
I’m not that hung up about Vikram’s number ranking: he’s a favorite of mine, but I would be surprised if I had insisted on No. 2 status or anything, but will believe it if you tell me you recall — certainly possible. My impression, along with anecdotal evidence from friends/acquaintances who are from Tamil Nadu, leads me to believe that Vikram had been bigger than the likes of Ajith and Vijay by the time Anniyan came and went. His position is certainly called into question by not having anything other than Majaa and Bheema over a 4-year period, but then, Vijay and Ajith and Surya were hardly setting the box office on fire during the period on any consistent basis.
September 2, 2009 at 5:38 PM
well thats so unfair comment on kamal. he is still a boxoffice draw and the recent evidence is dasavatharam which is a big hit in both telugu and tamil. I agree with all other films of his since Indian which have just been average to above average. some of those movies were my personal favourites like anbesivam, sambhandham etc., though I know they didnot set the boxoffice on fire. if u blame one for inconsistency everyone else is also on same path in tamil films at the moment. which is the tragedy as no one can judge who is above whom. in such a scenario i will consider their body of work and the fan base they have and the ability to make producers spend money on their movies. I know vijay only does formula movies and are all similar therefore we cannot expect big budgets for him. but ajith, kamal, vikram, surya can all make producers spend big money on their projects, all of them can have big openings for their big movies, and all of them are inconsistent in giving hits. they give more flops than hits. in such a scenario the fan base is the only criteria which suggests their position. therefore rajini and kamal are in top league. kamal is definitely in the race. why will people spend so much money on his films otherwise?
mallana has grossed 8crores in telugu so the net collection will be around 6 crores. mallana was released on over 250prints in telugu. thats a huge number. average telugu films with the likes of heroes like ram and prabhas who are in the third league will make more money than that. 8crore gross for mallanna is no big deal atall. looka t its second week it will not even make 1crore. it is a total washout. look for its reviews in trusted sites like indiaglitz/telugu and u will know why it has not connected with telugu audience.
aparachithudu made more money than anniyan. that is a well known truth because telugu market is bigger than tamil market. it is true for every shankar movie except shivaji and indian. gentleman, kadhalan, Jeans, Boys, mudhavalan all have made more money in telugu than in tamil. that doesnt make vikram a big star in telugu. it is shankar effect.
September 2, 2009 at 6:17 PM
Madhu: I don’t want to go over the same terrain again and again. I stand by everything I said. Kamal fans certainly find it very hard to accept the truth about his box office run over the last 15 years. The idea that Dasavatharam was a big hit is frankly untrue. On Vikram again I’ve had these debates before. 8 crores is half of the TN gross and that is huge by any stretch for a dubbed film.
Ultimately I can’t say I agree very much with your assessments in these matters at all. We recently had the debate on Mahesh Babu as well.
September 2, 2009 at 4:15 PM
I didn’t think ‘Kandhasaamy’ was bad at all. And I liked Vikram here. Much better than ‘Anniyan’ in my books.
September 2, 2009 at 4:40 PM
On a first viewing I too liked Kanthasamy more than I did Anniyan initially. after repeats I started loving the latter. But I already love Kanthasamy! My only gripe here was that the ‘roosterman’ should have showed up once somehow in the climax!
By the way that ‘tribute’ to Ash was brilliant. Reveals her own iconic appeal especially in the South.
September 2, 2009 at 6:57 PM
Re : ‘If these figures are accurate, turns out that while Norway has many Sri Lankan Tamils,
or Vikram fans.
On second thoughts first possibility seems more plausible.
September 3, 2009 at 8:38 AM
http://sify.com/movies/tamil/fullstory.php?id=14908041&cid=13525926
September 3, 2009 at 8:39 AM
http://sify.com/movies/tamil/fullstory.php?id=14908239
Vikram and Selvaraghavan confirm the film..
September 3, 2009 at 10:26 AM
I always wonder why everybody including media and the producers decide the fate of a film so quickly, instead of waiting for its trending. This reminds me of the classic hit Sholay. Me and my school friend decided to see the film on the second day of its release in a Bombay suburban cinema hall. We were huge Amitabh fans then. We knew that the show would be sold out, but still decided to try our luck. On reaching the theatre we were surprised to be surrounded by a group of people trying to dump their tickets on us, definitely not a good day for black marketeers. The show was indeed full and we enjoyed the movie immensely; also got the impression that the crowd liked it a lot. Next day (or so) we were completely surprised to read the news that the movie is a flop. In fact it was reported that Sippys had got together with Amitabh to discuss the failure of the movie. Within a week the verdict was completely reversed and the rest is history.
September 3, 2009 at 11:18 AM
“Me and my school friend decided to see the film on the second day of its release in a Bombay suburban cinema hall.”
You have my eternal envy Venkatesh!
I think things have become much more polarized today so people try to get ahead of the story. Some of it is justified because the media of course behaves in a very partisan fashion. Take Hindi cinema. Kaminey is being routinely called a hit everywhere when it is very unlikely the film will ever amount to more than average/above average. In fact the trendline here is exactly the same as Omakara’s (a film which was treated unfairly at the time). Similarly after great initials the media decided that KI and LAK were hits. With the latter one can live with this idea but it’s a joke for the former and yet in piece after piece KI is being called one of the four hits recently. Again KI has really won the ‘perception’ war. I’ve run into people who believe this is a blockbuster. Because the media really hyped it initially. Later on some changed their tune but very few people follow these things so obsessively. A general impression sticks. So partisanship is very much around. But so is the crazy hype, a strategy which was perfected by SRK and Johar and now we see others following the same deal. Akshay for KI, Saif for LAK etc. Everyone wants to call the film a superhit and completely safe within three days of release!
In the South there are very strong political camps and fan clubs and these wield a great deal of influence. Vikram for example generally does not have the easiest time in the media. Behindwoods have always had this bias against him. Sify have got better but even now there are hints of their earlier history. So somehow Kanthasamy has been dominating for two weeks and yet this is only part of the ‘initial’ or ‘advance booking’.
The media narrative is influential and people want to control it, sometimes just to defend their film and at other times to cut someone else down to size. And the people who don’t play the game always pay a price. So for example the media has always had issues with the Bachchans but the latter also don’t play nice with the media. Hence every single film of theirs has a tough media sell barring a Dostana where Johar takes care of this aspect. Aamir had the same problem for years but then he had so much success that the media had to shut up.
Unfortunately it’s become almost entirely a case of media overdrive in Bombay for some years now. In the South it’s still not so bad for the simple reason that there is an expectation of longevity. So with Kanthasamy people will say ‘it’s a hit but how big will only be clear after a month’! In a month most movies are out of Hindi theaters! It’s more like 2 weeks for Hindi cinema. In the South they still talk about ’100 days’ and so forth. So the hype can only take you so far if the film isn’t working. But Bombay works with a shorter time span. It is also the case that because most films in Bombay (I would say 99%) don’t really strike a chord with any big section of the audience the bar is constantly lowered. So there is talk of satellite rights and huge initials and what not. Anything to convince folks that the film has been very profitable.
September 3, 2009 at 12:47 PM
What an anecdote venkatesh, made my day
September 4, 2009 at 12:21 PM
LINK
Raavan trailer getting ready..
September 8, 2009 at 12:48 PM
Sify have termed it a hit:
http://sify.com/movies/tamil/fullstory.php?id=14909140&cid=13525926
I think this will soon be in superhit terrain. Meanwhile (and laughably) the reliably anti-Vikram behindwoods have the film in the top spot at their end also and for the same period but are pretending it’s only average as the response has been “sluggish” after the initial. Of course they defined the initial as a two week one!
Vikram is now going into Raavan very well-poised and because his Sethu role has always been iconic for him even a somewhat more silent part in a Rathnam film will be fine in terms of audience expectation.
The Raavan double bill (Hindi/Tamil with Abhishek/VIkram, the latter in both) is for me a movie deal that at least on paper cannot be bettered in any conceivable sense.
Watching Kanthasamy (and I hope to write something on this.. the queue begins with Kaminey!) I realized that when he’s on song Vikram is still my favorite Indian star.
September 9, 2009 at 5:52 PM
Great news for Vikram fans. Considering its high cost, superhit status could mean theatrical business of 100+ crores? That will really be huge!
September 9, 2009 at 6:42 AM
September 9, 2009 at 6:44 AM
October 4, 2009 at 2:54 PM
http://sify.com/movies/tamil/imagegallery/galleryDetail.php?id=jkbtlvijfcj&title=Rapid_Fire_with_Vikram&scategory=Kollywood
As Kanthasamy rocks the box office, we catch up with leadactor Vikram for a fun rapid fire session!
“Your blockbusters?
Sethu, Kasi, Pithamagan, Dhill, Dhool, Gemini, Saamy, Anniyan, Kanthaswamy”
November 19, 2009 at 1:59 AM
Behindwoods=Anti Vikram.they always been trying to find the defects in vikram movies.now they are saying that his upcoming movie ravan is copied from vishal movie chellame.When u visit this dobekoorwoods, u can find that they are trying to promoting some other.(as i am not saying)
November 19, 2009 at 1:21 PM
agreed…
December 1, 2009 at 6:20 AM
movie kanthasamy is superb….the director susiganeshan character is excellent…he is looking too handsome in that picture…..i like him….i am loving him….
December 1, 2009 at 9:34 AM
Yeah, a very enjoyable masala outing from Vikram…