Your Ten versus My Ten

Any new year starting is time for rankings and postmortem of the previous year. Channels are listed as per TAM and other available parameters. Movies and Filmi Music are ranked as per popularity, audience voting and market collections. More than any other language , the Top Ten's every month and more so at the end of the year of Films in Tamil,  gathers lots of TRP. A couple of magazines and websites also indulge in these rankings but what appears in the Television is trend setter and is watched.

Almost all newspapers and magazines write reviews about films and some reviews are quite popular. Similarly most channels also telecast reviews. Sun TV has a popular Thirai vimarsanam and also a weekly top ten ranking. Vijay TV had a popular Madan's Thirai parvai, which off late is invisible for reasons not stated, but may be because of no feed from producer's council. Jaya TV's Hassani pesum padam is also quite popular. Kalaignar Tv and Raj TV also gives ratings and reviews. The new entrant Zee Tamil gives reviews in a collegiate friendly format and is similar to an earlier karam coffee in Vijay TV.

And then the Top ten which comes in Sun TV, Mega Ten in Raj TV and the Movie no. 1 which comes in Jaya TV informs the public about their preference. This new year eve was no different except that there were more players. And that means more rankings. And the surprising thing was no two rankings were similar. While Kalignar TV announced it's list of Top twenty movies and songs, Sun TV stuck to it's usual Top ten in both. Zee TV had an interesting Patiyaal 2008 where instead of ranking, it listed the popular movies and their performance by collections.

This year is special for these ratings on two counts. One is the clear sign that Television has come to rule Cinema in Tamilnadu. Sun Pictures and Kalaignar's son are in to distribution and they have proved the power of tele advertising. Sun TV distributed three films one after the other and all three are in the top twenty. Alagiri distributed one and it is in top five. Stalin's son produced one and that too is in Top ten. Kamal's Dasavaratharam was in Top Three. Rajini's Kuselan flopped. The other tops were subramaniapuram, Poo,abhiyum naanum, anjathey, Saroja, Santhosh Subramaniam, Yaaradi nee mohini, Sakkarkatti, Raman thediaya seethai and Bheema. Most of the hit songs were also from the tops in movies clearly showing that good songs and hit songs are essential for a hit. While mass movies like Kuruvi, Silampattam, Kadhalil vidhuten, Thenavattu and Dindukal Sarathi did not get great reviews, they all did well thanks to advertising in Television. Dasavatharam was the only huge budget film which grossed more than expense. Many small budget films did well, thanks to different and interesting story line. Some like poi solla porom was critically acclaimed and did well in multiplex.

Raj TV and Kalignar TV are also in to production and hence 2009 may see more biased reviews and more aggressive advertising in Television. The ratings this year in most channels were based on whether the TV house was involved in the production or distribution of the film or does it own the rights for the film. So Blatant was the bias, but capsuled by seeming fair play and choice of mass. While films distributed by Sun tv had no place in Kalaignar tv, Vaaranum Ayuram which was first in Kalignar was down in rank in Sun. MOST PEOPLE WHO HAD SEEN THE FILMS DISTRIBUTED BY SUN TV ARE VERY SURE THAT IF NOT FOR SUN TV THESE FILMS WOULD HAVE BEEN SUPER FLOPS. ALL WERE B GRADE FILMS AND WERE AGGRESSIVELY MARKETED BY SUN TV.  Similarly Kuruvi was also pushed further by the channels. so was the case of Varanum ayuram.

The competition in buying movie rights might cease as compromise has been reached between the warring clan, however 2008 saw most films being bagged by Kalignar TV like last year.  The other special this year about the ratings were except for three films like dasavatharam, varanum ayuram and Kuruvi [ and bheema in some ratings], the rest were all by not so famous hero's. Sun Tv seems had a plan in selecting not so popular films , just to make a point and now they have the rights and production of Rajini's endiran.

2009 might see most of the tops being produced or distributed by TV channels. The take over is more or less complete.