56-681: Vaiyapuri (born 23 October 1968 as Ramakrishnan ) is an Indian actor who has worked in Tamil -language films. He rose to fame by appearing in supporting roles in the late 1990s and early 2000s, often portraying supporting comedic characters. His first major role was in Balu Mahendra 's Raman Abdullah (1997), while his roles in films including Thulladha Manamum Thullum (1999), Gemini (2002) and Mani Ratnam 's Raavanan (2010) also garnered him acclaim. In December 1986, Vaiyapuri moved from his hometown of Theni to Chennai hoping to become an actor in
112-521: A theatrical film , is a narrative film ( motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term feature film originally referred to the main, full-length film in a cinema program that included a short film and often a newsreel . Matinee programs, especially in the US and Canada, in general, also included cartoons , at least one weekly serial and, typically,
168-937: A town or village to screen the films. The first of its kind was established in Madras , called "Edison's Grand Cinemamegaphone". This was due to the fact that electric carbons were used for motion picture projectors. Most of the films screened then were shorts made in the United States and Britain . In 1909, an Englishman, T. H. Huffton, founded Peninsular Film Services in Madras and produced some short films for local audiences. But soon, hour-long films, which narrated dramatic stories, then known as " drama films ", were imported. From 1912 onwards, feature films made in Bombay (now Mumbai ) were also screened in Madras. The era of short films had ended. The arrival of drama films firmly established cinema as
224-596: A Malayalam film titled Kalyanamam Kalyanam where he portrayed the second lead. However neither film eventually had a theatrical release. In the 2010s, Vaiyapuri was cast in less films as the Tamil film industry generally moved away from including separate comedy tracks in films. He has since worked on more low-budget films in supporting roles, while continuing to regularly collaborate in films starring Kamal Haasan such as Uttama Villain (2015) and Papanasam (2015). In 2017, Vaiyapuri received media attention for taking part in
280-475: A breakthrough with his role in Balu Mahendra 's comedy film Raman Abdullah (1997). The success of the film prompted several film makers to approach him for comedic roles in their projects, with the actor subsequently winning acclaim for his roles in Kadhal Palli (1997), Priyamudan (1998) and Kaathala Kaathala , where he collaborated with actor Kamal Haasan . In the late 1990s, he continued appearing as
336-582: A decent market. Tamil films have enjoyed consistent popularity among populations in South East Asia . Since Chandralekha , Muthu was the second Tamil film to be dubbed into Japanese (as Mutu: Odoru Maharaja ) and grossed a record $ 1.6 million in 1998. In 2010, Enthiran grossed a record $ 4 million in North America. Many Tamil-language films have premiered or have been selected as special presentations at various film festivals across
392-594: A different Passion Play in May 1903, The Life and Passion of Jesus Christ , in 32 parts, totaling 44 minutes. Defined by length, the first dramatic feature film was the Australian 60-minute film The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906). Similarly, the first European feature was the 90-minute film L'Enfant prodigue (France, 1907), although that was an unmodified record of a stage play; Europe's first feature adapted directly for
448-455: A feature's running time is 60 minutes or longer. The Centre National de la Cinématographie in France defines it as a 35 mm film longer than 1,600 metres (5,200 ft), which is exactly 58 minutes and 29 seconds for sound films . The term feature film came into use to refer to the main film presented in a cinema and the one which was promoted or advertised. The term was used to distinguish
504-518: A few months. Once it was demonstrated as a commercial proposition, a Western entrepreneur, Warwick Major, built the first cinema theatre , the Electric Theatre, which still stands. It was a favourite haunt of the British community in Madras. The theatre was shut down after a few years. This building is now part of a post office complex on Anna Salai ( Mount Road ). The Lyric Theatre was also built in
560-420: A grand exhibition was organised in Madras . Its major attraction was the screening of short films accompanied by sound. A British company imported a Crone megaphone , made up of a film projector to which a gramophone with a disc containing prerecorded sound was linked, and both were run in unison, producing picture and sound simultaneously. However, there was no synched dialogue . Raghupathi Venkaiah Naidu ,
616-512: A neighbourhood in Chennai , and Hollywood . The first Tamil silent film , Keechaka Vadham , was directed by R. Nataraja Mudaliar in 1918. The first Tamil talking feature film , Kalidas , a multilingual directed by H. M. Reddy was released on 31 October 1931, less than seven months after India's first talking motion picture Alam Ara . Tamil cinema has been noted for its advanced narratives and diverse films, with several productions in
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#1732895175980672-622: A permanent cinema house in Madras—Gaiety, in 1914, the first cinema house in Madras to be built by an Indian. He soon added two more, Crown Theatre in Mint and Globe (later called Roxy) in Purasawalkam . Swamikannu Vincent, who had built one of the first cinema halls of South India in Coimbatore , introduced the concept of "Tent Cinema" in which a tent was erected on a stretch of open land close to
728-555: A popular entertainment form. More cinema houses came up in the city. Fascinated by this new entertainment form, an automobile dealer in the Thousand Lights area of Madras, R. Nataraja Mudaliyar , decided to venture into film production. After a few days' training in Pune with the cinematographer Stewart Smith, the official cinematographer of Lord Curzon 's 1903 Durbar, he started a film production concern in 1916. The man who truly laid
784-453: A second feature-length film on weekends. The first narrative feature film was the 60-minute The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906, Australia). Other early feature films include Les Misérables (1909, U.S.), L'Inferno , Defence of Sevastopol , The Adventures of Pinocchio (1911), Oliver Twist (American version), Oliver Twist (British version), Richard III , From the Manger to
840-724: A secondary hub for Hindi cinema , other South Indian film industries, as well as for Sri Lankan cinema . Over the last quarter of the 20th century, Tamil films established a global presence, enjoying strong box office collections among Tamil-speaking audiences in Sri Lanka , Malaysia , and Singapore . Tamil films are also distributed throughout the Middle East , Oceania , Europe , North America , parts of Africa , and Japan . The industry also inspired independent filmmaking among Tamil diaspora populations in Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore, and
896-460: A standard deviation of ±10 lakh tickets during 2011–16. The Chennai film industry produced the first nationally distributed film across India in 1948 with Chandralekha . They have one of the widest overseas distribution, with large audience turnout from the Tamil diaspora . They are distributed to various parts of Asia, Africa, Western Europe, North America and Oceania. Many successful Tamil films have been remade by other film industries. It
952-572: A studio, the first in south India, was set up in Madras at 10 Millers Road, Kilpauk. He called it the India Film Company. Rangavadivelu, an actor from Suguna Vilasa Sabha, a theatre company then, was hired to train the actors. Thirty-five days later, the first feature film made in south India, The Extermination of Keechakan / Keechakavatham , based on an episode from the Mahabharata , was released produced and directed by R. Nataraja, who established
1008-682: A successful photographer , took over the equipment after the exhibition and set up a tent cinema near the Madras High Court . With this equipment, he screened the short films Pearl Fish and Raja's Casket in the Victoria Public Hall. When this proved successful, he screened the films in a tent set up in Esplanade. These tent events were the true precursors of the cinema shows. Naidu travelled with this unit to Burma (now Myanmar ) and Sri Lanka , and when he had gathered enough money, he put up
1064-499: A supporting actor, often portraying one of the several comedians in a film. His work in Thulladha Manamum Thullum (1999), where he portrayed a comedic role of a man slowly becoming a transgender, won him further critical acclaim. Throughout his career, Vaiyapuri has often appeared in films starring Kamal Haasan and the actor selected Vaiyapuri for a major supporting role in the actor's Mumbai Xpress (2005). Vaiyapuri
1120-754: Is estimated by the Manorama Yearbook 2000 (a popular almanac) that over 5,000 Tamil films were produced in the 20th century. Tamil films have also been dubbed into other languages, thus reaching a much wider audience. There has been a growing presence of English in dialogue and songs in Chennai films. It is not uncommon to see movies that feature dialogue studded with English words and phrases, or even whole sentences. Some movies are also simultaneously made in two or three languages (either using subtitles or several soundtracks). Chennai's film composers have popularised their highly unique, syncretic style of film music across
1176-738: The Central Board of Film Certification alone were eligible for tax exemption and those with an "A" certificate could not fit into this category. There are three major roles in the Tamil film value chain viz producer, distributor and exhibitor. The distributor purchases theatrical distribution rights from the producer for exhibiting the film in a defined territory. The distributor performs enhanced functions such as: There are three popular approaches to transfer of distribution rights via distribution contracts: There are four popular approaches to transfer of exhibition rights via exhibition contracts: Film studios in Chennai are bound by legislation, such as
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#17328951759801232-412: The Madras audience. The legendary Otraivadai drama theatre had been built in 1872 itself in Mint. Many drama halls had come up in the city where short silent films were screened in the afternoon and plays were enacted in the night. The scene changed in 1934 when Madras got its first sound studio. By this time, all the cinema houses in Madras had been wired for sound. Narayanan, who had been active during
1288-403: The Tamil -language only. This is in accordance with Government Order 72 passed on 22 July 2006. The first film to be released after the new Order was Unakkum Enakkum . The original title had been Something Something Unakkum Ennakkum , a half-English and a half-Tamil title. In July 2011, strict norms on entertainment tax were passed which stated that films which were given a "U" certificate by
1344-663: The West . M. Edwards first screened a selection of silent films at the Victoria Public Hall in Madras in 1897 during the British Raj . The selected films all featured non-fictional subjects; they were mostly photographed records of day-to-day events. The film scholar Stephen Hughes points out that within a few years there were regular ticketed shows in a hall in Pophams Broadway, started by one Mrs. Klug, but this lasted only for
1400-483: The film projector and silent films from the Frenchman Du Pont and set up a business as film exhibitor . Soon, he tied up with Pathé , a well-known pioneering film-producing company, and imported projectors . This helped new cinema houses to sprout across the presidency . In later years, he produced talkies and also built a cinema in Coimbatore . To celebrate the event of King George V 's visit in 1909,
1456-547: The 1990s and early 2000s cutting across ethnic and linguistic barriers. Such films include Roja (1992), Indian (1996), Pokkiri (2007), Enthiran (2010). Tamil cinema has since produced some of the most commercially successful actors, directors and films of Indian cinema. By the end of the 1930s, the legislature of the State of Madras passed the Entertainment Tax Act of 1939. Madras (now Chennai), then became
1512-616: The Cinematography Film Rules of 1948, the Cinematography Act of 1952, and the Copyright Act of 1957. In Tamil Nadu , cinema ticket prices are regulated by the government . Single screen theatres may charge a maximum of ₹ 50, while theatres with more than three screens may charge a maximum of ₹ 120 per ticket. Feature film A feature film or feature-length film (often abbreviated to feature ), also called
1568-514: The Corbett-Jeffries Fight and The Jeffries-Sharkey Fight (1899). Some consider the 100-minute The Corbett-Fitzsimmons Fight to be the first documentary feature film, but it is more accurately characterized as a sports program as it included the full unedited boxing match. In 1900, the documentary film Army Life was produced by Robert Paul . It was a programme of 33 short films, with a total running time of around 75 minutes, following
1624-714: The Cross , Cleopatra (1912), Quo Vadis? (1913), Cabiria (1914) and The Birth of a Nation (1915). The notion of how long a feature film should be has varied according to time and place. According to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences , the American Film Institute and the British Film Institute , a feature film runs for more than 40 minutes, while the Screen Actors Guild asserts that
1680-503: The India Film Company Limited. Despite a century of increasing box office takings, Tamil cinema remains informal. Nevertheless, there are few exceptions like Modern Theatres, Gemini Studios , AVM and Sri Thenandal Films that survived beyond 100 productions. In 2017, opposing the dual taxation of GST (28%) and entertainment tax (30%), Tamilnadu Theatre Owners Association announced indefinite closure of all cinemas in
1736-443: The Manger to the Cross , Cleopatra and Richard III (all 1912). Actor Frederick Warde starred in some of these adaptations. The first Asian feature was Japan 's The Life Story of Tasuke Shiobara (1912), the first Indian feature was Raja Harishchandra (1913), China 's first feature film was Zhang Shichuan's Nan Fu Nan Qi (1913), the first South American feature was Brazil 's O Crime dos Banhados (1913), and
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1792-601: The Mount Road area. This venue boasted a variety of events, including plays in English, Western classical music concerts, and ballroom dances . Silent films were also screened as an additional attraction. Swamikannu Vincent , a railway draftsman from Tiruchirapalli , became a travelling exhibitor in 1905. He showed short movies in a tent in Esplanade , near the present Parry's Corner, using carbide jet-burners for projection. He bought
1848-406: The Tamil film industry. Unable to immediately get a chance in films because of his skinny physical stature, he worked as a bearer at a hotel on Mount Road. Vaiyapuri's first break came through television serials on Doordarshan , where he notably worked on an adaptation of Sujatha 's Kolaiyuthir Kalam . He started his film career appearing as an extra and then in minor roles in films, before making
1904-472: The U.S. and Japan alternated as leaders in the quantity of feature film production. Since 1971, the country with the highest feature output has been India, which produces a thousand films in more than twelve Indian languages each year. In 1927, Warner Bros. released the first feature-length film with sound, The Jazz Singer , whose audio track was recorded with a proprietary technology called Vitaphone . The film's success persuaded other studios to go to
1960-515: The United States and France, but were released in individual (short film) scenes. This left exhibitors the option of playing them alone, to view an incomplete combination of some films, or to run them all together as a short film series. Early features were mostly documentary-style films of noteworthy events. Some of the earliest feature-length productions were films of boxing matches, such as The Corbett-Fitzsimmons Fight (1897), Reproduction of
2016-606: The Wind . Digital Video (or DV) has quickly changed how most films are made. First used to create special effects and animated movies, digital cameras became more common on film sets in the late 1990s. In 2002, George Lucas ' Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones became the first major studio film shot primarily on digital video. The ability to instantly play back footage and quickly transfer footage to computers for editing helped to speed up post-production time. Digital film making
2072-422: The considerable expense of adding microphones to their sets, and scramble to start producing their own " talkies ". One of the next major advancements made in movie production was color film . Even before color was a possibility in movies, early film makers were interested in how color could enhance their stories. Early techniques included hand tinting : painting each frame by hand. Cheaper and more widely used
2128-543: The constructed nature of their work so that the realistic narrative was wholly dominant, Indian filmmakers made no attempt to conceal the fact that what was shown on the screen was a creation, an illusion, a fiction. However, they demonstrated how this creation intersected with people's day-to-day lives in complex ways. By the end of the 1930s, the State of Madras legislature passed the Entertainment Tax Act 1939 . In 1916,
2184-572: The early cinema were the cultural influences of the country. The Tamil -language was the medium in which many plays and stories were written since the ages as early as the Cholas . They were highly stylised and nature of the spectacle was one which could attract the people. Along with this, music and dance were one of the main entertainment sources. There is a strong Indian tradition of narrating mythology, history, fairy tales and so on through song and dance. Whereas Hollywood filmmakers strove to conceal
2240-419: The first African feature was South Africa 's De Voortrekkers (1916). By 1915, over 600 feature films were produced annually in the United States. It is often incorrectly cited that The Birth of a Nation (1915) was the first American feature film. The most prolific year of U.S. feature production was 1921, with 682 releases; the lowest number of releases was in 1963, with 213. Between 1922 and 1970,
2296-553: The first Tamil film to win the National Film Award for Best Feature Film , the feat was repeated by Kanchivaram in 2007. Tamil films enjoy significant patronage in neighbouring Indian states like Kerala , Karnataka , Andhra Pradesh , Maharashtra , Gujarat and New Delhi . In Kerala and Karnataka the films are directly released in Tamil but in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh they are generally dubbed into Telugu where they have
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2352-480: The foundations of Tamil cinema was A. Narayanan. After a few years in film distribution, he set up a production company in Madras, the General Pictures Corporation, popularly known as GPC. Beginning with The Faithful Wife / Dharmapathini (1929), GPC made about 24 feature films. GPC functioned as a film school and its alumni included names such as Sundara Rao Nadkarni and Jiten Banerji. The studio of GPC
2408-562: The globe, such as Mani Ratnam 's Kannathil Muthamittal (2002), Vasanthabalan 's Veyyil (2006) and Ameer Sultan 's Paruthiveeran (2007). Kanchivaram (2009) was selected to be premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival . Tamil films have been a part of films submitted by India for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language on eight occasions, next only to Hindi. Mani Ratnam's Nayakan (1987)
2464-453: The longer film from the short films (referred to as shorts) typically presented before the main film, such as newsreels , serials , animated cartoons , live-action comedies and documentaries . There was no sudden increase in the running times of films to the present-day definitions of feature-length; the "featured" film on a film program in the early 1910s gradually expanded from two to three to four reels. Early features had been produced in
2520-423: The reality television show Bigg Boss hosted by Kamal Haasan . After spending 84 days in the house, he was evicted in a poll by the public. Tamil cinema Tamil cinema is the segment of Indian cinema dedicated to the production of motion pictures in the Tamil language , the main spoken language in the state of Tamil Nadu . It is nicknamed Kollywood , a portmanteau of the names Kodambakkam ,
2576-520: The screen , Les Misérables , came from France in 1909. The first Russian feature was Defence of Sevastopol in 1911. Early Italian features included L'Inferno (1911), Quo Vadis? , The Last Days of Pompeii (1913) and Cabiria (1914). The first UK features were the documentary With Our King and Queen Through India (1912), filmed in Kinemacolor and Oliver Twist (also 1912). The first American features were Oliver Twist , From
2632-574: The silent era, founded Srinivasa Cinetone in which his wife worked as the sound recordist. Srinivasa Kalyanam (1934), directed by Narayanan, was the first sound film (talkie) produced in Madras. The second sound studio to come up in Madras was Vel Pictures, started by M. D. Rajan on Eldams Road in the Dunmore bungalow, which belonged to the Raja of Pithapuram . Before long, more sound studios came up. Thirty-six talkies were made in Madras in 1935. The main impacts of
2688-418: The state from 3 July 2017. The strike has been called off and the cinemas will be playing the movies starting Friday 7 July 2017. Government has formed a committee to decide on the existence of state's 30% entertainment tax. It was reported that, per day business loss during the strike was around ₹ 20 crores. Annual admissions in Chennai multiplexes and single screens averaged 1.1 crore tickets with
2744-604: The training of British soldiers. Inauguration of the Australian Commonwealth (1901) ran for 35 minutes, "six times longer than any previous Australian film", and has been called "possibly the first feature-length documentary made in Australia". American company S. Lubin released a Passion Play titled Lubin's Passion Play in January 1903 in 31 parts, totaling about 60 minutes. The French company Pathé Frères released
2800-509: The world. Quite often, Tamil movies feature Madras Tamil , a colloquial version of Tamil spoken in Chennai . Keechaka Vadham (1918) was the first silent film made in South India . Kalidas (1931) was the first Tamil talkie film made in 1931. Kalava (1932) was the first full-length talkie made entirely in Tamil. Nandanar (1935) was the first film for American film director Ellis R. Dungan . Balayogini released in 1937
2856-542: Was toning : dying the film in a single color, used in many films in the 1920s. The film processing lab Technicolor developed the Three-Tone coloring technique that became the standard for color film. It was a complex, time consuming, and expensive process that many movie studios were not eager to try. One of the early adopters of the three-strip process was Disney . Some of the most notable films Technicolor processed with three-strip were The Wizard of Oz and Gone with
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#17328951759802912-436: Was considered to be first children's film of South India. It is estimated by the Manorama Yearbook 2000 (a popular almanac) that over 5,000 Tamil films were produced in the 20th century. Tamil films have also been dubbed into other languages, thus reaching a much wider audience. There has been a growing presence of English in dialogue and songs in Chennai films. In 1991, Marupakkam directed by K.S. Sethu Madhavan , became
2968-499: Was given a big boost in 2005 when the Digital Cinema Initiative created a guide for manufacturers to create a universal standard, to make the technologies more compatible with each other and more user friendly. Shooting movies on digital also led to new technologies for distributing films. Titan A.E. , released in 2000, was the first feature film to be released for viewing over the internet. Digital distribution changed
3024-688: Was housed in the Chellapalli bungalow on Thiruvottiyur High Road in Madras. This company, which produced the most Tamil silent films, had branches in Colombo , Rangoon and Singapore . The Ways of Vishnu / Vishnu Leela , which R. Prakasa made in 1932, was the last silent film produced in Madras. The silent era of south Indian cinema has not been documented well. When the talkies appeared, film producers had to travel to Bombay or Calcutta to make films. Most films of this early period were celluloid versions of well-known stage plays. Company dramas were popular among
3080-545: Was included in Time magazine's "All-TIME" 100 best movies list. Average annual film output in Tamil film industry peaked in 1985. The Tamil film market accounts for approximately 0.1% of the gross domestic product (GDP) of the state of Tamil Nadu . For the purpose of entertainment taxes, returns have to be filed by the exhibitors weekly (usually each Tuesday). The Government of Tamil Nadu made provisions for an entertainment tax exemption for Tamil films having titles in words from
3136-458: Was later cast as a transgender in Mani Ratnam 's Raavanan (2010), which he described as a "major turning point" in his career. He shot for the film alongside an ensemble cast including Vikram and Aishwarya Rai , with the film winning critical acclaim upon release. In 2010, he announced that he was set to play the protagonist in a film directed by newcomer Devindiran, while he had also shot for
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