Thread by @hmurali321

The downfall of Tamil actor #Suriya’s Tamil Nadu market is interesting to me. I feel like it also explains a lot about #Kollywood’s market dynamics. Here is a small thread for some explanations behind all this.

#Suriya had a great career starting from #Ghajini (2005), it introduced him as a bankable commercial star to the Tamil audience.

After #Vijay and #Ajith started to give out commercial failures post 2007, #Suriya filled in the gap for family audiences temporarily. His successful movies continuously did better at the box office than #Vijay and #Ajith till the release of #Anjaan (2014).

Many people believe #Suriya was comparable to actors #Vijay and #Ajith at the time, but I think that may not be true. It only appeared like that.

#Suriya’s old films appear like high earners at the time only because of the failures of other large actors. The theatrical sales of those films were in the range of #Sivakarthikeyan films today to at most 10% more.

#Vijay and #Ajith are interesting in the sense that they earned a cult following early on in the late 1990s and early 2000s. This helped them stand out even during career lows. This is something #Suriya could not bank on as much, why? Several reasons.

1) He did not establish as strong as a fan following in Tamil Nadu because his movies offered less of a native taste. He had a strong Telugu, Kerala, and Tamil Diaspora market early on and much of his content tried to appeal these audiences and not the masses.

Although the masses may not favor the best content critically, the appeal to masses matter when you want a solid loyal fan following in your home state.

#Suriya also rose in fame a decent bit later than #Vijay and #Ajith, so obviously his overall presence among the Tamil Nadu market is a little late relative to them.

2) #Suriya started to appear in the media a lot off screen with his ad appearances and TV shows, this may have prevented that “Hero Worship Hype” to an extent. That matters a lot for South Indian films as it is what helps you have a stable market even during career lows.

3) #Suriya producing films in his own banner and Studio Green may not have been the best idea. They were sort of notorious for poor promotions, poor release plans, and poor feedback with fans. Definitely made the actor lose out on a solid market in Tamil Nadu and other markets.

4) While all these unfortunate events were going on for #Suriya, he also made films with poor or mixed word of mouth. This even damaged his market outside of Tamil Nadu to a decent extent.

5) #Vijay and #Ajith scored back big in the Tamil Nadu market post 2011 satisfying both fans and the common family going audience. Without a doubt, they reduced #Suriya’s market share as more “hype” returned to them in audiences and distribution/production circles.

6) The rise of tier-2 actors such as #Dhanush, #Sivakarthikeyan, and #VijaySethupathi also made these actors more promising to talent in the industry and may have reduced #Suriya’s market share as well.

The rise of other actors could lead to the downfall of others. Leading technicians/talent in the industry may not gravitate toward you. Also, the common family audience will only go to the theater so much, they have their bets placed on only a good few movies throughout the year.

Theater viewing is decently expensive relative to the other options easily available such as Piracy, TV, and OTT. When actors are at a low in their career, why watch their movies in theater when you can watch it later at home for cheaper?

Another interesting note is that I feel like whenever the #Kollywood film industry falls in business or certain big stars reach a low in their career, we always either get introduced to new actors or certain tier - 2 stars gain more hype.

Now to extrapolate this, I feel like all Tamil actors who have had lows in their careers had it for similar reasons as #Suriya. Whether that involves poor promotions/distribution, non-nativity appeal, poor films, or the rise of other actors. Or a combination of all the above 🤷🏽‍♂️

So this shows #Suriya’s downfall is actually commonly seen in Kollywood’s history and it is just shocking to see now with the better access to box office data we have today.

Kamal’s comeback with #Vikram shows that all it takes is just one good film with the combination of the right producers, distributors, and technicians/talent. That sort of luck is hard to come by and when it does, a greater challenge comes with being consistent after that.

Hopefully we can see stars like #Dhanush, #Sivakarthikeyan, and #VijaySethupathi sustain and grow. I feel like we will only see a dramatic change in rise/falls again if something happens to #Vijay, #Ajith, or #Rajini (Most likely the latter).

Or who knows, maybe after the fall of the A-List stars today we may have big budget films focused on content and franchises rather than heroes. The downfall of the #Rajini genre? I guess we shall see what happens!

I think all of these reasons explain #Suriya’s downfall and some market dynamics #Kollywood has seen in its history and could potentially see in its future. I feel like this is something people always wonder about, so hopefully this helps!