Tamil Cinema Box Office

[Karikalen]

I can't remember how Indian did over here, and I am not sure how late 80's and early 90's film did over here as well, IIRC Indian films screening here were limited to "Odeon " Cinemas, and not all Odeon Cinemas screened Indian films, but since the introduction of "Cineworld Cinema" Indian movies were screened a lot more than in the 90's

I do not think the Eelam diaspora have the kind of impact on the box office like the Indians who migrated due to the IT revolution from the beginning of 2000 do. The Indians who came in after 2000 had the purchasing power and more importantly believe in entertainment mainly shopping, eating out and cinema. It is only after the arrival of the South Indians to London from 2000 onwards things changed in the 3 areas mentioned. You would have noticed how things changed over the last 16 years if you happen to live in London.I think it is the same in USA. The box office figures in UK, USA,Malaysia and lately Australia are mostly decided by the South Indians living in these areas.

I do not remember Tamil movies being screened in the eighties though thousands of Tamils from Sri Lanka lived in London. I had to watch Thevar Magan Guna and Thalapathy on video. But Tenali had a fantastic run in late 1999. That was purely due to the Eelam dispora. People did talk about Tenali's run. (In a way it was similar to Aboorva Sagothargal's run in KL in 1989; a trendsetter). The large scale migration from South India from 2000 changed things. The box office numbers of Sivaji and Dasa in the overseas market in 2007 and 2008 were largely due to this migration.