The Indian cinema today is facing many challenges in bringing audiences to theatres. The South film industry is no exception. Telugu filmmakers are repeatedly complaining that audiences are not turning up at theatres. They rant about the pressure from OTT platforms, over budgets, and the negative reviews. The percentage of people complaining about reviews is considerably less when compared to Tamil cinema. Director Prem Kumar, known for films like 96 and Meiyavazhagan, has publicly confessed that Tamil cinema is genuinely disturbed by the negative reviews.
Speaking at the Indian Screenwriters Association conclave, he shared the dias with other filmmakers like Vivek Athreya and Hemanth Rao. In the conversation, he opened up that Kollywood is facing a big problem with the negative reviews.
“It is a big problem and it is getting worse day by day,” said Prem Kumar, explaining, “We used to have reviewers once, and the breed we have today is different. They target the films in a poor light, and they are very uncivilised. The way they talk and the way they target is negative. They have an agenda to target the first week’s revenue, and then the producers will naturally approach them automatically for their next film.”
Prem Kumar went on to say that there are only a few good reviewers who have a niche audience, but most of them follow the negative reviewers. “The number of paid reviewers in Kollywood is more than 90 percent now,” said Prem Kumar, accusing those who give good reviews of also lacking the talent to review a film properly. “The negative reviews leave a big impact on the box office revenue, and it is getting worse. It has to be addressed,” he said.
For someone like Prem Kumar, whose two films received a wide range of success and critical acclaim, to blame reviewers sounds so silly. The film industry today is struggling with the fact that the audiences are rejecting the mediocre content and are expecting something that entertains them thoroughly or gives them a grand viewing experience.
Anything in between is a rejection. The audiences are paying money for the films and in return, when they are met with some silly commercial potboilers, routine dramas, and illogical films filled with cringeworthy moments, the outburst would be negative naturally. No filmmaker dare to acknowledge this fact but bluntly put blame on reviewers.
Having said, that Prem Kumar might generally be addressing an issue that may be existing but the negative reviews alone are not doing the big damage but the filmmakers themselves by giving bad films are keeping the audiences away from theatres who would certainly want to get back to theatres only after consulting a review. However, the universal fact is that the reviews can never damage a film that offers a good content and in fact, no one can openly criticise a good film that has been genuinely accepted by everyone.
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