Tamil film producers' body calls for halt to shoots as business slumps

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₹80 crore-100 crore per film. Recent Tamil films like Indian 2 and Captain Miller earned ₹90 crore and ₹104 crore domestically. High ticket prices, a dearth of mass-market cinema, and a plethora of free home entertainment options are driving Indians away from theatres, according to experts.

Meanwhile, actor fees, which jumped by 20% following the pandemic outbreak, remain elevated despite thinning theatres. The movie business is in a crisis and needs to be rethought, the council said after a meeting attended by representatives of bodies such as the Film Federation of India and the South Indian Film Chamber of Commerce. While the call to stop shoots may be tough to enforce in a fragmented and disorganised industry, trade experts and film producers said it is a sign of the ecosystem having broken down completely and stakeholders suffering.

As the box office slumps and satellite and digital revenue streams dry up, there are no takers for completed films, and about 1,000 projects are lying unreleased across languages, Shaikh said. Many stars are not keen on revenue-sharing models proposed by filmmakers. At the same time, the industry has not been able to find new winning formulas, and bets on big stars have not always worked out, with high-budget spectacles such as Bade Miyan Chote Miyan and Maidaan having flopped.

In the Hindi movie industry, studios have halted fresh projects amid steep star fees and fickle audiences. The Bull, an action film starring Salman Khan, has been stalled indefinitely, while Ranveer Singh recently exited Rakshas, which was to be directed by Prashant Varma of Telugu hit HanuMan. Discontent has been brewing among producers for a while, and not just for the Tamil industry, a senior producer said on