When a student raised the criticism that Kollywood has yet to have a ₹ 1000 crore hit, the director, who has worked with stars such as Rajinikanth and Suriya, responded with his take. Filmmaker Karthik Subbaraj recently held a masterclass with the Student Tribe, where he answered questions ranging from the state of affairs in the Tamil film industry to his working process.
Shankar and Rajinikanth’s 2.0 is the second-highest-grossing Tamil film. It had reportedly grossed around ₹ 720 crore when it was released in 2018. Jailer, Leo and Coolie, the other three highest-grossing films in the top five, grossed between ₹ 518 crore and ₹ 604 crore. Meanwhile, the highest-grossing Telugu film of all time, Pushpa 2: The Rule, stands at ₹ 1871 crore, and the highest-grossing Kannada film, KGF 2, grossed ₹ 1215 crore.
At the masterclass, a student asked Karthik why Kollywood has been unable to produce a ₹ 1000 crore hit, despite being one of the biggest South Indian film industries and having established actors. The filmmaker first joked in response, “ ₹ 1000 crore film aa? (laughs) How will I be able to answer the question, why? How did the Telugu industry make ₹ 1000 crore? When the student stated that given Karthik was part of the industry, which is a business at the end of the day, he responded, “It happens….nobody can target a ₹ 1000 crore and make a film and then get a ₹ 1000 crore. Just to answer the question like that, if people from the Tamil industry are trying to make, okay, now I’m going to make a ₹ 1000 crore film, you’re never going to attain the ₹ 1000 crore film. He then cited the Kannada film KGF and the Telugu film Pushpa as examples, stating that the makers probably didn’t target the ₹ 1000 crore number when making them. But when it goes and reaches a ₹ 1000 crore, suddenly all the audience like that film, and across India, even beyond India people started liking it. Karthik himself has worked with Vijay Sethupathi, Rajinikanth, Dhanush, Vikram, and Suriya, but the highest-grossing Tamil film of all time, which is currently Nelson Dilipkumar and Rajinikanth’s Jailer 2 , has collected ₹ 766 crore at the box office so far.
You answer me the how, I’ll tell the why. That’s a phenomenon that happens for any film. “I don’t think they would’ve targeted to…they would’ve definitely targeted, it’s going to be a big hit, it’s going to collect big, and all that. So, it’s a phenomenon. It’s like a magic that happens here and there. You can’t plan for magic to happen. Kollywood boasts actors such as Rajinikanth , Suriya, Vijay, Ajith Kumar, and more, who guarantee massive footfalls at their film releases.
It just happens by itself,” said Karthik.
