Nostalgia: Kollywood’s veteran actor-filmmaker Kamal Haasan gave Tamil cinema’s first Rs 200 crore hit
Nostalgia: Kollywood’s veteran actor-filmmaker Kamal Haasan
gave Tamil cinema’s first
Rs 200 crore hit
Notably, it was Kollywood’s first actor Kamal Haasan who starred in the first Tamil film
Dasavathaaram released in 2008 to gross Rs 200 crore
at the time, the third highest-grossing Indian film ever and the only third Indian film ever, after Hum Aapke Hain Koun and Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge.
Over the last two decades, reportedly, Kollywood has progressed by leaps and bounds in terms of box office collection.
Today, the highest-grossing Tamil films are rivalling their Bollywood cousins in terms of box office revenue. However, it wasn’t always the case.
At the beginning of the 21st century, most Tamil films struggled to gross over Rs 25 crore while Hindi films were consistently breaking the 50-crore barrier.
But, It all changed in 2005 with the film Rajinikanth’s Chandramukhi. However, it wasn’t until 2008 that Tamil films were outdoing the collections of Hindi films.
Only a few months after its release, Aamir Khan’s Ghajini released to break all box office records with a worldwide gross of Rs 232 crore.
Dasavathaaram’s record as highest-grossing Tamil film of all-time
However, Dasavathaaram remained the highest-grossing Tamil film for some time. It had broken the record of Rajinikanth’s Sivaji The Boss, which had released in 2007 and earned Rs 159 crore.
It would take two more years for Rajinikanth to wrestle back his top spot with Shankr’s sci-fi epic Enthiran, which grossed
Rs 320 crore and became the first Tamil film to break the 300-crore barrier. Kamal Haasan himself surpassed the earnings of Dasavathaaram twice, once with Vishwaroopam (Rs 220 crore in 2013) and then with Vikram (Rs 500 crore in 2022).
Only a few months after Dasavathaaram’s release, Aamir Khan’s Ghajini released to break all box office records with a worldwide gross of Rs 232 crore.
Dasavathaaram’s record as highest-grossing Tamil film of all-time
What made Dasavathaaram such a huge hit was a combination of the film’s concept, production values, and Kamal Haasan’s starpower. Directed by KS Ravikumar, the film starred Kamal in ten different roles. The action thriller involved a scientist who must prevent a biological weapon from falling into the hands of terrorists. It employed concepts like the butterfly effect and utilised prosthetics and VFX well. Apart from Kamal, the film also starred Asin, Jayaprada, and Mallika Sherawat. It set a pre-release record for Tamil cinema, selling all its rights for a then-record price of Rs 50 crore.
News Edit K.V.Raman
