In a bid to push for institutional funding for movies, renowned Tamil film producer T.G. Thyagarajan, whose production house, Sathya Jyothi Films, has produced memorable films such as Moondram Pirai and recent blockbusters such as actor Ajith’s Viswasam, has been appointed as the Chairman, Task Force, on Media and Entertainment for Southern region of Confederation of Indian Industry.
Speaking to The Hindu about his focus areas, Mr. Thyagarajan said he wants to use his office to ensure institutional funding for producing movies.
“Previously, banks such as IDBI were giving us money at the rate of 12-14%. We don’t have such avenues today. Private lenders provide loans based on the production house and the rates are between 2-3%. It is expensive to make movies,” said Mr. Thyagarajan, adding, “CII is a good forum to raise such issues.”
He said it was difficult to predict how the film industry would change and how quickly it would recover.
“We have to wait and watch to see if people would come back to theatres. We don’t know how the situation would be one month from now,” he said.
Having signed two movies with actor Dhanush and another one with actor Hiphop Adhi, Mr. Thyagarajan said though the lockdown pushed the production to a later date, it gave them a chance to work on the script a lot more. “We have utilised the time to work on the scripts,” he said.
He said that film production in the 1980s and early 90s was simpler. “When we started Moondram Pirai, the day we performed the puja for the film, all areas would get sold out. But, today, this doesn’t happen to any film. The buyers today wait till the film is complete, they watch the trailers and only then take a call. The costs have also gone up a lot,” he said.
Mr. Thyagarajan said it was important for production houses to spend enough time in doing pre-production and plan for production so that film could be delivered quickly bringing down the interest component.
