For a generation that grew up in the 80s and 90s, Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan have been synonymous with films from south India. Later Mohanlal and Mammooty too got noticed. But that was it. And that was then.
Cut to 2011. When Tamil superstar Dhanush's Kolaveri Di was uploaded on YouTube, the response it got was staggering. Suddenly, a not-so-good-looking guy, singing in a mix of Tamil and English, was everywhere. And as if out of the blue, a Tamil song was on everybody's lips. The song was rehashed and sung in Indian languages - it even has a Pakistani version!
Rajinikanth has been the poster boy of Tamil cinema world over, not for nothing. His epic drama Kochadaiiyaan has been in public memory ever since the project was announced by his daughter, Soundarya. So when its trailer was launched in March 2014, it wouldn't have come as a surprise that it skyrocketed itself to big numbers on YouTube - over 48 lakhs.
The trailer of Dhanush starrer Velai Illa Pattadhaari (VIP) was launched in June 2014 and in no time it began trending on social media.
2. When Bollywood A-listers went down South
For much too long, we have seen the trend of starlets who couldn't make it big in Bollywood, moving to greener pastures down south and becoming stars in their own right. But 2014 saw many big stars from Bollywood working in major Tamil projects - we had Deepika Padukone starring opposite Rajinikanth in Kochadaiiyaan at the start of 2014 and ended with Sonakshi Sinha working with Rajinikanth again in Lingaa.
3. Budgets get bigger, imagination wilder
All agree that big budgets don't always mean better films, but it is a fact that some dreams do come at a cost. In cinematic language, it invariably translates to exotic locations and computer generated imagery. Take for instance Vikram's I. It has been widely reported that his make-up has been done by New Zealand-based Weta Digital, the group responsible for look of Rise of the Planet of Apes and the Dawn of the Planet of Apes.
4) Big guns getting Tamil film business
The Tamil industry and its business prospects have been lure enough for big guns of Indian entertainment for a while. Sony Music officially began its south cinema music arm in 2010 but Eros International went big with distribution in 2014. Till as late as 2012, Eros distributed only one Tamil film - Maatran. Come 2014, the number had gone up several notches with a total of five big-budget Tamil and Telugu films (1: Nenokkadine, Kochadaiiyaan, Kaththi, Aagadu and Lingaa) under its care.
5) Resurgence of Rajinikanth
In the last couple of years Rajinikanth has been during few than his normal count of films per year. Through 2002 till 2013, viewers would get to see one Rajini film. Of course, all of them charmed the box office barring may be Kuselan. But 2014 changed all that - it began with a highly anticipated Kochadaiiyaan and ended with a bumper harvest called Lingaa.
