Kollywood had an 'emotional 2006'!

Chennai, Dec 28 (UNI) Tamil Cinema industry experienced a kaleidoscope of emotions like passing away of a few of its great artists, weddings of a few of its own kin who give life to characters its writers create and a historical story presented as a comedy becoming a big hit in a year otherwsise dominated by small budget films with strong storyline.

As the New Year dawns on Kollywood, the mood is buoyant, looking forward for a better show, like in 2006, bringing in good business, especially in the second half of the year.

A senior producer and an office bearer in the South Indian Film Chamber, Kodanda Ramaiah, fondly known as ''KR'' in Kollywood, told UNI that the good business was due to the entertainment tax exemption for films titled in Tamil, as well as for the old films.

However, for Kollywood to remain financially healthy in the New Year too, it has to be ensured that all sections of the industry benefit financially from the tax exemption.

''The theatres should not misuse the tax exemption facility,'' he opined.

In celebration of this key concession, Kollywood got up a glittering function to felicitate Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi, himself a screenplay, story, dialogue and lyric writer of great standing in Tamil cinema, in honour of the then Chief Minister and another former star, J Jayalalithaa, whose government cracked down on video piracy, making it an offence under the Goondas Act.

As the year was drawing to a close the state government announced another major sop to Kollywood bringing down the rates of admission in theatres all over Tamil Nadu, including the posh multiplexes.

This was following a plea by a delegation from the industry, headed by Film Producers Association and the South Indian Film Chamber.

It was a good year for the current super stars of Kollywood, after late Sivaji and MGR, the matinee idols of yesteryear, Rajnikant and Kamal Hassan.

Kamal, hailed as actor par excellence, finally broke his run of flops, 'shooting and fighting' his way to the Box Office, playing with aplomb again a super cop in 'Vettaiadu Vilayadu', partly shot in New York city. While the film finally broke Kamal's poor run at the box office, ''Vettaiadu'' kicked off a rare phenmenon of delayed project hitting the bull's eye. Close on its heels, a few more delayed releases also did good business.

Kamal is now attempting to scale greater heights, as is his wont, essaying as many as ten roles in his new film, 'Dasaavatharam'.

However, Kamal's contemporary, the 'deified' Rajnikant did not have any new release in 2006. However, he was in the limelight with his last year's mega hit, 'Chandramukhi', still running and crossing 600 days, even as news about his next action flick ''Shivaji'' for the prestigious AVM banner, hogged focus.

But Rajni's fans put him in a spot of bother on his 57th birthday by putting up posters and cut outs depicting him as Buddha and Lord Krishna, leading to protests by Hindu outfits.

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