What’s With Waning ‘Love’ In Kollywood?

“I can’t remember the last time I saw a star in a complete romance film,” says Vinayak Chandrasekaran, the director of Good Night, arguably one of the very few Tamil romantic comedies in 2023. This is something we all could agree on. Besides Dhanush’s Thiruchitrambalam (2022), one can’t think of a full-blown romance film or a romantic comedy featuring a major star in Tamil cinema in recent times. The last I could remember is Kamal Haasan and Trisha’s Manmadhan Ambu (2010) and Vetri Cinemas owner, Rakesh Gowthaman, sadly reminds me that it was long ago, around the same time as Vijay’s last romance film Kaavalan (2011). 

Growing up in the 90s or early 2000s meant that you watched a lot of romantic films - a few intense ones and some light-hearted romcoms - featuring your favourite actors. For instance, 2000 saw the release of Alaipayuthey, Kandukondain Kandukondain, Kushi, Rhythm AND Priyamaanavale. “We have to understand that there are always seasons for genres in Tamil cinema and the genre shifts have resulted in fewer romance films today,” points out Rakesh. The period when Vijay and Ajith started was the season of love stories. He says that at some point, we had only comedy films; and then just horror movies, followed by the trend of horror comedies. Similarly, in the past decade, thrillers have become a favourite genre. “Amidst these, all big hero films have become about action and mass moments.”

Stars Don’t Indulge In ‘Just Romance’ Anymore!

As an industry, Tamil cinema has sure become more and more action-focused, especially in the past decade and this has impacted the number of romance films being produced. Film critic and writer Sowmya Rajendran notes that there is an increase in love for action films probably because our stars are ageing. “Our stars are now more convincing in such roles where they're playing a cop or somebody who is fighting against something, rather than someone who is happy-go-lucky and romancing a woman.” On the other hand, Tamil cinema is yet to develop its next generation of stars. “If you look at Tamil cinema, who can we really call a rising star?” asks Sowmya. 

The rise in action dramas though doesn’t mean that Tamil cinema doesn’t have any love stories. The likes of Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu (2006) and Theri (2016) continue to feature romance arcs. But as action films were made continuously, romance films were reduced to romantic tracks, says Halitha Shameem, whose romantic anthology Sillu Karupatti is a genre favourite. “Love suddenly became a 20-minute commodity in such films.”

When you look at the career graph of today’s stars like Vijay or Ajith, they started their career by acting in romantic and feel-good movies, which fetched them a lot of love from audiences. The first step towards stardom though began when they shifted their gears to action. Film Producer Dhananjayan calls Vijay’s career a classic example of the equation between stars and romance films. “Vijay’s romantic films like Thulladha Manamum Thullum or Kadhaluku Mariyaadhai ran successfully. But what did he end up with? Ghilli. And from then, there has been no looking back.” He further adds that when actors leap to do action films, they are getting into the next pedestal and are growing faster. “Now, every hero wants to follow Vijay. I even watched a debut actor’s film and there were three long action sequences. People in the industry have begun to think that a pure romantic film is going to satisfy only a niche audience, whereas a mix of action, high moments and larger-than-life sequences will take them to the masses.”

In an interview, even Gautham Vasudev Menon revealed that actors were not ready to do romance films and instead asked him for scripts of other genres. Dhananjayan corroborates this mindset of major actors working currently. “All heroes need mass action entertainers and romance has to be only a part of it. People are ready to do films like Kaakha Kaakha but not ready for Vinnai Thaandi Varuvaaya. Of course, they want love stories but in the backdrop of action because they can't dissatisfy their fans who look for mass action. So that is the dilemma of every hero.”

Besides satisfying the fans, another major factor that drives action is the possibility of huge box-office collections, says Sowmya. “Even Mani Ratnam who gave us movies like Alaipaayuthey or OK Kanmani is making a Thug Life. I think that's where the money is now or everyone is assuming so.”

What do the audiences want?

Vinayak reminisces that when people watched Good Night, a lot of them said that it’s been a long time since they had fun watching a rom-com. “Only then did I realise that the audiences were probably missing the genre.”  In fact, films like Love Today and Thiruchitrambalam have made big numbers at the box office, which hints at the genre’s ability to pull audiences to the theatres. 

Rakesh says that younger audiences contribute majorly to theatres and romance films will be something they could relate to. “Family audiences support theatres only during weekends and the younger generation of patrons are the ones supporting weekday morning and matinee shows. Avangalukaana padam kudukum podhu, kandipa theatre la vandhu paapaanga (When a film that suits their interests is made, they will definitely watch it in theatres). So even if it is a romance film, if it is good, people will watch it in theatres.”

The Sub-genre of Romantic Comedy

Although 2023 sort of saw a few romantic films like Dada and Joe reach wider audiences, the rarity of romantic comedies persists. “In Tamil cinema, you can easily count the number of directors who have made romcoms,” notes Halitha. Although the sub-genre in itself isn’t something that’s been explored vastly, with only a few directors like M Rajesh and Balaji Mohan having repeatedly done romantic comedies, such films were always a part of pop culture. “A lot of such films like Kushi (2000) and Dum Dum Dum have stood the test of time. Apart from the big stars, we also had several stars like Prasanna, Siddharth and Jayam Ravi who were a part of popular romcoms,” says Sowmya.

There is no dearth of romance films, but only of romantic comedies, says Dhananjayan. “As we read scripts, at least four out of ten scripts are romantic scripts only. But romcom as a subgenre isn’t quite popular in Tamil cinema.” He says that even historically, Tamil cinema has done more intense and serious romance films and very few romantic comedies. “There should be a good idea with a potential to work like Love Today. It's very difficult to write a comedy in romance unless there is a new element added to it. So it's not easy. Comedy is a very rare thing. It is not everybody's cup of tea.”

The rarity of romcoms mostly affects female actresses and the quality of roles written for women, emphasise Halitha and Sowmya. “There aren’t actual films that really celebrate women and the bare minimum of that is romcom. At least, they’ll have equal importance in such films and the actor’s performance will be spoken about. But since such films aren’t made, that’s also reduced. If you look back at OK Kanmani or the recent Lover, Nithya Menen and Sir Gouri Priya were spoken about because they did a romantic film,” says Halitha.

Race for stardom and the dip in romances

After Good Night, when Vinayak set out to narrate his next script, a family drama, most people gave him some advice: “They suggested I do an action film so that I can start working with bigger stars and move up the ladder. Such advice is commonly given to filmmakers.” But like how the actors try to follow the paths of Vijay and Ajith to reach wider audiences, Vinayak notes that the success pattern of several filmmakers has led to certain beliefs. “Action films mela oru craze, oru market iruku. Plus, filmmakers who make such films are achieving greater heights in cinema. If you are inspired by Virat Kohli, you will want to become a batsman. Likewise, when people are inspired by successful filmmakers, they want to emulate the same pattern and flavours.”

Both romantic comedies and other kinds of romance films are still being pursued by stars to some extent in neighbouring industries. While Karan Johar’s joyful romantic comedy Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani starring the in-form stars Ranveer Singh and Alia Bhatt pulled the audience to the theatres, the deeply moving romance film Sita Ramam, featuring Dulquer Salmaan and Mrunal Thakur, was the perfect debut launchpad for actors in Telugu industry as leading stars. “Although Sita Ramam was a Telugu film, it did excellent numbers in Tamil theatres,” notes Rakesh. Dhananjayan opines that films like Rocky Aur Rani are not possible in Kollywood because stars do not settle to do romance films anymore but Sowmya suggests that a high-budget romantic comedy is possible given we get somebody to write those scripts. “I think actually Rajinikanth would be great in a rom-com. If you notice the romance scenes in Kaala or even Kabali, they were really good. When we say romcom, it needn’t be just young people. Older stars can experiment, but they need to step out of their comfort zone.

The only romance movie this Valentine's week in the South was Girish AD’s Malayalam film Premalu. Made on a small budget, the film has reportedly crossed the 50-crore mark at the box office. While such success has been also demonstrated by Tamil filmmakers, Sowmya opines that such directors probably don't receive enough encouragement from the industry to keep doing it. She says, “They keep making romcoms in Malayalam but it is a small industry. They make movies with a budget of two to three crore. And then if it becomes a hit, they get a lot of money. If not, it's not too much of a loss, right? I think that kind of market for small-budget or medium-budget films has to be encouraged in Tamil. But I think that's not happening enough.”

In an industry, where one hit means the follow-up of the genre with different templates, Vinayak opines, “Change is permanent. When thrillers were very less, Ratsasan became a massive hit and the years that followed saw a lot of thrillers. Likewise, when a big star does a romance film and it wins big, it will open up different opportunities.”