What’s in a Title?

by Raven Reviews

The latest trend in Tamil film Industry these days is filing a case against the title of a film that is due for release. The producer who has lots of finance tied to the movie panics when a case gets filed and invariably settles for an out-of-the-court settlement. These days big budget films are contemplating not to reveal the title initially. For instance, the latest Vishnuvardhan-Ajith project is in no hurry to announce the title and the shooting is progressing at a brisk pace.   

• As we are aware, Vijay's Thuppaki’s title issue is at the court for a long time now and the case gets postponed at every hearing. This has delayed the release of trailer and posters of the movie. The latest we hear from the industry sources is that the film may undergo a title change and will be released for Diwali if the verdict is not given during the next hearing on September 17th. The Court's inaction in Thuppakki title issue has set a very bad example for a number of small budget movie makers who has figured out how to milk a big budget movie.

• Vishal’s ‘Samar’ was first titled as ‘Samaran’. Later, it was known that Director Seeman had already registered the title, which forced the team to change the title to ‘Samar’. Now, producer Vijay claims that he has registered the title ‘Samar’ long back.

• Simbhu’s ‘Vaalu’ is facing the title issue with another small movie acted by Kalloori fame Akhil and directed by Thambi Ramaiah's assistant.

• Vikram's Thaandavam also had the title issue which got court ruling in its favour.

• The latest film to join the list is Sasikumar’s ‘Sundarapandian’, which is due for release this weekend. The trouble is caused by R.Raghu who had directed and produced a film under the same name with Karthik in the lead in 1998. The parties waited till the last moment and struck at the right moment. Now, the issue might be settled out-of-court by paying compensation to Raghu.

Why so much confusion about Titles?

One of the reasons is that the small budget films are looking for free publicity by filing a case against the big budget films. Small-time producers try to make some quick bucks by threatening to file a case just before the release of the movie. One cannot bring any behavioral change by preaching about ethics. No matter what, people will find loop-holes and tap into any opportunity for making money. 

• A film’s title can be registered in three places, namely, Film Chamber, Producers Council and Producers Guild. This results in more chaos and confusions. There should be a single governing body for registration of titles. This would make the whole process more transparent and hassle-free.

   

• In case of any legal litigation, Producer council usually gets involved to solve the issue swiftly instead of moving to the court directly. Since the Producer council was defunct for a while, many of these issues went to the court directly. (watch this space for a follow-up article regarding how UTV is getting Producer Council's help to deal with an Assistant Director who filed a case against Thaandavam story)

Of Course, the title of a film gives the first impression about a film. But, that does not mean title is everything for a film. Are the creators concentrating too much on the title rather than on the content and story?