Will Nanban and Vettai spur the ‘multi-starrer’ trend?

When an Industry goes through a crisis or transform itself, one of the first things that happens is relying on multi-starrer movies. Hindi movie industry has been doing this for the last 5 years with great success. This has been one of the recipes for expanding the Hindi markets.

Historically, Tamil industry has always been averse to this idea. Some blame it on ego, economics, operational  challenges and others blame it on insecurity among our stars. Recently, Vaanam was one such example where Bharath agreed to pair with Simbhu. Before release, Bharath was given equal visibility along with Simbu. Once the movie got released and the collections showed a drop, Simbu was given more prominence. Bharath expressed his displeasure about sidelined after the release. There are instances where some prominent actors are known to have influenced the weak-kneed directors to remove scenes of co-stars. Incidents like these tend to happen which has hindered multi-starrers in Tamil. Let us check the timeline to see a few notable multi-starrers in the past.

1970s – Rajini and Kamal join hands to take over the baton from MGR and Sivaji 

Earlier in 1970s, Rajini and Kamal worked together for several films like 16 Vayathinile, Moondru Mudichu, Avargal, Ninaithale Inikkum, Thillu Mullu etc. Most of the films they played together are by their mentor K. Balachander. This is a critical period in the history when people were looking for change from MGR, Sivaji and Gemini Ganesan.

1980s – Prabhu bridges the gap  

‘Guru Sishyan’ saw Superstar Rajinikanth and Prabhu playing friends who have a hidden connection. The chemistry between the pair was simply rocking and their humor had the audience in splits. Till date, the best multi-starrer may be ‘Agni Natchatiram’. Mani Ratnam had Prabhu and Karthik brilliantly portraying half-brothers who hated each other.  Other notable movies were ‘Dharmathin Thalaivan’, 'Vetri Vizha'. Other than Prabhu, no other Tamil actor was ready to share the screen space with leading heroes and peers during 1980s. 

1990s – Opportunistic multi-starrers  

‘Thalapathi’ saw the coming together of 2 reigning superstars. It took a director like Mani Ratnam to break the shackles and bring out the actors to life.  Kamal and Arjun  came together for ‘Kurudhipunal’ for a strong script. Kamal and Prabhu Deva joined for ‘Kadhala Kadhala’ when the latter was at his peak. Much anticipated ABCL’s Ullasam with up and coming Ajith and Vikram failed big time. During 90s, true multi-starrers could be pulled only by big directors like Mani Rathnam or by Kamal Haasan.

2000s – Multi-starrers fail to bring in expected level of collections 

‘Friends’ - The movie was a remake of a Malayalam movie, directed by noted Malayalam director  Siddique and starred Vijay who was riding high with back to back hits alongside Suriya. The movie continued Vijay’s success streak and helped revive Surya's career when he was struggling. Another movie was ‘Anbe Sivam’, Kamal and Madhavan pulled a memorable performance. End of 2010, Kamal convinced Mohan Lal to act in ‘Unnai Pol Oruvan’ and Madhavan for ‘Manmadhan Ambu’. Many such multi-starrers ended up looking as if the production value was compromised which led to moderate to above average hits. The blocbuster out of multi-starrer was still elusive.

2010s – Tamil movies going national and global 

One of the first multi-starrers we are looking forward to is ‘Nanban’. Shankar had to really work hard to assemble the star cast after Simbu and other heroes refused to act. Looking at the trailer, the movie looks like it has aroused the curiosity primarily due to the chemistry between the lead actors. Vettai is another multi-starrer releasing on the same day that will clash against ‘Nanban’. Arya, one of the few actors with no ego, seems to be perfectly comfortable with Madhavan. Similarly, Arya was equally cool about letting Vishal have better scenes in Avan Ivan.

Conclusion

Over many decades, the multi-starrers have been possible only when there is a clear understanding of who is dominant and who is playing the second fiddle. Hindi Industry relied primarily on multi-starrers to expand the market by many folds. Now with Tamil Industry looking to expand globally and outside of Tamil Nadu, the multi-starrers are being shaped with actors from Telugu Industry for mutual benefits (Vikram and Jagapathy Babu in Thandavam, Simbu and Rana in Vada Chennai, Suriya and Ravi Teja in Venkat Prabhu's movie).  Many such plans are in discussion stage now.  

The fate of Nanban and Vettai will determine whether the multistarrers will truly catch on.