Tamil film industry and 'teaser'

301 is the magic number. After a video gets 301 hits in an hour, YouTube monitors the IP address from which the video has been posted to verify its genuineness. Then, the video invariably goes viral. Filmmakers also stand to gain monetarily from this online popularity. Digital cinema consultant Balaji Gopal says producers can make money if they go in for ‘monetisation’. For this, they need to link their YouTube account with a Google AdSense account. YouTube checks the originality of the content and places advertisements on the link. It shares a percentage of revenue generated with those who have uploaded the content. The rates reportedly start at one dollar for a thousand hits. Among the recent films that made money this way are Kadal and Paradesi.

Recent Tamil films and teasers:-

Film	Hits
Ajith’s 53rd film	18,60,683
Singam 2	15,82,013
Maryan (trailer)	14,10,330
Thalaivaa	11,04,420
Raja Rani	06,56,023
Briyani	05,30,675
Thangameenkal (trailer)	01,58,873

When did teasers get popular? Trade analyst Sreedhar Pillai says Dhanush’s ‘Kolaveri’ triggered this trend. He said that, that’s when the industry discovered the power of YouTube. Among the recent teasers, he rates the Arya-Nayantara-starrer Raja Rani as most interesting. It has aroused enough curiosity that you want to know more.

Creating a teaser is not a joke, though. There must be a proper strategy in place. The campaign must follow a sequence; else, it will kill the product.

Content writer and freelance movie reviewer Sai Shyam G backs this statement. He cites the examples of small-budget films Pizza and Soodhu Kavvum that had out-of-the-box teasers; they went on to become box office hits.

But, a good teaser does not always guarantee box office success. For instance, Mani Ratnam’s Kadal. The teasers went viral and there was so much of buzz, which soon fizzled out, point out fans.