So far, he has produced 5 films, with 3 more in the pipeline & all of these 8 are/were from debutant directors.
If not for Kumar, Karthik Subbaraj may still have been roaming around the lanes of Kodambakkam with that gem of a script in his hand just like how the protagonist of Pizza roams around the town with his Pizza boxes. Extending the analogy, CV Kumar & his production house would probably have been Karthik’s equivalent of the fortune changing box of diamonds that Vijay Sethupathy gets hold of in Pizza! Pizza was professionally packed, so to speak, and Kumar was able to strike a deal with Sangam Cinemas & Red Giant films for publicity. He is also believed to have spent an amount equivalent to half the film’s budget on promoting it. The film was a runaway hit & with satellite and remake rights getting sold like hot Pizzas (pun intended!), the maker would have laughed all the way to the bank – that is if it was someone else in Kumar’s place. What did he do then?
He went on to use the resources from his first two successes to back and produce two more films Soodhu Kavvum & Villa giving a platform for a few more technical talents. Directed by Naalaya Iyakkunar fame Nalan Kumarasamy, Soodhu Kavvum gained cult status for its content & presentation and took its hero Vijay Sethupathy to stardom. By this time, Kumar’s introductions Santhosh Narayanan, Gopi Amarnath, Dinesh Krishnan, Leo John Paul , Dinesh, Vijay Sethupathy & Karthik Subbaraj had made their way as huge promises for the future in their respective lines of work.
He probably wanted to test waters with film distribution & took RS Prasanna’s light hearted film on a sensitive subject Kalyaana Samayal Saadham to distribute & that calculated move also worked! The film went on to make money for its producer & distributors. Kumar started 2014 the same way producing a taut thriller Thegidi giving a lease of life to a new set of promising technicians in talented director Ramesh, Hero Ashok Selvan (hero in Villa as well), Heroine Janani, Character artist Kaali Venkat, Music director Nivas Prasanna & editor Leo John Paul. These are names that would make a mark on Kollywood in the future and when they do so, there would be one person who they would all want to thank & it would be the guy who produces interesting films and promotes them in creative fashion under the banner ‘Thirukumaran Entertainment’ which is now a household name.
With a tie up with Fox Star Studios & promising projects like Mundasupatti (whose fascinating trailer can be watched here), the unnamed remake of Kannada stunner Lucia starring Siddharth, CV Kumar doesn’t look like dropping the ball anytime soon. Even as you read this piece here, he may be busy listening to the script of an aspiring director & making his calculations pondering whether the script deserves the backing of Thirukumaran Entertainment. If his decision were to be a ‘yes’, the aspiring film maker can rest assured that he would make it big in K-town, for, he has got the nod of the King … naaah … The ‘Kingmaker’ producer of Kollywood!
C V Kumar Filmography
Year | Movie | Director | Lead Actors |
---|---|---|---|
2012 | Attakathi | Ranjith | Dinesh, Nandita, Iyshwarya Rajesh |
2012 | Pizza | Karthik Subbaraj | Vijay Sethupathi, Ramya Nambeesan |
2013 | Soodhu Kavvum | Nalan Kumarasamy | Vijay Sethupathi, Sanchita Shetty, Ashok Selvan |
2013 | Pizza 2: The Villa | Deepan Chakravarthy | Ashok Selvan, Sanchita Shetty |
2013 | Kalyana Samayal Saadham (As Distributor) | RS Prasanna | Prasanna, Lekha Washington |
2014 | Thegidi | Ramesh | Ashok Selvan, Janani Iyer |
2014 | Mundaasupatti | Ram | Vishnu, Nandita |
2014 | Lucia | Prasad Ramar | Siddharth, Deepa Sannidhi |
2014 | Sarabham | Arun Mohan | Naveen Chandra, Saloni Aswani |
Good analysis. We don’t usually get this insight on an upcoming producer. Respect CVK.