The future of Tamil Eelam history based movies
In the future, many will likely be introduced to Tamil Eelam’s history through cinematic productions. History-based movies primarily enable the audience to learn more on their own. Presently, over a million people apart of the Tamil diaspora know the history of Tamil Eelam. Therefore, they can easily identify an anti-Tamil film, such as Family Man 2. However, the next generation of Tamil diaspora won’t be able to recognize if any anti-Tamil production of Tamil Eelam history is being spread around as propaganda by anti-Tamil governments. Even though history books, video magazines, such as Oliveechchu, and archives still exist, visual content catches a wider audience. Otherwise, history can be twisted by powerful forces. Tamils have lost vast amounts of literature through the destruction of manuscripts driven by Hindu religious beliefs. In fact, Eelam Tamils democratically mandated Tamil Eelam as a separate country and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) fought for the nation. Tamil Eelam ensured Tamil’s sovereignty and protected Tamils from genocide until May 2009 when Tamil Eelam was destroyed by genocidal war. Similar to World War 2 and other historic wars, the history of Tamil Eelam has thousands of stories that are worth telling to the world and future generations. This article identifies the challenges, analyzes, and evaluates the financing models for future history-based movies.
As of 2021, heavy restrictions such as continuing the ban on LTTE prevent Tamils from making movies about their history. On the other hand, anti-Tamil movies have been systematically funded and promoted. However, the film, “Methagu”, about the Tamil national leader Hon. Prabhakaran broke that barrier. It is observed as an exceptional example for the future of Tamil Eelam films. To financially support the production of this film, the Crowdfunding model was used. In 2020, to produce “The Lamp of Truth”, a film about Sri Lanka’s genocide against Tamils, a corporate shareholder model was used. Usually, the method of production financing is done by individuals who have links to the distribution network. This model is not viable for Tamil Eelam history-based movies.
Traditionally, movies display a protagonist and an antagonist who the film revolves around. Even though Tamil Nadu has over 100 years of movie history, they aren’t able to make Tamil Eelam history-based films, as they can’t portray LTTE as the protagonist under Indian rule. LTTE are heroes for Tamils and an integral and primary part of Tamil Eelam’s history. They showed Tamils as a fully sovereign State from 1990 to 2009. India’s ban on LTTE put additional restrictions on the Tamil Nadu movie industry. Due to the ban on LTTE, the Tamil diaspora’s small movie industry hesitates to make any Tamil Eelam history movie as it won’t get any film festival support. Due to the ban, the distribution of the film is also a challenge. Most of the Tamil diaspora film enthusiasts are aimed towards fame, festivals, and corresponding country’s indie film support funds. To achieve this, rather than creating Tamil Eelam history films, they created movies about controversial or entertainment topics. The fear of antagonizing governments is also a factor. In the Tamil diaspora, the big financial capable movie producers are focused on their return on investment. They take risks in entertainment movies but hesitate to take greater risks in history-based movies. To produce a history-based movie, the production team should either have a deep pocket or great dedication and shared financing.
The small-budget Tamil Eelam-based movies don’t get this wider market support as they can’t meet the expectation of viewers who are familiar with large-budget fiction movies from Tamil Nadu. There is only a little chance for a low-budget movie for financial success since it can’t withstand mass marketing and manipulated propaganda against it. It creates additional challenges for the few producers who are willing to make Tamil Eelam history-based movies. Unless Tamil Eelam-based movies are effectively financed and distributed for a reasonable return, it won’t be possible to break this barrier. The movie team has to be extremely effective, dedicated, and willing to work for the long term to produce a quality movie that meets the expectation of the audience. In general, history-based movies are very difficult as it needs lots of research. The “Methagu” movie team, comprised of a group of Tamil activists, effectively broke that barrier. When distributors were unwilling to release the movie, the latest online platform enabled the producer to bypass the Indian government restrictions. After passing all these hurdles, Tamil Nadu and the worldwide audience showed great support for the film Methagu as the film nailed the root cause of the Tamil struggle.
Since 2020, as Sri Lanka is clearly becoming China’s colony, it provides a chance for Tamils to get their side of the story out. India will most likely not pick a propaganda fight against Tamils when China is around the corner. This political condition will enable some risk-takers to produce Tamil Eelam-based films in the near future. The film production needs financing, and companies will not invest in production when there is heavy uncertainty about distributing the film. In the past, several small-budget movies that tell Tamil’s side of Tamil Eelam stories got censored by the Indian board of film certification. However, all these changed due to the digital movie distribution and availability of non-traditional funding models. A couple of small-budget movies should be made financially successful in the future through activists based distribution channels.
For the Lamp of Truth movie in 2020, a shareholder model was used. More than 20 shareholders formed a Canadian corporation, White Conch Studios, to produce the 250 thousand dollar budget movie. The corporate model works well, not only for profit sharing but also for loss sharing as well. The corporate model allows different shareholders to own different amounts of shares, and decisions making based on shares. This is the main difference from the non-profit organization where each member has the same level of say in decision-making. Since the load is spread among several shareholders, the risk can be reduced. The corporate model is well defined and very flexible for raising funds and continuous operation. It allows the shareholders to join and exist at any given time. However, additional management complexity is required to maintain the respective government’s requirements for the corporation. If a group of people who wanted to form an entity that lasts for the long term, corporate is a better option. It may be difficult to get the initial shareholders and initial setup. However, once trust is established among shareholders and standards are set, it’s a very effective model to produce multiple movies. The audience will also get familiar with the production company brand in long term.
The Lamp of Truth film focused on Sri Lanka’s genocide against Tamils. One of their goals was to get the Tamil side of the story to non-Tamils, via the medium of cinema. The goal was achieved by placing it on Amazon Prime, so that eventually it spreads worldwide. Although the movie was expected to reach 50% of the budget via alternative distribution channels, it didn’t break the distribution barrier due to COVID that caused additional challenges.
Crowdfunding is another good option to fund movie production. Both the original “No Fire Zone” documentary in 2013 and the 2nd distribution in 2015 are produced using crowdfunding. The director Callum Macrae was well known for his work at Channel 4, bringing Sri Lanka’s war crimes to the world. For documentaries, crowdfunding is certainly a better way, as the distribution normally doesn’t return any money for the producers. The movie “Methagu” also partially funded its production through crowdfunding. This allows the producer, Tamil Eelam Thiraikalai, to reduce the risk by relying on their supporters and gave them the confidence to release the movie even without any regular distributing channels. The movie production team should have trust and credibility built among the supporters before the crowdfunding starts. Only then like-minded people will contribute to support the film.
For future movie productions, either crowdfunding or a corporate model can be a better choice. This reduces the risk and provides more transparency for the small-budget films to get it to a wider audience. If the production team already established trust with track records, the crowdfunding model will work. Otherwise, a shareholder model with some like-minded people enables the production of the first movie. Depending on the result of the first film, the corporate can decide a way to move forward. An alternative activists-based distribution channel should also be established so the production team can rely on them to recover the partial cost from these channels. To retrieve the memory of their forgotten genocide, Armenians worldwide in their diaspora initiated efforts for international recognition many years later. After one hundred years, over 30 countries recognized the Armenian genocide. This includes the recent recognition by the USA. For Eelam Tamils, it may take longer to get justice for the Tamil genocide. However, producing a visual medium to tell their stories will remind the world of the Tamil’s side of the story forever.
- Vel
