Sun buys telecast rights of Tamil blockbusters

The Sun Network has pulled off a coup of sorts by buying the exclusive rights to telecast Tamil blockbusters Chandramukhi, Anniyan, Kaadal, Manmathan and Arindhum.

W Hansraj Saxena, vice-president (programming), Sun TV, says the channel's policy is to monopolise rights for telecast of blockbusters released in a year. Towards this end, the channel invests between Rs 200 crore and Rs 250 crore annually.

He says that the network follows the same thumb rule as regard to movies in the other three south Indian languages "" Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada.

Sun Network has a wide reach in south India with 13 channels in all the four regional languages. It has three music channels and three dedicated news channels. Malayalam is the only south Indian language in which it doesn't have a news channel.

Kalanithi Maran, CMD, Sun Network, had earlier mentioned how buying of film rights was significant for the network as the songs and comic scenes of the movies would supply a steady source of entertainment for its viewers in the prime time slots.

Generally, 70 to 80 films are released in Tamil every year. Only a handful of them go on to become blockbusters, while 15 to 20 of them do average business. The rest simply disappear without a trace.

The price a TV channel pays for a movie depends on its success. The price of a blockbuster is between Rs 3 crore and Rs 5 crore depending on the star cast. An average film goes for between Rs 35 lakh and Rs 50 lakh.

Usually, a film will have to be screened by a channel only after three years of its buying the telecast rights. To overcome this embargo, Sun Network buys these movie at a premium from producers so that it can be telecast immediately.

In keeping with the saying 'make hay while the sun shines,' Saxena says there is a need to make an impact on viewers' mind when there is fresh appeal for new movies and not after the popularity of the stars wanes. The icing on the cake for the network is buying of telecast rights of the newly released Ghajani, Anbe Aaruyire and Sivakasi, which is slated for a release around Diwali.

So far, Sun Network's copyright collection has about 2,000 Tamil films.