Sri Lankan Tamil cinema

Sri Lankan Tamil cinema, the Tamil language film industry in Sri Lanka, has remained relatively small with fewer than 100 films produced.[1] Today, the Tamil film industry in Sri Lanka is considered a supplement to its Indian counterpart, the Tamil cinema of Kodambakkam, Chennai, Tamil Nadu as many Sri Lankan Tamils act in India instead of acting in the smaller industry Sri Lanka has to offer. There was much competition from Tamil films from Tamil Nadu, India as well as obstacles from surviving genocidefrom the Sri Lankan Government. .

Tamils contributed significantly to Sinhala cinema as well as Indian Tamil cinema. Only a few Tamil language films were produced in the Northern Province of Sri Lanka. Earlier Tamil movies produced were all most destroyed or unrecovered due to civil war. A Sinhalese film was dubbed in Tamil on 29 December 1951.[1][2] The movie Samuthayam (Society), an adaptation of C.N. Annadurai’s Velaikkari was made in 16 mm and technicolor. It was shown in 1962 and 1963. Thottakkari (Plantation Woman), released on 28 March 1962, was the first Sri Lankan Tamil film in the standard 35 mm format. It included speeches by trade unionists S. Thondaman and Azeez and was directed by Krishnakumar who also played the film's male lead.[1]

Government-instituted development and individual achievement (1971–1979); unprecedented surge in yearly admissions In 1971, a socialist government which sought to overcome the dominance of screen time in Sri Lanka by Tamil and Hindi films came to power in the country. Foreign film domination had resulted in domestically produced films being relegated to 20% of the screen time while foreign films occupied 80% (60% Tamil, 10% Hindi, 10% English). The government which won power had promised to redress this imbalance. It established the State Film Corporation by Act no 47 of 1971, charged with the promotion of national film and giving and making available a wide variety of films to the public.

The State Film Corporation (SFC) established a unique credit scheme for film production. Loans were given on the basis of a script evaluation and those taking part with credit given on the collateral of the negatives. This was at a time when bank lending was very conventional and such a 'collateral' was unheard of in the banking industry. The directors and main technicians had to have prior training to obtain loans via a system of registration. Prior to these measures, films produced domestically were transliterations of Tamil and Hindi films, to the extent that there was no credit for screenplay. The only credit was for dialogues as the "screenplay" was a transliterations of the Hindi or Tamil original. The credit scheme ensured original screen writing for the first time and stories which were copies of Hindi and Tamil were not entitled to receive loans. Thus a professional film production industry was established.

As a rebirth of Sri Lankan Tamil cinema a comedy / thriller movie ‘'Komaali Kings’' was announced on 23 January 2016. The team says "‘Komaali Kings’ is an attempt to rekindle and re-establish nostalgic memories of the hay days of Sri Lankan Tamil Cinema".