The success of sequels: the rise of the series in Tamil cinema Premium

With ‘Jigarthanda DoubleX’, a “spiritual sequel” to 2014’s ‘Jigarthanda’, opening to rave reviews, we take a detailed look at the history and evolution of sequels in Tamil cinema

It’s fascinating when you realise that the reason you’re binging multiple sequels of your favourite titles today is Johannes Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press in the mid-1400s. The unprecedented financial success of legendary works of literature like ‘Robinson Crusoe’ (1719) and ‘Gulliver’s Travels’ (1726) made publishers come up with follow-up stories to cash in on the newly formed interest. In a meta manner, films are a sequel to literary works of fiction and it didn’t take long for purveyors of early cinema to come up with cinematic sequels.

Hollywood has been making sequels since the early 1900s and the concept reached the shores of Mumbai in just a few years. In 1943, the Hindi film Hunterwali Ki Beti, the sequel to the 1935 film Hunterwali, became the first Indian sequel film. Along with making the first Indian film to be edited using Avid Technology (Mahanadhi), the first Tamil film to have its screenplay written with software (Thevar Magan), the first Indian film to use Dolby Stereo surround SR technology (Kuruthipunal ) and the first Indian film to utilise Auro 3D sound technology (Vishwaroopam ), the credit of making Tamil cinema’s first sequel also goes to Kamal Haasan. His Japanil Kalyanaraman (1985) is a follow-up to Kalyanaraman (1979).

When compared to our Western counterparts, Indian cinema’s tryst with sequels hasn’t been much but there has been a significant and even exponential rise in the number of film series’ in the last decade. Unsurprisingly, its Hindi cinema that is leading this list with a heap of film series’. What comes as a pleasant surprise is that its the Malayalam film industry which is in second position with the Tamil cinema industry coming third.

In today’s world of films, the word ‘sequel’ seems to have become arbitrary as moviegoers are accustomed to terms like film series/franchises and shared cinematic universes. There are now many classifications within sequels themselves.

The most obvious of these classifications are the direct sequels. Some of them are designed as multi-parters right at the scripting stage, like the Vishwaroopam and Ponniyin Selvanfilms; some are turned into two-parters after realising the potential of the content in hand, like the Viduthalai films; but most of them are made because the original had a dream run, like the Singham series, the Pichaikkaran films and the Velaiilla Pattadhariprojects. If the events of a film occur chronologically before the original film’s plot, it becomes a prequel with Billa II (2012) being the best example of this. While Billa (2007) showed the menacing David Billa, his death and the fall of his empire, Billa II showcased the life of an ordinary man from the coastal regions of Sri Lanka rising the ranks and becoming an underworld don. Jigarthanda DoubleX — spoiler alert ahead — is also an example of a prequel.

An enjoyable piece of trivia is from the 1990 Tamil film Salem Vishnu. Actor Thiagarajan, who played the role of Salem Vishnu in the 1987 Malayalam film New Delhi (starring Mammootty), later did a prequel showcasing his character’s past in Salem Vishnu!

Interestingly, we haven’t had any midquels and their subsidiaries interquel and intraquel. An interquel is a story that takes place in between two previously released films (Tamil cinema has had just a handful of franchises which have more than a couple of films), while an intraquel is a work which focuses on events within a previous work. If KGF 3 happens, it’s expected to be an interquel that will dig deep into Rocky’s world between the events of the first two films. But we do have legacy sequels; films that follow the continuity of the original films but take place further along the timeline, often focusing on new characters with the original ones still present. The Vijay-starrer Once More (1997) featured Sivaji Ganesan and Saroja Devi getting back into the shoes of the roles they played as the leads in Iruvar Ullam (1963).