You can update or correct this page, and/ or send photographs to the Facebook page, Indpaedia.com. All information used will be duly acknowledged.

This page is under construction.

Karthika Nair in Bharathi Raja's Annakodi (Tamil)

2010: The return of ‘sleaze’

The name of the film was changed from Kadhal Arangam to Kadhal Kathai.

Body paint scene from Antharangam

Deva Leelai (Tamil)/ Deva Kanniyalu (Telugu)

Deva Leelai (Tamil) / Deva Kanniyalu (Telugu)

Deva Leelai (Tamil): ‘sacred’ sex to the tune of Satyam Shivam Sundaram

Is sleaze back in Kollywood?

The Times of India Sreedhar Pillai, TNN | Aug 4, 2010

The Times of India had asked in 2010: Is the soft porn of the 80s and 90s back to haunt [the Tamil film industry]?

The reason was the release or completion of ‘titillating low- budget films with an 'A' certificate’ like

Antharangam (2010)

Avalin Unarchigal (the dubbed version of a Hindi-Urdu film)

Deva Leelai/ Deva Kanniyalu (2010)

Ilakkana Pizhai

Pesuvathu Kiliya

Valliba Villayattu

Red hyperlink indicates that the said page has not yet been created.

As per industry sources, these films are made on a shoe-string budget of Rs 1.50 to Rs 1.75 crore, or are steamy dubbed versions of old Bollywood or Hollywood C-grade films which have been lying in the cans for years. Not more than 25 to 30 prints of the films are made and sold at cheap rates to distributors, who screen them in single screen theatres in suburbs of cities and small towns.

A top distributor in Chengalpet area said, "These soft-porn films are distributed by people who have lost money doing mainstream big star films. Now, they are trying to recover their losses. Their investment is one tenth of what a star film would cost and returns are assured. Publicity is provided through provocative posters with a huge 'A' embossed on it. Apart from these, they may also have a small insertion in the local edition of a popular Tamil daily, nothing more. At times, they will not release the film in Chennai city fearing adverse publicity, police and women organisations."

In this age of fast downloads and easy access to hard core porn on the Internet, where are the audiences for such sleaze films? Says Sunil Kumar (name changed) a techie working in a software company: "Last Saturday, instead of going to our regular multiplexes, I, along with a couple of friends, visited a suburban theatre 25 kilometres away from Chennai and watched back-to-back Antharangam and Devaleelai in two different single screens. We had a ball because it brought back memories of our college days when we went to see Shakeela films."

None of the people producing or directing such sleaze were willing to speak