Puthandu Winners At Kollywood Box Office In The Last 10 Years

Puthandu of 2016 was the time when Ilayathalapathi rained all over the Kollywood Box Office. His Atlee movie, Theri, which was released on April 14, was a whopping success. It had mostly favorable reviews except few. The movie was such a big hit that the other three small releases in Kollywood during this period, went unnoticed at the Box Office. Vijay's mass action thriller had an overall business of over Rs. 150 crores! 

Though there were four Tamil new year releases in 2015, the main clash was between Raghava Lawrence's Kanchana 2 and Mani Ratnam's O Kadhal Kanmani. One was the sequel to a popular horror flick, while other was a romantic movie with a Mollywood star in the lead. And the clash ended in a draw, with both Kanchana 2 and O Kadhal Kanmani putting up a great performance at the Box Office. In fact, both the movies had a dream run not just in Tamil Nadu but also in the overseas market. 

As Puthandu release in 2014, there were eight Tamil films. But, out of the eight, only Vishal starrer Naan Sigappu Manithan was able to make the audience and Box Office happy. Coming to the critics, a majority favored this psychological thriller, while few critics gave it thumbs down. Though it was not a typical Vishal style mass entertainer, this Thiru directorial ended up as a super hit at the BO, thus giving Vishal hat-trick successes. 

In 2013, during the selected period, four Tamil movies got released. But none of them were able to make any sort of impact at the Kollywood Box Office. And none of these four were big movies. But the Tamil film that made money at BO during the Puthandu season of 2013 was Arya starrer Settai. It was the official remake of the superhit Bollywood adult comedy movie, Delhi Belly. Though critics had mixed response towards the Arya starrer, a majority of the common audience welcomed the movie. 

From April 10 to April 18 of 2012, only Pachai Engira Kaathu and Oru Kal Oru Kannadi got released. And among the two, Oru Kal Oru Kannadi opened to really positive reviews and became the winner of Puthandu Box Office for the year 2012. This Udayanidhi Stalin and Hansika starrer M. Rajesh directed romantic comedy was a big time success, thus making a name for Stalin as an actor. It grossed over thrice its production cost and became a blockbuster.  

In 2011, there was not per se Puthandu release in Kollywood. But there were two releases prior to the selected dates. Dhanush starrer Mappillai and Thaygarajan directed Ponnar Shankar were the two movies. Of these two Mappillai went on to become the Box Office winner is the season of 2011 Tamil new year. The romantic action comedy movie became a success despite getting mixed reviews. Mappillai was the remake of 1989 Tamil movie of the same name. 

During the selected time period in April 2010, only one very small Tamil movie, Kadhal Meipada, had a release. But, it was a no-show at the box office and the critics and general audience also rejected that movie. But, this doesn't mean that Box Office was all quite for the Puthan time in 2010. Karthi starrer Paiyaa was released on April 02 and the movie was liked by both critics and the audience. This, in turn, made it a success at the Box Office. And the new year market went to this N. Liguswamy directorial.

In 2009, there were four Puthandu releases. But none of them were big movies and all of them failed to make a show at the Tamil Nadu Box Office. This was mainly because Suriya starrer Ayan, which was released on April 03, had taken over the season by a storm. This KV Anand movie was a big time blockbuster that all the other small movies, which were released aiming at the Puthandu crowd, got washed away. 

In the year 2008, Nepali, Santhosh Subramaniyam, Thozha and Arai En 305-il Kadavul were released during the selected time frame. Of the four only Santhosh Subramaniyam, starring Jayam Ravi and Genelia D'Souza, was able to impress the audience. Though the movie didn't get any competition from the other Puthandu releases, it had a face-off with Dhanush and Nayantara starrer Yaaradi Nee Mohini at the BO. Finally, both the movies became superhits.

In 2007, there were four Tamil releases between April 11 and April 18. They were namely, Kaanal Neer, Maya Kannadi, Unnale Unnale and Madurai Veeran. But none of these four were a top league star movie. And when the small films battled it out at the Box Office, Jeeva directed romantic musical movie Unnale Unnale, won the clash. This movie had Vinay Rai, Sadha and Tanisha Mukherjee in the lead. The movie was well received by the critics and became a hit at the Box Office.