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The Tamil entertainment market encompassing live shows, television, films, and FM radio, has seen an unprecedented growth in recent times. With the advent of streaming services like Amazon and Netflix leading the way, content providers in different genres have found new avenues to express their creativity. Where, once the main source of entertainment was to go to a film theatre, the options slowly expanded to music shows, theatre, radio and stand-up comedy acts, with a great lean towards the regional language, which was seen as a pathbreaking move from the earlier patronage to English language content.

After minutely studying the film market for a year and a half, during their presence in the country, primarily in the Hindi and Telugu language markets, Vuclip has expanded its footprint in the Tamil market with localised content, which includes Tamil language Originals, Tamil short films, Korean dramas, and curated content for the enjoyment of millennials in Tamil Nadu.

Explaining Viu’s foray in the Tamil market, Arun Prakash, President & COO, Vuclip says, “The youth of Tamil Nadu are unique. They have a perfect balance of modern unbiased outlook and deep-rooted culture and values. They have a unique liking for great stories told with local style and taste. We are here to offer them exactly that through our compelling curated content and fresh Viu Tamil Originals. We are deeply committed to investing in this market todevelop the content industry and talent pool to serve the Tamil audience.”

Arun forecasts an exciting time ahead for Viu in Tamil Nadu. “In the next two years we plan to have 100 Tamil titles and thereafter, we will have two originals every month. In our research we have found that the Tamil youth, the segment we are aggressively addressing, are aspirational with practicality. And, this reflects in the kind of content they want, especially on their mobile phones. Unlike other markets we are present in, primarily in the South Asian region, we find that in Tamil Nadu, great talent is available in the film industry but, the wherewithal to produce good content was lacking; we are addressing this area of funding and creative guidance to ensure that the products we put out are the best. Our aim has always been to provide the consumer, premium products at affordable cost,” concludes Arun Prakash.

For Arun Prakash, its coming back to his roots, in a manner of speaking. “I grew up and studied in Chennai and left for the US to pursue my passion in the world of IT. In the last six years I have been on board with Vuclip Inc which was founded by Nikhil Jagattar and is based out of Silicon Valley, San Jose, California, US. To make this entry into my home market, it is both emotional and gratifying.”

Viu is a leading OTT Video service by PCCW and Vuclip is available in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, and Qatar. Vuclip is a leading global technology-driven media company delivering on demand entertainment to emerging markets including India, Southeast Asia, Africa and West Asia. As a PCCW Media Company, Vuclip properties include Viu, Vuclip Videos, Viu Life and Vuclip Games.

“We firmly believe that content drives format and with that philosophy, we have made our initial foray into the Tamil entertainment market with some great products. Viu has partnered with several leading players of the Tamil content industry, namely, AP International Films, a pioneer in South Indian movies entertainment and the largest distributors of Tamil and Malayalam cinema, Film-maker and producer, Sameer Bharat Ram and Super Talkies, leading Digital Content producer Trendaloud from the House of Vision Times, established writer, filmmaker and comics creator Nandhini JS, best known for ‘Thiru Thiru Thuru Thuru’ and noted YouTube content producers Black Sheep and Fully Filmi,” informs Arun Prakash.

Some of the titles on immediate offer are Kalyanamum Kadhandhu Pogum: Produced by Viu & Nalan Kumarasamy, Sameer Bharat Ram and Sateesh Swaminathan; Madras Mansion: A Viu & Super Talkies production; Door No. 403: A Viu & Trendloud production; Nila Nila Nila Odi Vaa: A Viu & Make Believe production and short films Masha Allah… Ganesha, directed by ace renowned film director Venkat Prabhu and The Wind directed by national award filmmaker M Manikandan.

In an industry dominated by Amazon and Netflix, the strategy of Vuclip is to go glocal – a global outlook with local content. “There is sufficient talent and extremely interesting content available in Tamil and that is where our focus is going to be,” concludes Arun Prakash.