Efforts to be taken to expose Malaysian Tamil cinema history to younger generation - Finas

National Film Development Corporation Malaysia (Finas) board member Denes Kumar said this was important as the making of local Tamil-language or Indian films outside its motherland of Tamil Nadu, India is actively growing in Malaysia.

“I believe the value of growth comes from its roots. How many youngsters nowadays truly have the knowledge of the history of Malaysian Tamil cinema, the pioneer artistes, film makers and their contributions that steered the growth of the industry?” he told Bernama in an exclusive interview at Wisma Bernama here, recently.

Denes, who heads the Indian Content and Indian Subcontinent Market committee under Finas, said the Lensa Finas programme will promote more of the contributions made by local Tamil film veteran artistes to inspire youngsters to venture into the industry.

On another note, he said local Tamil film is gaining momentum especially among youngsters in Malaysia as they can easily relate themselves to the characters in the movie or similar situations they have gone through.

“An insightful presentation should be true yet reflect reality. The local Tamil film industry is improving... many youngsters are supporting our local Tamil movie content as they can relate themselves to the characters in the movies whom they regard as their brothers or sisters,” he added.

Denes said the restrictions imposed in view of COVID-19 is a kind of ‘blessing in disguise’ for local film producers as it provided them an opportunity to test the market on different platforms like over-the-top (OTT) platform to release their movies.

But he however believes that the cinema industry will bounce back once the COVID-19 situation is over and we can all get back to normal life as many are eager to watch movies in cinemas.

“Though the OTT platform will be the current trend in the new normal, I feel people would still go to cinemas... hence both will coexist,” he added.

He also advised aspiring local actors to undertake short courses for acting which were available in many institutes prior to coming for film shooting.