April 14th loses its historical importance

For the first time in the history of 75 years old Tamil cinema, there were no new releases on this April 14, 2009.

From 1940 onwards, Tamil producers and directors have considered April 14th as an auspicious day and released a handful of films on the day.

But with the DMK government declaring January 14 as Tamil New Year day from 2009, April 14, has lost its importance. Large section of people have decided to follow the Govt's declaration. But very few believe that April 14th is the Tamil New Year day. So the producers were not willing to take any risk.

Added to that the IPL and Lok Sabha elections also forced them to keep their films away from the scene.

The Tamil television channels also decided to celebrate April 14th as Chithirai Thirunaal, with film based programmes and talk shows.