Directors moving to Chennai and Hyderabad like migratory birds in search of ideal and comfortable weather. This has become a new trend now in Malayalam.

Announcing big projects with thunderous names was a passion for director Shaji Kailas. He had announced more projects than he did direct films. His latest passion is rendering his mega directorial services to Tamil. In fact whoever makes hits in Malayalam rushes to Chennai with its Tamil version. Just one hit and the director is seen in Chennai next day with the rights of the story for sale.

Vinayan who started this practice is a classic example. Siddique, Lal, Vinayan, Shaji Kailas, Taha, and Rafi Mecartin are some of the recent entrants from Malayalam to Tamil. Lal Jose with his MEESA M. is the latest Malayalam director to go to Tamil. I V Sasi, K Madhu, and Joshy were all accepted in Tamil a few years ago. In fact it was K Madhu who introduced Mammootty in Tamil. Mammootty is now more often seen in Tamil than in Malayalam.

The earlier trend was either to sell the rights of the story to Tamil and Telugu or dub the film there. Not any more. Our directors are becoming dexterous in other languages.

The news from Cochin is that producers from Tamil and Telugu are visiting director Vinayan offering new projects in their languages. Producers from Hyderabad and Chennai fly to Cochin or Trivandrum to watch those Malayalam films becoming a hit in one-week time. Then they start negotiating with the director and producers here. If the business is agreed upon the shooting starts immediately. One reason is that the remuneration for Malayalam directors is less than that of their counterparts there. Two the cost of production is considerably cut down for the pace of the shooting of Malayalam directors is really fast in comparison. Finding potential story, fixing a director and then casting are all done in one shot. A Malayalam hit with a little twist in the story is enough to get a moderate success. And it is told Malayalam directors, when they are in another soil, toil hard like a slave and make sure the project a mega success.

Lal Jose is directing the remake of MEESA M in Tamil with Vikram in the lead. Shaji Kailas is directing THIRUDA with Ajith. Vinayan has brought KASI and ENMANAVATHIL in Tamil.

But the project Shaji Kailas was doing with Arjun has dropped midway. Shaji didn't like the present story treatment. It is a story of an ISI agent and the usual adventures of a Police officer torpedoing the plans. Shaji Kailas with his reputation now tagged to the negative aspects of THANDAVAM is wary of another bomb whether it is in Tamil or Malayalam.