Mind The Gap: Tamil Sequels And The Time Between Them

Compared to other Indian film industries, Kollywood has never really embraced the concept of sequels, trilogies or film franchises. In fact, the first Tamil sequel released as recently as 1985 when Kamal Haasan followed up his 1979 comedy Kalyanaraman with Japanil Kalyanaraman. That's more than four decades after the Hindi film industry came out with Hunterwali Ki Beti in 1943, the sequel to Hunterwali, both starring Fearless Nadia.

Yet a lot seems to be changing with the last decade seeing the release of many sequels. And now, with Sandakozhi 2 releasing this week, here's a list of Tamil film sequels, where either the storylines or characters have been followed up, and the time the films spent apart.

Film                                                       Years after first part 

• Singham 2 (2013)                                                        3
• Chennaiyil Oru Naal 2 (2017)                                  4
• Velaiilla Pattadhari 2 (2017)                                    4
• Billa 2 (2012)                                                                 5
• Vishwaroopam 2 (2018)                                            5
• Japanil Kalyanaraman (1985)                                6
• 2.0 *(2018)                                                                   8
• Chennai 60028: Second Innings (2016)               9
• Krodham 2 (2000)                                                    11
• Saamy Square (2018)                                              13
• Sandakozhi 2* (2018)                                              13
• Jai Hind 2 (2014)                                                      20

*Releasing in 2018

If Indian 2 releases in 2019, it will become the Tamil film with longest time between sequels at 23 years.

Currently, Malayalam film Thirakalkkappuram, a sequel to the 1965 classic Chemmeen, holds the record for an Indian film, with 32 years between the two films. On the second spot is Hindi film Aashiqui 2, which released 22 years after the first film.

The world record for the longest gap is held by Bambi II, which hit the screen a whopping 63 years and 178 days after Bambi (1942).