As car chase scenes are on the wane in Kollywood, suppliers of old four-wheelers find themselves on the fringes of the industry.

Back in the days, when Kollywood films almost always reached their denouement with a car chase, these men from Pudupet made hay. Film after film, they would get paid handsomely for supplying cars that would get battered and burnt. Now, with the industry becoming less formulaic and tending to go off the beaten track, they find themselves on the fringes of the film industry, if not forgotten.

M. Zahir, one of the most sought-after car suppliers in Kollywood, sees a definite shift in the approach to filmmaking. The change has had an adverse impact on his business.

“Now, most of the time, the story takes precedence over formulas. A car chase is included in a film only if it segues into the rest of the film. With most films made on midget budgets, unnecessary extravagance is avoided. Audience expectations have changed too. Earlier, they would lap up scenes where cars flew, because there was a novelty to it. Now, AXN and other channels show stunts in which a car ‘flies’ over a row of 15 to 20 parked cars and makes a safe landing. People know this is real,” says Mr. Zahir.

I. Panner Selvam, who buys old cars, salvages their parts and sells them, also used to supply used vehicles for films. Not any more.

“Car-destroying scenes are on the wane. And, when such a scene is occasionally introduced in a big budget film, directors want it to stand out. Used, visibly rundown cars won’t do. They want new or almost-new cars that would make the scene memorable. If it’s a Benz that has to go up in flames, it has to be a Benz. In the past, the scenes were manipulated to ‘protect’ good cars. A close-up of a good – often expensive – car will be shown and then in the long shot, an old, barely similar-looking car that has been painted to resemble the good car will be shown going up in flames,” says Mr. Selvam.

Another reason, according to Mr. Zahir, is the difficulty of sourcing and readying cars for films and the disappointment that follows when the returns are not commensurate.

“To source these cars, one has to build and maintain a contact base. We also pick up cars from government auctions of seized and accident-hit cars. The cars are not supplied to films as they are, but are modified according to requirements. When a filmmaker wants a Prado, we modify an available SUV to look like one. Sometimes, a few months after a scene has been shot with a car, they may want the car again to reshoot the scene, and we’ll have to get the car ready once again. And often, we don’t get a payment for readying a car for a re-shoot,” say Mr. Zahir.

Despite the challenges, Mr. Zahir does not want to break away from this business, which is no longer his main source of income. For, the past has been good to him and he wants to hold on it.

“I think I have supplied cars to over 200 films, starting with Paati Sollai Thattathe . In my heyday, I was known as ‘Idika, Udaika, Erika, Parakai’ Zahir,” he recalls, a sense of accomplishment evident in his voice.