The Demise Of AnyTamil!

Monday, July 25, 2011
Little did I know that on this 25th day of July 2011 I would receive such a sad email as this!

Subject: AnyTamil Store Closure
With Profound sorrow, We would like to inform our Esteemed Patrons, We have decided to close down our Store. We have run it successfully for 12 years but it has come extremely unviable of late. We thank you for the Support & Cooperation extended to us all these years. We sincerely Hope that all your Future shopping needs of similar Products would be well served by elsewhere. Thanks & Regards AnyTamil
anytamil
8569. Kermes Avenue. Fair oaks. CA
Sacremento California 95628
United States

Closure?
Unviable?
Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

AnyTamil has been the source of some of my most treasured DVDs and VCDs over the years.  When I wanted an old Tamil or Telugu title that couldn't be found anywhere else, AnyTamil came to the rescue! Most importantly, I was able to track down almost all of my Kamala Lakshman and Padmini videos because of the vast catalog of AnyTamil.

Certainly they weren't without their problems.  After placing an order I would often find that half of the titles I wanted were out of stock and would receive a refund.  Much of their stock was overpriced.  And orders took eons to arrive.

But overall, I loved them and am sad to see them go!  Rest in peace AnyTamil!

The next question naturally is... are there any good alternate sources to go to now for old Tamil and Telugu films?

9 comments:

  1. I just found that email today. As far as I know there's no where else aside from flying to Chennai where one get a hold of some of these really old films that AnyTamil had....it's a real shame, even if the customer service was spotty at best.

    I would guess that they were successful for 12 years from the pockets of recent immigrants to the U.S....but their kids are growing up and aren't interested in importing old DVDs! The digital age....

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  2. I'm glad you feel my pain prasanth! It is truly a shame. I feel like a whole part of this hobby of mine has been stunted without this source of films. You're probably wishing you had known about and ordered from them earlier I bet! That's an interesting theory about how they were able to be successful so far; there's much shinier places to get newer and cheaper south indian DVDs which seems to be the cash cow for retailers like this. You know what makes me even more mad? That AnyTamil completely removed their old site interface; they had such an extensive collection I often used it as a database. :(

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  3. for pyramid DVD, please visit www.pyramidtalkies.com

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  4. I share your pain! AnyTamil were an excellent source of older DVD's for sure.
    The worst of it is that I do travel to Chennai every year, and most of the time I cannot find the older films I want - especially not with subtitles.
    I am devastated by the closure of AnyTamil - so sad :(

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  5. Hello red42 - See, that's even more depressing knowing that even if I were to go to India someday it would be nigh impossible to find some of these rare films. AnyTamil is gone, slim chance of finding them at the source... we have no hope! Oh the humanity! :) I'm gonna keep hunting for folks that might be selling or have these older films...

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  6. Minai, any luck with your hunt?

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  7. Hi Prasanth, I see you switched blogs! "Long time no see!" Wow, I was reading back through this post and the entire landscape of YouTube has changed since then. So many distributors and copyright owners have posted volumes and volumes of material on YouTube and elsewhere making DVDs and VCDs seem almost obsolete. There are those few films though that don't seem to be online, for example many of Columbia's Tamil films, and luckily they have an online store. So, no, I haven't found a source like AnyTamil for physical copies of films...but I haven't needed one in a while. :)

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  8. Not so much switched blogs as forgot to renew the original domain name..... =)

    You're right, there's a lot more old films being uploaded in full on Youtube. I guess the Indian distributors finally realized they could be profiting off the overseas market directly instead of letting pirated video stores do it. Sadly my own list of "rare" films is still untouched from 2011 despite the internet presence. Perhaps it's time to accept a lost cause... =)

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    Replies
    1. Oh so even with all the stuff on YouTube you've still not found any of your rarities? How frustrating! I have been lucky to find quite a few the past couple of years. Some of your rarities are probably out there on some obscure VCD or old VHS tape...but having recently learned how CDs are starting to degrade and are ticking time bombs, I wouldn't put too much faith in that either! Sigh... :)

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