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Maa. Anto Peter is actively engaged in the production of Tamil software for the past sixteen years. He was the co-ordinator for India in the recently held Tamil Inayam 2001and the secretary of Kani Tamil Sangam. He has been successfully propagating computer education in Tamil and has authored ‘Internet Handbook’, ‘DTP’, ‘Computer jobs’ etc. in Tamil. He is the brain behind the successful e-zine Tamilcinema.com from 1996. This is brought out in the print medium too, as a monthly. He shares his experiences with us with the enthusiasm of a child.

‘I come from a very ordinary family. My father owned a firewood shop and we did not have anything more than that. My family steeped into poverty after his death in 1976. An opportunity came my way to take up Central Government service in Gujarat. But I was not interested in going out of Tamil Nadu and I joined a computer company in Chennai as their Service Engineer. It was there that I got good exposure to computers and computer related jobs.’

‘I tried my hand in many a software for Desk Top Publishing. It was a time when DTP was very popular. Many were setting up DTP centres because the cost of operation and printing with the use of laser printer was much cheaper as compared with photo type setting. Taking advantage of the popularity of DTP, I brought out software for Tamil DTP and marketed it enthusiastically. I sold our Inscript to many Tamil magazines and newspapers. In fact, it was we who made the first ever software in Tamil for Windows NT.

‘And then I dreamt of creating an e-zine in Tamil for Tamil cinema. When I entered the field, the word ‘min-idhazh’ (e-zine) was absent in Tamil. Cable TV was dominating the scene at that time. People were busy installing dish antenna everywhere. That was a pretty lucrative business. It was then that I started our e-zine for Tamil Cinema.’

Anto Peter then paused a while. He was obviously taking a dip within his mind, revelling in memories of those early days. ‘I spoke to several PROs in the Tamil cine field. They could not understand what in hell could this ‘min-idhazh’ be. I then changed two or three PROs. It took me three months to conduct my first press meet! A particular popular Tamil newspaper carried a news item that ‘puja’ was conducted for a new Tamil film, referring to my press meet! It was so difficult for us to make people understand what it is all about. I then called the presspersons and conducted a special class for them on Internet. I made a booklet on Internet for their information and use…’ Peter’s smile suddenly turned into laughter.

On the unique feature of Kanian.com…
It has the special distinction of being the first Tamil portal while Tamilcinema.com is the first Tamil e-zine. 

On the need for an e-zine dedicated to Tamil cinema…
Cinema has taken deep roots in the lives of Tamils. You cannot see a single person around you who does not hum a number - popular or not, latest or not - while driving, doing his daily chores or even in his workplace, whatever be the strata of society he belongs to. When cinema has come to occupy a very important place in our lives, there are not many cine magazines worth the name around, giving quality. It is the endeavour of Tamilcinema.com to provide that quality which is sadly lacking. 

On weblishing glamorous photographs bordering on soft porn…
We don’t weblish such photographs in our site. That is the case with our print magazine too. We do not give prominence to glamour. Be it our site or our magazine, we publish photographs of only well known artistes. We do not bring out photos of every pinup model just for the glamour value. We respect our readers and viewers who flip or click through our pages, surrounded by other members of their families. We are therefore particular to maintain the level of decency and quality of content.

How about the revenue of the portal?
Initially, we did not get much income like other portals and e-zines. I had a few contacts in the States, Malaysia, Singapore etc. and I developed our ad revenue through my contacts. At present, our ad income is the highest among all Tamil e-zines. 

About the popularity of Tamilcinema.com…
Others like Aaraamthinai, Web Ulagam etc. had to spend quite a fortune just to popularise their names. I had no such problems. More over, I did not have much resource. My web site publicises itself. Our print magazine is already in circulation in Canada, Malaysia, Singapore etc. and people automatically come to our site. We make sure that the quality of our content is on par with their expectations. 

What is your viewership?
I do not want to come out with flabbergasting statistics like others do - 1 crore hits and more. A minimum of 16,000 visit our site per day.

About he recent set backs and fall in ad revenue…
Of course, my ad revenue is also going down. You see, there is a web site for every other thing. You start a web site and immediately run to corporates to grab in some advertisements, informing them that your web site is a grand hit. Who would come forward to burn their money if it does not show results? The main reason for the present set back is that there is no economic stability among Tamils. We have to be dependent on foreign countries for investment. We saw that the Net was becoming very popular in other countries and copied their model to earn our pie. But unfortunately, we have not learnt how to implement it properly.

I think we should have waited till the success of Net was stabilised in other countries. We started it too soon in our country. The odd part is, there is nothing wrong with the present e-zines. Viewership is steadily increasing. When this was something novel, the entire media turned its attention towards the Net and gave euphoric accounts, when the viewership was not considerable. But when the viewership has actually gone up, the novelty has waned. They are now becoming very critical about the Net nowadays because there is nothing new for them to talk about it. Therefore, the present setbacks are partially due to a false reading of the situation.

It cannot be denied that several websites are becoming popular, silently. There are websites, which attract foreign investment, even today. For instance, Bharatmatrimonial.com has received foreign investment recently. The Net has a bright future. It cannot be denied.

What are the other areas of your specialisation, apart from the portal and e-zine?
We developed Inscript- Tamil 2000. We have developed it in five Indian languages - Tamil, Hindi, Malayalam, Kannadam and Telugu. Initially we decided to name our software as ‘Chithiram.’ But that name was not sufficient for many to understand its real purpose and therefore we chose the present name. We have come out with Amudham, Tamil Dictionary, Tamil Clip Art, Thirukkural, Athi Choodi, Tamil names for babies et al.

I would have become a millionaire by now, had I chosen anything other than Tamil computing. And if the Tamilcinema.com were in English, it would have been a bigger success. But since my passion for Tamil is greater, I have been drawn towards Tamil computing. I enthuse and exhort my people in our office to speak in Tamil. It is my desire to do my bit to bring about betterment in the lives of Tamils and I am endeavouring towards this direction.

‘Whatever be the assessment of others about success in this field - may be great or may be gloomy - I have been making steady progress. I do not consider anyone as my competitor,’ says Anto Peter.

--Saravanan
Tr. by Hari Krishnan

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