India, July 9 -- Director Prem Kumar, known for heartwarming films like 96 and Meiyazhagan, spoke at the South Directors Roundtable at the Screenwriters Association's 7th Indian Screenwriters Conference. Director Vivek Athreya from Telugu, Hemanth Rao from Kannada, and Christo Tomy from Malayalam were also present. Prem spoke about why he believes 'paid reviewers' are harming Kollywood.

Prem was candid about how he thinks 'negative reviews' in the first week of a film's release are harming Kollywood. He said, "Negative reviews have become a big problem in Tamil cinema. It's a huge problem, and it's getting worse day by day, week after week." When asked to specify if he was talking about negative word-of-mouth or something else, he said, ...