Indian Film Industry
The Hindi film industry
The Hindi film industry based in Mumbai (formerly Bombay) is the largest branch of Indian cinema and often called 'Bollywood' (a melding of Hollywood and Bombay).
Actors of Bollywood like Amitabh Bachan, ShahRukh khan are famous worldwide, and the Bollywood movies are seen all over the world and mostly in USA. Some other actors and actress famous world wide are Madhuri Dixit, Aishwarya Rai, Aamir khan, Hirthik Roshan, Priety Zinta, Salman Khan.
Most of the Bollywood movies nowadays are greatly influenced by western culture. It is considered the most liberal out of all the Indian language film industries.
Bollywood movies can be considered to be largest in terms of viewers. It is believed that 95% of the Indian Population watches Bollywood. Due to more people watching Bollywood films, it has therefore has international recognition especially in Western Countries such as the UK, USA and Australia.
The Bengali film industry
The Bengali film industry is in the Tollygunge in Kolkata (Calcutta). The industry is sometimes referred to as Tollywood as the word goes with Tollygunge. The famous director of Bengali film industry is Satyajit Ray, who has won an Oscar for lifetime achievement award in cinema.
The first Bengali Feature film, Billwamangal, was produced in 1919, under the banner of Madan Theatre. Bilat Ferat was the IBFC's first production in 1921. Other famous directors of Bengali cinema include Mrinal Sen, Ritwik Ghatak, Tapan Sinha and more recently, Aparna Sen, Rituparno Ghosh, and Gautam Ghosh. Uttam Kumar was the super star of Bengali cinema and still lives in the hearts of thousands of Bengalees. Utpal Dutta, Soumitra Chatterjee, Chhabi Biswas, P.C.Barua are also renounced actors of the time. Kanan Devi, Suchitra Sen, Supriya Chowdhury, Sabitri Chatterjee are the leading ladies of Bengali cinema.
The Kannada film industry
The Kannada film industry is based in Karnataka. The Gubbi Veeranna Company, or Veeranna's Sri Chennabasaveshwara Krupa Poshita Nataka Sangha and other groups established themselves first as theatre troupes, and later went on to dominate Kannada cinema into the 1960s. The key directors of kannada film industry are H.L.N. Simha, B. R. Panthulu and G. V. Iyer, and some of the known stars are Rajkumar and Leelavathi and the first commercial hit was Bedara Kannappa (1953).
The most popular actor in Kannada film was Dr. Rajkumar. He acted in over 200 movies and also received the famous Dadasaheb Phalke Award.
The Malayalam film industry
The Malayalam film industry is based in Kerala and is sometimes called Mollywood.
Malayalam movies are known for their artistic nature and are also nominated in the national film awards. Some the hit Malayalam movies are Elipathayam, Bharatham, Swaham, Chinthavishtayaya Shyamala. Currently it is also known for being the most conservative among the various Indianfilm industries. The industry has also gone through a liberal phase in 80’s.
Some of the notable people are Mohanlal, Mammooty, Dileep, Suresh Gopi, and Adoor Gopalkrishnan.
The Tamil film industry
The Tamil film industry based in the Kodambakkam area of Chennai is one of the biggest regional film industries in India. The Tamil film industry is nicknamed as ‘Kollywood’. It is one of the most successful film industries in India and its popularity spreads across Tamil Nadu. Tamil films are especially popular in countries like Sri Lanka, Singapore, Japan, Malaysia, the United Kingdom, Canada, South Africa and the United States. These films often get dubbed or remade in other languages like Telugu and Hindi and have wide viewer ship. Prominent examples of Tamil films dubbed into other Indian languages are film director Mani Ratnam's Roja and Bombay. Anniyan a recent Tamil film became the first Indian film to be dubbed into French.
The Telugu film industry
The Telugu film industry is the second biggest film industry (sometimes called Tollywood) is based in Hyderabad. Telugu is the second largest spoken language in India. After Bollywood, more movies are produced every year in Telugu than in any other language. The state also has what is claimed to be the largest film studio in the world, Ramoji Film City. The first studio for Telugu talkies was Vel Pictures, constructed in 1934 by P.V. Das, located at Madras. The first film made here was Sita Kalyanam. The first film made by a Telugu person, R.S. Prakash, was Bhishma Pratigna (The Pledge of Bhishma, 1922). Another important Telugu personality was Y.V. Rao (1903-1973), an actor and director, whose silent film credits include Pandava Nirvana (1930), Pandava Agnathavaas (1930) and Hari Maya (1932). The first big movies in Telugu were made by the Surabhi Theatres.