Indian Film Industry

The Indian cinema consists of films produced across India, which includes the cinematic cultures of Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Manipur, Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.  The Indian films came to be followed throughout Southern Asia, the Greater Middle East, Southeast Asia, and the former Soviet Union. The cinema as a medium gained popularity in the country as many as 1,000 films in various languages of India were produced annually.

The Hindi Film Industry

The Hindi film industry is based in Mumbai (formerly Bombay) and is the largest branch of Indian cinema. It is often called 'Bollywood', which is a melding of Hollywood and Bombay. Bollywood is the largest film producer in India and one of the largest centres of film production in the world. Some renowned actors in Bollywood include Amitabh Bachan and Shah Rukh khan and are famous worldwide. Actors like Madhuri Dixit, Aishwarya Rai Bacchan, Aamir khan, Hirthik Roshan, Priety Zinta, Salman Khan are also known personalities around the world.

Most of the Bollywood movies nowadays are greatly influenced by western culture. There has been a growing presence of Indian English in dialogue and songs as well. It is common to see films that feature dialogue with English words, phrases, or even whole sentences, which is also known as Hinglish.

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 contribution of Bengali film industry to Indian film is quite significant. Based in Tollygunge, an area of South Kolkata, West Bengal, the industry is sometimes referred to as Tollywood as the word goes with Tollygunge. Satyajit Ray, is an well known director of Bengali cinema, who has won an Oscar for lifetime achievement award in cinema. The most well known Bengali actor to date has been Uttam Kumar; he and co-star Suchitra Sen were known as The Eternal Pair in the early 1950s and still lives in the hearts of thousands of Bengalees.

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. 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 of the hit Malayalam movies include 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.