Cinema of South India

Indian cinema

Cinema of South India, refers to the cinema of the four major film industries in South India; primarily engaged in making feature films in the four major languages of the region, namely — Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada. They are often colloquially referred to as Tollywood, Kollywood,Mollywood and Sandalwood, respectively.

Although the four industries developed independently for a long period of time, gross exchange of artists and technicians, as well as globalisation helped to shape this new identity.[1] By 2010, South India became the home for 6320, or about 62% of the 10,167 cinema theatres in India.[2]

In 2021, Telugu film industry emerged as the largest film industry of India in terms of box office revenue.[3][4][5] In 2022, Telugu cinema represented 20% of Indian box office revenue, followed by Tamil representing 14%, Kannada representing 5%, and Malayalam representing 8%.[6] As of 2022, the combined revenue of South Indian film industries has surpassed that of the Mumbai-based Hindi-language film industry (Bollywood).[7][8]

Setting aside state language boundaries, recent years saw South Indian actors, writers and directors from Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, and Kannada industries collaborating with each other as a single 'South Indian Cinema' entity to produce movies. This collaboration resulted in major hits such as Baahubali, KGF, Lokesh Cinematic Universe, Jailer, Pushpa, RRR, Kalki 2898 AD and Salaar. Film analysts say that this marks the beginning of the unification of a Pan-Indian film industry as one.[9] After the emergence of South Indian Cinema, Hindi film actors and actresses who experienced a decline in their star value began participating in South Indian films to sustain their careers in the industry.[10]

  1. ^ ET Bureau. [http:/Mollywood/articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2009-11-18/news/27638208_1_film-industry-small-budget-movies-farokh-balsara "Southern movies account for over 75% of film revenues"]. The Economic Times. Retrieved 1 January 2011. {{cite web}}: Check |url= value (help)
  2. ^ "STATEWISE NUMBER OF SINGLE SCREENS". filmfederation.in. Retrieved 24 September 2022.
  3. ^ S, Srivatsan (7 January 2022). "The 'pan-Indian' strategy of Telugu cinema". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 20 January 2022.
  4. ^ Mukherjee, Nairita; Joshi, Tushar (22 December 2021). "Is South cinema the new Bollywood?". India Today. Retrieved 20 January 2022.
  5. ^ "Tollywood | ఆ విషయంలో బాలీవుడ్‌ను వెనక్కి నెట్టేసిన టాలీవుడ్." Namasthe Telangana. 5 January 2022. Retrieved 20 January 2022.
  6. ^ "Distribution of the Indian box office in 2022, by language". Statista. Retrieved 4 October 2023.
  7. ^ "The rise of South Indian Cinema: How Southern movies are going national". Moneycontrol. 7 December 2022. Retrieved 11 February 2023.
  8. ^ "India Box Office collections: Regional cinema led by Telugu, Tamil movies overtakes Bollywood". The Financial Express. 11 July 2020. Retrieved 9 May 2021.
  9. ^ "Tamil and Telugu stars and directors collaborate for better cinema". 18 July 2022.
  10. ^ "From Vivek Oberoi to Janhvi Kapoor, why Bollywood stars are rushing South".