India has seen a surge in creative talent in recent decades, which is primarily used in filmmaking. Though Bollywood is widely acknowledged as India's film identity, regional cinema has made its stamp. Bengali, Bhojpuri, and Kashmiri cinema industries are among the most well-known.
The South Indian film industry, which includes the Malayalam, Kannada, Tamil Nadu, and Telegu film industries, has its way of churning out a large number of films and is a successful business with quicker film processing times and a big budget, luring many Bollywood stars to act in their films.
The industry is divided along language lines. In 2019, the Hindi film industry (Bollywood) accounted for 44 per cent of box office earnings, with Tamil (Kollywood) and Telugu (Tollywood) each accounting for 26 per cent. Malayalam, Kannada, Bengali, Marathi, Sanskrit, Punjabi, and Bhojpuri are some of the other well-known film industries. By 2020, all regional film industries will have outperformed the Hindi film industry in terms of income.
As a result, the fact that this country has five film cities should not come as a surprise. In Andhra Pradesh, the largest is Ramoji Film City. Mumbai Film City is India's and the world's most popular film studio. MGR Film City, Bengaluru Film City, and Noida Film City are additional well-known film cities in India, having hosted numerous feature film shoots.
1. Hindi Film Industry - Bollywood
With 364 Hindi films produced annually as of 2017, Bollywood is the country's leading film producer. Bollywood is situated in Mumbai and produces Hindi language films as part of the larger Indian Film Industry. Bollywood, often known as Hindi film, is India's major film producer, accounting for about half of the country's film earnings. By influencing music films, Bollywood has become a part of Indian history. The improved income from movie sales has also benefited Hindi actors tremendously.
2. Tamil Film Industry - Kollywood
Kollywood is a Tamil-language-based Indian film industry centred in Chennai's Kodambakkam neighbourhood. Chennai (Madras), often known as Kollywood, was once the hub of all South Indian film industries, with dubbing artists fluent in Tamil.
Kalidas (H. M. Reddy), the first south Indian talkie film, was shot in Tamil and Telugu. When Sivaji Ganesan won Best Actor at the Afro-Asian Film Festival in 1960 and the title of Chevalier in the Legion of Honour from the French Government in 1995, he became India's first international prize winner.
Dravidian politics have inspired Tamil cinema, which has a long history of socially conscious films. Dravidian mainstays C N Annadurai and M Karunanidhi were scriptwriters, while M G Ramachandran and Jayalalithaa earned political clout because of their large fan base. K. B. Sundarambal was India's first cinema celebrity legislator, with a salary of one lakh rupees.
3. Telugu Film Industry - Tollywood
Tollywood was inspired by the Bengali film industry, which is located in Tollygunge, Kolkata, and is considered the first Hollywood-influenced name. Tollywood, India's most productive film industry, produces an average of 275 films per year. Tollywood refers to South India's film industry, which includes Andhra Pradesh's cinema.
Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, which are famed for producing Telugu feature films, have the highest concentration of theatres in India, dubbed Tollywood. The world's largest film production centre, Ramoji Film City, is located in Hyderabad. The Prasad IMAX in Hyderabad is the world's largest 3D IMAX screen and the most popular. The "Father of Telugu Cinema" is Raghupathi Venkaiah Naidu. To recognize achievements in the industry, the annual Raghupati Venkaiah Award was introduced into the Nandi Awards.
Value of the Film Industry in India
Aside from the pandemic, India has been the world's leading film producer since 2007. At the same time, in terms of ticket sales, the country is the most successful film market in the world. The military action film 'Uri,' which was released in 2019, grossed over 876 per cent of its initial budget. The sequel ranks first among the top films produced in India in terms of return on investment, with an astounding figure of ROI.
Advertising as a Secondary Source of Revenue
Advertisers in India are well aware of the industry's popularity with the public, and they have substantially invested in cinema-based advertising. The revenue earned from in-cinema advertising in India was worth more than 11 billion rupees in the fiscal year 2019. Overall, the Indian film industry has a diverse range of revenue streams, and with a growing emphasis on digital and regional languages, the industry's value is set to rise.
The Indian film business was worth approximately 183 billion Indian rupees in the fiscal year 2020. The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic was projected to cut this number in half the following year. However, projections for the fiscal year 2022 anticipate a 196 per cent increase.
