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This article is about the Tamil-language film industry in India. For the film industry in Kathmandu, see Cinema of Nepal.
Kollywood (Tamil: கோலிவுட் kōlivūṭ) is the English name of the popular Tamil Film Industry based in the Kodambakkam district of Chennai, India where Tamil films were once largely produced. Currently, there are more film cities in Chennai. Silent movies were produced in Kollywood since 1916 and the era of talkies dawned in 1931. By the end of the 1930s, the industry was booming to the extent that the State of Madras legislature passed the pioneering Entertainment Tax Act 1939 with little opposition.
Distribution and PopularityTamil films are known to be the most popular Indian films, along with Bollywood films, due to their large distribution internationally to the numerous Tamil diasporal regions. They have one of the widest overseas distribution along with Telugu and Hindi films. They have enjoyed consistent popularity among Tamil speakers in India, Sri Lanka, Singapore and Malaysia. Tamil films have recently become popular in Japan (Rajinikanth's Muthu, for example, screened for a record period), South Africa, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States. Sivaji: The Boss, which had released recently has also been touted as a record-breaking film for its high-budget, large opening, and reception worldwide. It also cracked into the UK's Top 10 weekend box opening movies. Ayngaran International distributes a majority of Tamil films overseas while domestic distributors such as Aascar Films, Pyramid Saimira, and Madras Talkies handle distribution within India. The Kamal Haasan starrer Dasavathaaram was distributed by Walt Disney Pictures in Canada, making it Disney's second Indian film ever to be distributed after the Aamir Khan hit 'Taare Zameen par'. Tamil films enjoy significant patronage in neighbouring Indian states like Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. In Kerala and Karnataka the films are directly released in Tamil but in Andhra Pradesh they are generally dubbed into Telugu. There is a fair amount of dispersion amongst the Indian film industries. Many successful Tamil films have been remade by the Hindi and Telugu film industries. Kollywood has also remade a fair number of Hindi-, Telugu-, Malayalam-, and other-language films. It is estimated by the Manorama Yearbook 2000 (a popular almanac) that over 5,000 Tamil films were produced in the 20th century. (For a complete list of Tamil films, see List of Tamil-Language Films.) Tamil films have also been dubbed into other languages, thus reaching a much wider audience. Examples of those dubbed into Hindi include such hits as Minsaara Kanavu, Roja and Bombay. Anniyan, directed by S. Shankar, became the first Indian film to be dubbed into French. (See Popular Tamil films.) There has been a growing presence of English in dialogue and songs as well. It is not uncommon to see movies that feature dialogue studded with English words and phrases, or even whole sentences. Some movies are also simultaneously made in two or three languages (either using subtitles or several soundtracks). Quite often, Tamil movies feature Madras Tamil, a colloquial version of Tamil spoken in Chennai. Madras being the old name of Chennai. HistoryA visiting European exhibitor first screened (date unknown) a selection of silent short films at the Victoria Public Hall in Madras. The films all featured non-fictional subjects; they were mostly photographed records of day-to-day events. In Madras (now known as Chennai), the Electric Theatre was established for the screening of silent films. It was a favourite haunt of the British community in Madras.The theatre was shut down after a few years. This building is now part of a post office complex in Anna Salai. The Lyric Theatre was also built in the Mount Road area (now Anna Salai). This venue boasted a variety of events, including plays in English, Western classical music concerts, and ballroom dances. Silent films were also screened as an additional attraction. Samikannu Vincent, an employee of the South Indian Railways in Trichy, purchased a film projector and silent films from the Frenchman Du Pont and set up a business as film exhibitor. He erected tents for screening films. His tent cinema became popular and he travelled all over the state with his mobile unit. In later years, he produced talkies and also built a cinema in Coimbatore. To celebrate the event of King George V's visit in 1909, a grand exhibition was organised in Madras. Its major attraction was the screening of short films accompanied by sound. A British company imported a Crone megaphone, made up of a film projector to which a gramophone with a disc containing prerecorded sound was linked, and both were run in unison, producing picture and sound simultaneously. However, there was no synched dialogue. Raghupathy Venkiah Naidu, a successful photographer, took over the equipment after the exhibition and set up a tent cinema near the Madras High Court. R. Venkiah, flush with funds, built in 1912 a permanent cinema in the Mount Road area named Gaiety. It was the first in Madras to screen films on a full-time basis. This theatre is still functioning, although under different ownership. In tent cinemas, there were usually three classes of tickets: the floor, bench and, chair. The floor-ticket purchaser sat on sand to watch the movie, but he enjoyed certain advantages that other patrons did not. He could sit as he pleased, or he could turn over and take a short nap when the narrative was particularly dull and roll back again when the action was again to his liking—luxuries in which the upper class could never indulge. Early Movie StudiosDuring the 1920s, silent Tamil-language movies were shot at makeshift locations in and around Chennai, and for technical processing, they were sent to Pune or Calcutta. Later some movies featuring MKT were shot in Pune and Calcutta. In the 1930s AVM set up its makeshift studio in the town of Karaikudi, and during the same decade, full-fledged Movie studios were built in Salem (Modern Theatres Studio) and Coimbatore (Central Studios, Neptune, and Pakshiraja). By the mid 1940s, Chennai became the hub of Studio activity with two more movie Studios built in Chennai, Vijaya Vauhini Studios and Gemini Studios. Later, AVM Studios shifted its operations to Chennai. Thus, with the undivided Madras Presidency being the Capital to most of South India, Chennai became the center for Tamil- and notable Telugu-language movies. Also, most of the pre-independence era drama and stage actors joined the movie industry from the 1940s, and Chennai became the hub for South Indian-Language Cinema. SuperstarsInitially, Kollywood was dominated by M.K. Thyagaraja Bagavadhar and P. U. Chinnappa during the 1930s and 1940's. Later, in the 1950s till late 1970s, the two highly anticipated Tamil film stars were M. G. Ramachandran and Sivaji Ganesan, and from the 1980s till now are Kamal Hassan and Rajinikanth. By the 1990s there were many stars in the industry. However, Rajinikanth and Kamal Hassan still dominated the decade and brought Kollywood to a new level. The former starred quality films under his production while the latter raised the bar in commercial and family entertainers and became the highest paid actor in the India.The top heroines were Savithri, Padmini, Saroja Devi, K.R.Vijaya, Sowkar Janaki and Sujatha from 1960s to 1970s.From 1970s Sri Devi remained as the Lady super star till 1980s.From 1980s till 1990s Ambika, Radha, Revathy, Amala, Nadhiya, Seetha. During the 90s, the present generation of young superstars, Joseph Vijay and Ajith Kumar, had debuted. Today along with veterans Rajinikanth and Kamal Hassan, actors Joseph Vijay, Surya Sivakumar, Vikram and Ajith Kumar are prominent leading stars who guarantee a good box office opening and appear in most high-budget feature films. These stars have exclusive fanclubs that often resort to passionate display of support. Distributors of films of the stars are able to arrange financing of film-in-progress from banks and exhibitors without much difficulty.The top heroines of 1990s are huge to count.The leading heroines were Kushboo, Meena, Roja, Rambha and Simran Bagga. Simran Bagga uniquely dominated the kollywood from 1997 till 2003 and remained the lady super star.The top heroines of 2000s were Jyothika Saravanan, Laila, Sneha, Trisha Krishnan, Asin and Nayanthara. Some of these actors like Rajinikanth, are politically influential due to their loyal fan bases. Industrial trends
Average annual film output in Tamil film industry has risen steadily in the 20th century
In the year 2007 a record 105 movies were released.[1] For the purpose of entertainment taxes, returns have to be filed by the exhibitors weekly (usually each Tuesday). [1] The Tamil film industry accounts for approx. 1% of the gross domestic product of the state of Tamil Nadu. Costs of production have grown exponentially from just under Rs.40 lakhs in 1980 to over Rs.11 crores by 2005 for a typical star-studded big-budget film. Similarly, costs of processing per print have risen from just under Rs.2,500 in 1980 to nearly Rs.70,000 by 2005. Interestingly, The Tamil Nadu government has made provisions for an entertainment tax exemption for Tamil movies having pure Tamil word(s) in the title. This is in accordance with Government Order 72 passed on 22 July 2006. The first film to be released after the new Order was Unakkum Enakkum. The original title had been Something Something Unakkum Ennakkum, a half-English and a half-Tamil title. ExhibitorsThere are about 1800 cinema-halls located in Tamil Nadu[2],with nearly 80 of them located in Chennai.[3]. Below is a list of the most prominent exhibitors in the box office.
Show rentals range from Rs.700 in C-centres to as much as Rs.7,000 in A-centres for an average 700-seat screen. Unlike Hollywood, superstardom is deeply ingrained into Kollywood economics, so distributors are prepared to not only finance the films of super stars with proven track records but are also, in turn, able to secure minimum guarantees for those films from exhibitors. Rise of multiplexes in the late 1990s has stunted the growth of large screens. See also
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