Film industry
India

India is the largest producer of films in the world and second-oldest film industry in the world. The country is home to some of the most important cities in the global film industry: Mumbai (previously Bombay) and Chennai (Madras). In 2009, India produced a total of 2,961 films on celluloid; this figure includes 1,288 feature films. Besides being the largest producer of films in the world, India also has the largest number of admissions. Indian film industry is multi-lingual and the largest in the world in terms of ticket sales but 3rd-largest in terms of revenue, mainly due to having among the lowest ticket prices in the world. The industry is viewed mainly by a vast film-going Indian public. Indian film industry is also the dominant source of films and entertainment in its neighboring countries of South Asia. The three largest film industries in India are Hindi cinema, Telugu cinema and Tamil cinema. The Hindi film industry mostly concentrated in Mumbai (Bombay), and it is commonly referred to as Bollywood, a portmanteau of Bombay and Hollywood. Telugu cinema is primarily concentrated in Hyderabad and is commonly referred to as Tollywood. The Tamil film industry i.e. Kollywood is mostly concentrated in Chennai.

Besides the mainstream commercial movies, India also offers a different approach to cinema: the parallel cinema. The parallel cinema movement originated in West Bengal around the 1950s. The movement was initially led by Bengali cinema. It later gained prominence in other film industries of India. Parallel cinema is a blanket term designated to a certain type of films that stray away from the conventions of popular mainstream cinema.Parallel cinema has assumed various forms throughout the years. Filmmakers associated with parallel cinema are Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen, Ritwik Ghatak. Parallel films are characterized by their rejection of popular forms like the songs and fight sequences, their affinity for rural settings, use of method actors and toned down colour palettes. The best examples of parallel cinema are the most famous films of Ray – Pather Panchali (1955), Aparajito (1956) and The World of Apu (1959) – which formed The Apu Trilogy. Some other examples of such movies are Raincoat, Dhobi Ghat, Mithya.

Indian films have garnered popularity not only in the domestic market but also in the international markets, with Dangal having an overseas gross revenue of $260 million, Secret Superstar and Bajrangi Bhaijaan making a gross revenue of $80.4 million, and Baahubali: The Beginning and Baahubali 2: The Conclusion (a blockbuster duology from Telugu cinema) grossing over $370 million globally. In India, they have over 400 production houses with 32 corporate houses; also supporting the livelihood of more than 6 million people.

The other largest film industries are Malayalam cinema, Kannada cinema, Bengali cinema (cinema of West Bengal) and Marathi cinema, primarily located in Kochi, Bengaluru, Kolkata, and Mumbai, respectively. The remaining majority portion is spread across northern, western, eastern and southern India (with Gujarati, Punjabi, Odia, Bhojpuri, Assamese Cinema). However, there are several smaller centers of Indian film industries in regional languages centered in the states where those languages are spoken. Indian cinema encloses a number of several artforms like Indian classical music, folk music of different regions throughout the country, Indian classical dance, folk dance and much more. Bollywood, Kollywood and Tollywood forms the largest portion of the Indian film industry and is viewed all over the Indian Subcontinent, and is increasingly popular in UK, United States, Australia, New Zealand, Southeast Asia, Africa, the Gulf countries, European countries, East Asia and China. The largest film studio complex in the world is Ramoji Film City located at Hyderabad, India, which opened in 1996 and measures 674 ha (1,666 acres). Comprising 47 sound stages, it has permanent sets ranging from railway stations to temples.

By 1986, India's annual film output had increased from 741 films produced annually to 833 films annually, making India the world's largest film producer. As of 2014, Bollywood represents 45% of Indian net box office revenue, while Tamil and Telugu cinemas together represent 36%, and the rest of the regional film industries constitute 21% of Indian cinema. By 2021, Telugu cinema (Tollywood) has overtaken both Hindi cinema (Bollywood) and Tamil cinema (Kollywood), emerged as the largest film industry in India in terms of box-office. In 2023, Bollywood again emerged as the largest film industry in India.
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