History of tamil film industry

Tamil cinema (also referred to as the Cinema of Tamil Nadu, the Tamil film industry, or Chennai film industry) is the Chennai–based Tamil language filmmaking industry of the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is based in the Kodambakkam district of Chennai, where several Tamil language feature films are produced, which has led to a colloquial reference to it as Kollywood. It is the First Indian film Industry to use the Red One camera system for the film Achchamundu! Achchamundu!, a portmanteau of the words Kodambakkam and Hollywood.

Silent movies were produced in Chennai since 1916 and the era of talkies dawned in 1931 with the film Kalidas. By the end of the 1930s, the State of Madras legislature passed the Entertainment Tax Act 1939. Tamil Nadu cinema has had a profound effect on the film making industries of India, with Chennai becoming a hub for the filmmaking industries of other languages, including Sri Lankan cinema and Sri Lankan Tamil cinema in the 1900s. Tamil–language films are further made in other countries. Tamil Cinema is the Second largest Film Industry in India after Bolywood .Chennai has second largest number of Film studios in India after Mumbai.

Today, Tamil films are distributed to various theatres around the world such as in Sri Lanka, Singapore, South Korea, Malayasia, Mauritius, South Africa, Western Europe, North America, and other significant Tamil diaspora regions.