Cinema in India, apart from cricket is religion. Films have always known to have had an immense impact on the lives of people, apart from reflecting society through the ages. Indian cinema has had a profound impact not only within India, but across the world right from the 20th century. Movies play an important part in all our lives and provide an opportunity for entertainment as well as escape from the monotony of daily life.
When one thinks of films in India, one instantly thinks of Bollywood, or the Hindi Film Industry, based in Mumbai. Bollywood films are multi-million dollar productions and more often these extravagant films are funded by private distributors. Bollywood produces over 800 films every year, which is more than double of movies produced in Hollywood. Bollywood films known for their colourful song and dance routines is also a powerful platform which has taken Indian cinema to the world and many Indian films have won international awards, such as the prestigious Academy Awards.
Apart from Hindi films, there are many other regional language films being made in Indian which have a huge fan following. The Tamil Film Industry, known as Kollywood, is among one of the three largest film industries in the country. Many successful Bollywood actresses have had their beginnings in the Tamil Film industry, such as Waheeda Rehman, Rekha, Hema Malini, Sridevi and Vidya Balan among others. Apart from that the Kannada film industry, interestingly named Sandalwood and based in Bangalore is famous for contributing to India’s parallel film genre. Apart from that, Bengali cinema has been very popular in India and has contributed great films by legendary film makes such as Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen, Ritwik Ghatak and Rituporno Ghosh among others. Other regional languages cinema which are popular are; Malayalam, Marathi, Punjabi, Sindhi and Telegu.
Most Indian film stars, apart from being extremely popular are very well paid and are hugely in demand. Film obsession in South India takes another level with crazy fans building temples of their favourite film stars and worshiping them. Most film stars are in such a huge demand that they act in around eight to ten films at a time.
India and movies are inseparable and films are an integral part of life and entertainment for almost everyone in the country and form a part of their hopes, dreams and aspirations.
