The Cinema of Andhra Pradesh (also known as Telugu cinema or Tollywood) is a South Indian film industry based in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh. The Telugu language film industry, being the second largest in India, in terms of market capitalization and infrastructure, holds a memorandum of understanding with Motion Picture Association of America to combat video piracy. As per the CBFC report of 2010, the industry stood third in India, in terms of films produced yearly. The industry holds the Guinness World Record for the largest film production facility in the world.

Moola Narayana Swamy and B. N. Reddy founded Vijaya Vauhini Studios in 1948 based in Chennai.Indian film doyen, L. V. Prasad who started his film career with Bhakta Prahlada has founded Prasad Studios in 1956 based in Chennai. However, through the efforts of D. V. S. Raju, the Telugu film industry has completely shifted its base from Chennai to Hyderabad in the early 1990s, during N. T. Rama Rao's political realm.

Veteran actor Akkineni Nageswara Rao was the first person to come to Hyderabad and build a studio, which he named Annapurna Studios. The Telugu film industry is one of the three largest film producers in India. About 245 Telugu films were produced in 2006, the highest in India for that year. Film producing studios in Andhra Pradesh, developed by D. Ramanaidu and Ramoji Rao are involved in prolific film production and employment.

Anjali Devi (Telugu: అంజలీదేవి)  pronunciation (help·info) (born 24 August 1927) is a veteran Telugu actress and producer. She is well known for her mythological role as Sita in Lava Kusha and roles in movies like Suvarna Sundari and Anarkali.

She hails from Peddapuram, East Godavari district in Andhra Pradesh, India, and later settled in Chennai. She was a theater artist before entering into movies. Her film debut was as Lohitasya in Raja Harishchandra in 1936. Her first movie as heroine was Kashtajeevi by L. V. Prasad 1n 1940 but that movie was abandoned after three reels shooting.Later C.Pullayya found her given opportunity hevenly beauty Mohini in Gollabhama. With her expressions and looks, she became a star overnight in 1947. After that she never looked back. She eventually acted in more than 350 Telugu films^{[citation needed]} and also in a few Tamil and Kannada films as the heroine.

She married P. Adinarayana Rao, a music director, in 1940. They have two sons. Together they produced many Telugu films under the banner of Anjali Pictures. She acted in Lava Kusha, a milestone film and the first color film in the Telugu film industry in 1963. She acted in various roles like damsel, angel, dancer, demon, goddess, traditional woman and later in mother characters. Her granddaughter Saila Rao is also an actress.

K. R. Vijaya is an Indian actress who has starred in Tamil, Malayalam and Telugu films. She started her career in the 1960s. She has been acting for more than four decades now in South Indian cinema. K. R. Vijaya has worked with almost all the stalwarts of South Indian cinema and has played a variety of roles.

Vijaya was born on 30 November 1948. She spent most of her childhood in the holy city of Palani. Vijaya's father was from Andhra Pradesh and he wanted her to become an actress since he was himself acting in M. K. Radha's drama troupe at the time.

Vijaya played the title character, a heroine, in her debut film Karpagam, directed by K. S. Gopalakrishnan who also directed her 100th film Nadhiyil Muthu. Karpagam was released in 1963.

Vijaya has starred in almost 400 films in all the South Indian languages, including 100 films each in Tamil, Malayalam and Telugu, half-a-dozen in Kannada, and one in Hindi titled Oonche Log (1965). Her co-stars in the Hindi movie were Raaj Kumar and Feroz Khan. She received many offers in Hindi, but did not accept them as she was busy in the South.

Sobhan Babu (Telugu: శోభన్ బాబు)  pronunciation (help·info) (January 14, 1937 – March 20, 2008) was an Indian film actor in Telugu cinema. Born as Uppu Sobhana Chalapathi Rao to a middle-class family, Sobhan went on to become a romantic icon and was one of the top Tollywood heroes for two decades. He made his film debut with Daivabalam directed by Vasanthkumar Reddy, but his first film to hit the screens was Bhakta Sabari.

A son of Uppu Suryanarayana Rao, Babu had three sisters Dhanaranga, Jhansi and Nirmala, and a brother, Sambasiva Rao.

Babu completed his initial schooling in Kuntamukkula Mylavaram. He pursued his Intermediate in Vijayawada and finished his degree at Andhra-Christian College in Guntur. Later, he studied law in Chennai, but ultimately discontinued it.

He married Santha Kumari on 15 May 1958; they had a son, Karuna Seshu and three daughters: Mrudula, Prashanti and Nivedita.

Sobhan Babu made his debut in the film Daivabalam. After that he acted in many films playing small roles.