Tamil cinema (also known as the Kollywood, the Tamil film industry, the Cinema of Tamil Nadu or the Chennai film industry) is the film industry based in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, dedicated to the production of feature films in the Tamil language. It is based in Chennai's Kodambakkam area, where several South Indian film production companies are headquartered. With reference to this, the industry is also colloquially referred to as Kollywood, a portmanteau of Kodambakkam and Hollywood. Tamil cinema is known for being India's second largest film industry in terms of films produced, revenue and worldwide distribution, with audiences mainly including people from the four southern Indian states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka, placing the industry among the largest in the world.

Silent films were produced in Chennai since 1917 and the era of talkies dawned in 1931 with the film Kalidas. By the end of the 1930s, the legislature of the State of Madras passed the Entertainment Tax Act of 1939. Tamil cinema later had a profound effect on other filmmaking industries of India, establishing Chennai as a secondary hub for Telugu cinema, Malayalam cinema, Kannada cinema, and Hindi cinema. In its modern era, Tamil films from Chennai have been distributed to various overseas theatres in Singapore, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Malaysia, Japan, Oceania, the Middle East, Western Europe, and Northern America. The industry also inspired filmmaking in Tamil diaspora populations in other regions, such as in Europe and Canada.

Lakshmi Rai (born May 5, 1981) is an Indian film actress from Bangalore, Karnataka, predominantly appearing in Malayalam and Tamil films. While most of her Tamil releases performed poorly at the box office with the exception of Mankatha which was whopping success,running for over a 100 days. She rose to fame with the popular Malayalam-language films Annan Thambi (2008), 2 Harihar Nagar (2009), Chattambinadu (2009), Evidam Swargamanu (2009) and Arabiyum, Ottakavum, P. Madhavan Nairum (2011), establishing herself in the Malayalam film industry.

Lakshmi Rai was born in Bangalore and was brought up at Belgaum. She initially worked as a model before entering the film industry. She appeared in several television ads such as Sylcon Footwears, Josco Jewellers and Emmanuel Silks.^{[citation needed]}

She made her acting debut in 2005 in the Tamil film Karka Kasadara. Subsequently she appeared in a number of Tamil films, including the comedy film Kundakka Mandakka (2005) opposite R. Parthiban, Perarasu's action-masala flick Dharmapuri (2006), and the romance film Nenjai Thodu (2007). In 2008, she began working in more serious films such as the drama film Velli Thirai, in which she played herself, and the action thriller Dhaam Dhoom directed by Jeeva. She received positive feedbacks forher portrayal of a lawyer in the latter. A review from Behindwoods wrote: "The latter (Lakshmi Rai) sizzles even as she is supposed to play the curt professional who is caught in the web of smuggling drugs". She won her first Filmfare Award nomination in the Best Supporting Actress category.

Udhayanidhi Stalin (Tamil : உதயநிதி ஸ்டாலின்) is a Tamil cinema producer. He is the owner of Red Giant Movies banner.

His grandfather is M. Karunanidhi, the Ex-Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. His father is M. K. Stalin, the Ex-Deputy Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. He is married to Kiruthiga Udhayanidhi, head of Inbox 1305, a magazine.

His debut film as a producer was Kuruvi, starring Joseph Vijay and Trisha Krishnan. His next venture was Aadhavan, which was released on Deepavali 2009. His third production, Kamal Haasan's Manmadan Ambu, which was released on 23 December 2010. He also produced Ezham Arivu starring Surya Sivakumar. He also worked as a distributor, with his first one being Gautham Menon's Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa. He then released the movies Madrasapattinam, Boss Engira Bhaskaran and Mynaa in 2010.

Priya Anand (born 17 September 1986) is an Indian film actress and model who appears in Telugu and Tamil. She appeared in some Telugu and Tamil films including, Leader and Vaamanan.

Priya Anand was born in Chennai, Tamil Nadu as the only child to a half Telugu, half Marathi father Bharadwaj Anand and a Tamil mother Radha. Because of her mixed regional background, she was brought up in both her parents' hometowns, Chennai and Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, becoming fluent in Tamil as well as Telugu. Besides her mother tongues, Priya is proficient in English,Bengali, Hindi and Spanish languages as well.

Priya, who describes herself as "naturally extremely hyperactive", became fascinated by films, developing an interest in cinema, since childhood, and noted that she has been dreaming of getting into the film industry and working on technical aspects of film making, but confesses she never thought of becoming an actor. She moved to the U. S., where she pursued her higher studies. Keeping her later career in mind, she studied Communications and Journalism at University of Albany. After completing her education, she returned to India in 2008 and since, stays with her grandparents in Chennai. However, she then ventured into modeling, appearing in various television commercials like Nutrine Maha Lacto, Prince Jewellery and Cadbury Dairy Milk.

Kamal Haasan (born 7 November 1954) is an Indian film actor, screenwriter, producer and director, considered to be one of the leading method actors of Indian cinema. He is widely acclaimed as an actor and is well known for his versatility in acting. Kamal Haasan has won several Indian film awards, including four National Film Awards and numerous Filmfare Awards, and is known for having starred in the largest number of films submitted by India in contest for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. In addition to acting, screenwriting and directing, he has also featured in films as a songwriter, playback singer and choreographer. His film production company, Rajkamal International, has produced several of his films. In 1990, he was awarded the Padma Shri for his contributions to Indian cinema. Kamal Haasan is also a recipient of an Honorary doctorate by Sathyabama University. In 2009, he became one of very few Indian actors to have completed 50 years in cinema.

After several projects as a child artist, Kamal Haasan's breakthrough into lead acting came with his role in the 1975 drama Apoorva Raagangal, in which he played a rebellious youth in love with an older woman. He secured his second Indian National Film Award for his portrayal of a guileless school teacher who tends a child-like amnesiac in 1982's Moondram Pirai. He was particularly noted for his performance in Mani Ratnam's Godfatheresque Tamil film Nayagan (1987), which was ranked by Time magazine as one of the best films of all time. Since then he has gone on to appear in other notable films such as Anbe Sivam and his own productions, Hey Ram and Virumaandi, as well as Dasavathaaram, in which he appeared in ten distinct roles.