Tollywood (Telugu) cinema
Top-grossing
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A list of films produced by the Tollywood (Telugu language film industry) based in Hyderabad in the year 1994.

1994[link]

Tollywood

Mughal Gardens replica in Ramoji Film City, a movie studio in Hyderabad
Industry	Motion pictures
Founded	1921 - Madras, Madras Presidency (now Chennai, Tamil Nadu)
Headquarters	Film Nagar, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India, India
Website	www.apfilmchamber.com

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.^[1][2][3] As per the CBFC report of 2010, the industry stood third in India, in terms of films produced yearly.^[4] The industry holds the Guinness World Record for the largest film production facility in the world.^[5]

Industry[link]

Moola Narayana Swamy and B. N. Reddy founded Vijaya Vauhini Studios in 1948 based in Chennai.^[6] Indian film doyen, L. V. Prasad who started his film career with Bhakta Prahlada has founded Prasad Studios in 1956 based in Chennai.^[7] 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.^[8]

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.^[9]

The industry accounts for 1% of the gross domestic product of Andhra Pradesh.^[10] There is a fair amount of dispersion among the Indian film industries. Many successful Telugu films have been remade by the Hindi and Tamil film industries. The industry also remakes a few Hindi, Tamil, and Malayalam movies. Many Tamil films are dubbed into Telugu on release.^[11]. The Prasads IMAX theatre in Hyderabad is one of the biggest IMAX 3D screens in the world.^[12]

History[link]

Early development: 1912–1930[link]

The Telugu film industry originated with silent films in 1912, with the production and release of Bhisma Pratighna in 1921 ^[13] The film was directed by Raghupathi Venkaiah Naidu and his son R. S. Prakash.^[14] The two, along with Yaragudipati Varada Rao, would go on to produce and direct dozens of films throughout the decade, casting theater actors in major roles.^[15] They established a long-lasting precedent of focusing exclusively on religious themes; Nandanar,^[16] Gajendra Moksham, and Matsyavatar, three of their most famous productions, centered on religious figures, parables, and morals.^[17]

Rise of the talkie: 1931–1947[link]

In 1931, the first Telugu film with audible dialogue, Bhakta Prahlada, was produced by H.M. Reddy.^[21] Popularly known as talkies, films with sound quickly grew in number and popularity. In 1934, the industry saw its first major commercial success with Lavakusa. Directed by C. Pullaiah and starring Parupalli Subbarao and Sriranjani in lead roles, the film attracted unprecedented numbers of viewers to theaters and thrust the young film industry into mainstream culture.^[22]

By 1936, the mass appeal of film allowed directors to move away from religious and mythological themes.^[22] That year, under the direction of Krithiventi Nageswara Rao, Prema Vijayam, a film focusing on social issues, was released. Its success prompted the production of dozens of other immensely successful 'social films', notably 1939's Vandemataram and Maala Pilla. Touching on societal problems like the status of Untouchables and the practice of giving dowry, Telugu films increasingly focused on contemporary living: 29 of the 96 films released between 1937 and 1947 had social themes.^[23]

The outbreak of World War II and the subsequent resource scarcity caused the British Raj to impose a limit on the use of filmstrip in 1943 to 11,000 feet,^[24] a sharp reduction from the 20,000 feet that had been common till then.^[25] As a result, the number of films produced during the war was substantially lower than in previous years. Nonetheless, before the ban, an important shift occurred in the industry: independent studios formed, actors and actresses were signed to contracts limiting who they could work for, and films moved from social themes to folklore legends.^[26]

Commercial stance[link]

The industry is one of the commercially consistent film industry in India, ^[27][28] Telugu cinema had its influence over commercial cinema in India. ^[29] As one of the few revenue generating film industries of India, Telugu film production accounts for one percent of the gross domestic product of Andhra Pradesh.^[30][28]

Pokiri has been remade in Hindi, Tamil and Kannada in a span of 2 years owing to the film's commercial success, the film was screened at the IIFA film festival held in Dubai in 2006.^[31] With the strategic increase in production costs, films like Pokiri, Bommarillu, Arundhati, Magadheera and Dookudu have been the biggest blockbusters in the last few years.

Critical reception[link]

The industry is one of the largest producers of folklore, historical, fantasy and mythological films in Indian cinema, a considerable contribution has been made in this genre.^[32][33][34] Veteran B. Vittalacharya is considered as a pioneer in the fantasy genre film making and special effects.^[35]

There is a market driven tradition of narrating mythology, history, fairy tales, song and dance, action sequences, large than life characterization of lead actors in Telugu films.^[36]

Swathi Muthyam was the only Telugu film to be sent by India as its official entry for the Best Foreign Language Film for the Academy Awards in 1986.^[27][37][38]

Cast and crew[link]

Chittor V. Nagaiah was one of the most influential actors of South Indian cinema.^[19] S. V. Ranga Rao is one of the first Indian actors of the time to receive international award at Indonesian Film Festival, held in Jakarta for the film Narthanasala in 1963.^[39] Chiranjeevi, known popularly as Megastar in the Indian media, has won nine Filmfare Awards South, and was one of the most commercially successful Telugu actor of his time.^[40]

Brahmanandam, a Telugu actor, holds a Guinness World Record for acting in the most films in the same language.^[41][42] S.P. Balasubrahmanyam is a multilingual playback singer from Telugu film industry, to have won National Film Awards across four languages. He holds the record of having recorded the most number of songs for any male playback singer and has received twenty five Nandi Awards from Andhra Pradesh.^[43] Mahesh Babu, the most sought after contemporary Telugu actor was listed among Times 50 Most Desirable Men for the year 2011 at 5th position.^[44][45]

Hyderabad International Convention Center^[46] has been the Hyderabad home for Filmfare Awards South from 2007^[47][48]

Dubbed films[link]

Tamil films are regularly dubbed into Telugu and have a decent market in Andhra Pradesh. There have been instances of dubbed films from Tamil overtaking profits of Telugu films in the state which made the Andhra government increase the entertainment tax for dubbed films.^[49] In 2005, the Telugu box office was entirely dominated by dubs from Tamil.^[50] The dubbed version of Enthiran (Robot) grossed 60 crore in Andhra Pradesh, becoming the second highest grossing film in the state.^[51]

From the early 90's to the mid 90's; many Malayalam action thrillers and sometimes even period films, had excellent outing in Andhra Pradesh; the most popular ones being Police Commissioner, Samrajyam, Mafia, New Delhi and Kaalapani.

Film schools[link]

The Film and Television Institute of Andhra Pradesh, Ramanaidu Film School and Annapurna International School of Film and Media are some of the largest film schools of India.^[52][53]

State awards[link]

• Nandi Awards
• Raghupathi Venkaiah Award
• NTR National Award
• B. N. Reddy National Award
• Nagi Reddy Chakrapani National Award

Other awards[link]

• Filmfare Awards South
• CineMAA Awards
• Sangam Academy Award
• Allu Rama Lingaiah Award
• Gollapudi Srinivas Award
• FNCC Awards
• Santosham Film Awards
• ANR National Award
• T. Subbarami Reddy Award ^[54]

Other studios in Hyderabad[link]

• Ramanaidu Studios
• Saradhi Studios
• Ramakrishna Studios
• Padmalaya Studios
• Annapurna Studios
• Fire Fly Creative Studios^[55][56]

See also[link]

• Cinema of India
• Cinema of the world

References[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Cinema of Andhra Pradesh

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