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.

Anushka Shetty (born on 7 November 1981 as Sweety Shetty) is an Indian film actress who works mainly in the Telugu and Tamil film industries. She debuted in the 2005 Telugu film Super and rose to fame following her performance in Vikramarkudu (2006). After starring in a series of high-budget productions alongside leading Telegu and Tamil actors, she went on to became one of Telegu and Tamil cinema's leading actresses in the successive years, while receiving high critical acclaim for her portrayal of the titular character in Arundhati, and as Saroja in Vedam, which fetched her two Filmfare, one Nandi and two CineMAA Awards.

Anushka Shetty was born as Sweety Shetty on 7 November 1981 in Mangalore. Shetty is an ethnic Bunt hailing from the landed Bellipady Uramalu Guthu family. Her parents are Prafulla and A.N. Vittal Shetty. She has two brothers Gunaranjan Shetty and Sai Ramesh Shetty who is a cosmetic surgeon. She attended her schooling in Bangalore. She did her Bachelor of Computer Applications at Mount Carmel College, Bangalore. She was also a Yoga Instructor and has trained under yoga guru Bharat Thakur.

Jayam Ravi (Tamil: ஜெயம் ரவி; born 10 September 1980 as Ravi Mohan) is an Indian film actor. Ravi has appeared in films including Jayam, M. Kumaran Son Of Mahalakshmi, Unakkum Enakkum, Santhosh Subramaniam and Thillalangadi all of which have been directed by his brother, M. Raja. His films are almost all remakes of Tollywood hits. They repeated the same success in Kollywood, too.

Ravi was born to Mohan, editor of South Indian cinema and Varalakshmi in a Balija family. He has two siblings; his elder brother M. Raja is a noted film director, with most of his films featuring Ravi in the lead role, while his sister Roja is a dentist. He completed his schooling at Jawahar Vidyalaya in Ashok Nagar, Chennai. He studied dancing under the Bharatnatyam dancer Nalini Balakrishnan and performed his arangetram at the age of 12. After completing his degree in Visual Communication from Loyola College, Chennai, he decided to get into the film industry. He has also undergone training in acting at the Kishore Namit Kapur Institute in Mumbai.