Tamil cinema (also referred to as the Tamil film industry, or Chennai film industry) is the Chennai–based Tamil language filmmaking industry of the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is based in the Kodambakkam district of Chennai, where several Tamil language feature films are produced, which has led to a colloquial reference to it as Kollywood , a portmanteau of the words Kodambakkam and Hollywood.
Early exhibitors:
In Madras (now known as Chennai), the Electric Theatre was established for the screening of silent films. It was a favourite haunt of the British community in Madras.The theatre was shut down after a few years. This building is now part of a post office complex in Anna Salai. The Lyric Theatre was also built in the Mount Road area (now Anna Salai). This venue boasted a variety of events, including plays in English, Western classical music concerts, and ballroom dances. Silent films were also screened as an additional attraction. Samikannu Vincent, an employee of the South Indian Railways in Trichy, purchased a film projector and silent films from the Frenchman Du Pont and set up a business as film exhibitor. He erected tents for screening films.
Film studios
1916 marked the birth of Tamil cinema with the the first Madras production and South Indian film release Keechaka Vaadham (The Destruction of Keechaka). During the 1920s, silent Tamil-language movies were shot at makeshift locations in and around Chennai, and for technical processing, they were sent to Pune or Calcutta. Later some movies featuring MKT were shot in Pune and Calcutta. In the 1930s AVM set up its makeshift studio in the town of Karaikudi, and during the same decade, full-fledged Movie studios were built in Salem (Modern Theatres Studio) and Coimbatore (Central Studios, Neptune, and Pakshiraja).
By the mid 1940s, Chennai became the hub of Studio activity with two more movie Studios built in Chennai, Vijaya Vauhini Studios and Gemini Studios. Later, AVM Studios shifted its operations to Chennai. Thus, with the undivided Madras Presidency being the Capital to most of South India, Chennai became the center for Tamil- and notable Telugu-language movies. Also, most of the pre-independence era drama and stage actors joined the movie industry from the 1940s, and Chennai became the hub for South Indian–language film production and Sri Lankan cinema before independence.
Superstars:
At the beginning of the talkie era, Kollywood was dominated by P. U. Chinnappa and later M. K. Thyagaraja Bagavadhar during the 1940s. During the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, the two highly anticipated Tamil film stars were M. G. Ramachandran and later Sivaji Ganesan.
The 1980s, 1990s and 2000s saw the rise and consolidation of the markets of Kamal Hassan and later Rajinikanth. The films of both of these stars typically mop up regularly 20 per cent market share each of the total annual box office receipts. They received salaries of $2 million and $3 million respectively for their latest projects, Dasavatharam and Sivaji.
Some of the biggest names in the Indian film fraternity like Rajinikanth, Kamal Haasan, Mani Ratnam and S. Shankar are based of Chennai.A. R. Rahman took Chennai to international fame by winning two Oscar awards in 2009 for the movie Slumdog Millionaire. Chennai's theaters stage many Tamil plays; political satire, slapstick comedy, history, mythology and drama are among the popular genres.
