TOLLYWOOD

'Telugu Cinema' refers to the Telugu film industry. The Telugu Cinema industry is referred by some as Tollywood, The origins of the name are disputed, but it is generally considered a portmanteau of "Telugu" and "Hollywood"; another India-based film industry is known as Bollywood after the same fashion. Actually, "Tollywood" has for long been used to describe the Bengali cinema industry centred in Tollygunge in Calcutta, and the more recent use of this name to refer to the Telugu film industry too has created a lot of confusion. It remains to be seen how this nomenclatural issue will ultimately be sorted out.

Contents

Industry

Box Office Collections

History

Early development: 1921-1930

Rise of the Talkie: 1931-1947

Budgets

Singers

Fans

Trivia

See also

References

External links

Industry

:''(1 crore = 10,000,000 rupees, approximately US$225,124 on Dec 06, 2006.)''
The Telugu movie industry is based in the state of Andhra Pradesh in India.
About 240 Telugu movies are released every year (approximately 3 every week). Telugu Film Industry is the largest producer of Movies in India followed by Hindi and Tamil Film Industry . In 2005, the annual turnover reached Rs. 2.3 billion (US$57 million, as of July 17, 2007) with 700 million ticket sales. Popular movies tend to open during the three festive/holiday seasons of the region: Sankranthi, Summer, and Dussera. In 2004, total revenue for the Sankranthi season was around Rs. 1.5 billion (US$37 million, as of July 17, 2007). There are more than eight TV channels ( Gemini TV^[1], Eenadu TV^[2], Eenadu TV 2, MAA TV^[3], GCV, Doordharshan, Teja TV ^[4] etc ). dedicated exclusively to feature programs related to Telugu movies.

Box Office Collections

Year	Collections (in millions of Indian Rupees)
1980	819
1985	1,526
1990	3,333
1995	7,985
2000	14,011
2005	23,044

The Telugu film industry accounts for 1% of the gross domestic product of Andhra Pradesh.^[5]
Telugu films enjoy significant patronage in the neighbouring southern States like Tamilnadu, Karnataka.
There is a fair amount of dispersion amongst the Indian film industries. Many successful Telugu films have been remade by the Hindi and Tamil film industries, for example Pokiri which was a Telugu film by Mahesh babu remade into Tamil and now remaking in Hindi with Salman Khan as hero. Tollywood has also remade a fair number of Hindi-, Tamil-, Malayalam-, and other-language films.
Andhra Pradesh is the no. one state having more than 2700 theatres where Hyderabad alone consists of 150 theatres.The Tollywood film distribution is diveded into 12 areas:-
I) Nizam
1.Hyderabad
2.Rangareddy
3.Medak
4.Nallagonda
5.Nizamabad(Induru)
6.Warangal
7.Adilabad
8.Khammam
9.Mahabubnagar(Palamuru)
10.Karimnagar(Srirampuru)
12.Raichuru(Karnataka)
II) Ceeded
Kurnool
kadapa
Ananthapuram
Chitoor
III) Nellore
IV) Guntoor
Guntoor and Prakasam
v) Krishna
VI) East Godavari VII)West Godavari
VIII) Vizag
1.Vishakapatnam
2.Vijayanagaram
3.Srikakulam
IX) Tamilnadu
X) Karnataka
XI) Orrisa
XII) Overseas

History

Early development: 1921-1930

The Telugu film industry originated with the silent film in 1921, with the production of ''Bhisma Pratighna''. The film was directed by Raghupati Venkaiah and his son R.S. Prakash^[6]. The two would go on to produce and direct dozens of films throughout the decade, casting theater actors in major roles^[7]. They established a long-lasting precedent of focusing exclusively on religious themes; ''Nandanar''^[8], ''Gajendra Moksham'', and ''Matsyavatar'', three of their most famous productions, centered on religious figures, parables, and morals^[9].

Rise of the Talkie: 1931-1947

In 1931, the first Telugu film with audible dialogue, ''Bhakta Prahlad'', was produced by H.M. Reddy^[10]. Popularly known as 'talkies', films with sound quickly grew in number and fanbase. 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^[11].
By 1936, the mass appeal of film allowed directors to move away from religious and mythological themes^[11]. 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 ''Malli Pelli''. Touching on societal problems like the status of Untouchables and the practice of giving dowry, Telugu films increasingly focused on contemporary living: twenty-nine of the ninety-six films released between 1937 and 1947 had social themes^[13].
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^[14], a sharp reduction from the 20,000 feet that was common till then^[15]. As a result, the number of films produced during the War was substantially lower than in previous years. Nonetheless, prior to 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^[16]. 1942's ''Balanagamma'' typified these changes: the film featured fantasy elements of cultural lore, was produced by Gemini Studios, and its producers added a restricting clause to the lead actress' contract. By 1947, nearly all films were produced by studios with contracted actors.

Budgets

:''(1 crore = 10,000,000 rupees, approximately US$230,000 or €190,000 on May 11, 2005.)''

The budgets for Telugu movies typically range from 7 to 15 crores per film. Pre-lease revenues for popular films can range from 12 to 20 crores per film and post-release business for these movies can be 25–40 crores depending on the success of the movie. Popular actors like Megastar Chiranjeevi, Balakrishna, Akkineni Nagarjuna, Venkatesh, Mahesh Babu, Pawan Kalyan,prabhas,and Jr.NTR are some of the highest paid actors in Tollywood.

Singers

The Telugu film industry has a reputation for producing many singers, such as Ghantasala, S. P. Balasubrahmanyam, P. Susheela, S. Janaki. S. P. Balasubrahmanyam holds the record for singing the largest number of songs (approximately 39,000).

Fans

Well-known stars of Telugu Film industry have devoted fan followings in the South. Nandamuri Taraka Ramarao,Akkineni Nageswara Rao,Krishna, Chiranjeevi, Nandamuri Balakrishna, Akkineni Nagarjuna, Venkatesh, Mahesh Babu, Pawan Kalyan,prabhas and Jr.NTR are very popular and enjoy a significant fan following among the Telugu movie audience. Presently Chiranjeevi is the highest paid actor in Telugu Film Industry with remuneration ranging to 12- 15 crores. He is also the one who redefined the Telugu movies in terms of budget levels at the international level.

Trivia

★ 80 Telugu films were made in the first five years after the release of Bhakta Prahlada.

★ The long-time Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, N. T. Rama Rao, was an alumnus of Telugu Cinema.

★ ''Pokiri'', a 2006 film starring Mahesh Babu, is currently the highest grossing film in Tollywood (app Rs. 66.5 crores gross, Rs. 48 crores share).

See also

★ List of Telugu films

★ Cinema of India

★ List of popular Telugu films

★ Santosham Film Awards

★ Telugu Filmfare Awards

★ Nandi Awards

★ Filmfare Awards

References

1. www.sunnetwork.org/geminitv/
2. www.eenaduinfo.com/etv.htm
3. www.maatv.com/
4. www.sunnetwork.org/tejatv/
5. http://osdir.com/ml/culture.region.india.zestmedia/2007-01/msg00117.html
6. http://www.totaltollywood.com/articles/history/index.php?id=1
7. http://www.cinegoer.com/telugucinema8.htm
8. http://www.indiafilm.com/lm.htm
9. http://www.tamilentertainment.com/Memories/98/fna/fna1.htm
10. http://www.idlebrain.com/research/anal/anal-his2.html
11. http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/fr/2007/01/19/stories/2007011901020100.htm
12. http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/fr/2007/01/19/stories/2007011901020100.htm
13. http://www.cinegoer.com/telugucinema5.htm
14. http://www.cinegoer.com/telugucinema7.htm
15. http://www.cinegoer.com/telugucinema10.htm
16. http://www.cinegoer.com/telugucinema6.htm

External links

★ TotalTollywood.com

★ tollywoodinfo.com

★ tollywood.allindiansite.com

★ raaga.com

★ indiaglitz.com

★ JustTollywood.com

★ idlebrain.com

★ telugucinema.com

★ chitramala.com

★ Telugu Online Radio's

★ desilyricz.com

★ Telugu Movies @ Oneindia