Silent movies were produced in Kollywood since 1916 and the era of talkies dawned in 1931. By the end of the 1930s, the industry was booming to the extent that the State of Madras legislature passed the pioneering Entertainment Tax Act 1939 with little opposition.
Tamil films have one of the widest overseas distribution along with Telugu and Hindi films. They have enjoyed consistent popularity among Tamil speakers in India, Sri Lanka, Singapore and Malaysia. Tamil films have recently become popular in Japan (Rajinikanth's Muthu, for example, screened for a record period), South Africa, Canada, and the UK. Many movies such as Chandramukhi and Anniyan were also simultaneously released in the USA. Sivaji: The Boss, which had released recently has also been touted as a record-breaking film for its high-budget, large opening, and reception worldwide. It also cracked into the UK's Top 10 weekend box opening movies becoming the first ever Indian movie to do so. It is also the most expensive Indian movie produced so far, largely due to the 20 Crore salary paid to Rajnikanth.
Tamil films enjoy significant patronage in the neighbouring southern States like Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh too. In Kerala and Karnataka the films are directly released in Tamil but in Andhra Pradesh they are generally dubbed into Telugu. There is a fair amount of dispersion amongst the Indian film industries. Many successful Tamil films have been remade by the Hindi and Telugu film industries. Kollywood has also remade a fair number of Hindi-, Telugu-, Malayalam-, and other-language films. It is estimated by the Manorama Yearbook 2000 (a popular almanac) that over 5,000 Tamil films were produced in the 20th century. For a complete list of Tamil films, see the List of Tamil-Language Films. Tamil films have also been dubbed into other languages, thus reaching a much wider audience. Examples of those dubbed into Hindi include such hits as Minsaara Kanavu, Roja and Bombay. Anniyan, a recent Tamil film became the first Indian film to be dubbed into French. See popular Tamil films.
There has been a growing presence of English in dialogue and songs as well. It is not uncommon to see movies that feature dialogue studded with English words and phrases, or even whole sentences. Some movies are also simultaneously made in two or three languages (either using subtitles or several soundtracks). Quite often, Tamil movies feature Chennai Tamil, a colloquial version of Tamil spoken in Madras' i.e 'Chennai.
Early Movie StudiosIn early days during 20's, Tamil Movies (silent Movies)were shot at make shift location in and around Chennai,and for technical processing they were sent to Pune or Calcutta.Later some movies featuring MKT were shot at Pune and Calcutta.In 30's AVM setup their makeshift studio in the town of Karaikudi, and in the same decade big full fledged Movie studio's were built in Salem (Modern Theatres Studio) and Coimbatore (Central Studios,Neptune and Pakshiraja).By mid 40's 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 their opertation to Chennai.Thus the undivided Madras Presidency being the Capital to most of South India,Chennai became the center for Tamil and notable Telugu movies.Also most of the pre-independence era drama and stage actors joining movie industry from 40's Chennai became the hub for South Indian Lauguage Cinema.
Average annual film output in Tamil film industry has risen steadily in the 20th century
1930s—22.5 releases per year on averages 1940s—22.1 releases per year on average 1950s—32.6 releases per year on average 1960s—43.0 releases per year on average 1970s—62.5 releases per year on average 1980s—104.6 releases per year on average 1990s—101.2 releases per year on average In the year 2007 a record breaking 150 movies were released as of December 31st 2007
For the purpose of entertainment taxes, returns have to be filed by the exhibitors weekly (usually each Tuesday). [1] This is a chart of trend of box office collections of Kollywood with figures in millions of Indian Rupees.
It is running house full shows and is expected to recover the money in a short period
Year Tamil film Box Office (in crore Rupees) 1980 80.8 1985 156.4 1990 313.3 1995 782 2000 1,411 2005 2,320.5
The Tamil film industry accounts for approx. 1% of the gross domestic product of the state of Tamil Nadu. Costs of production have grown exponentially from just under Rs.40 lakhs in 1980 to over Rs.11 crores by 2005 for a typical star-studded big-budget film. Similarly, costs of processing per print have risen from just under Rs.2,500 in 1980 to nearly Rs.70,000 by 2005.
Interestingly, The Tamil Nadu government has made provisions for an entertainment tax exemption for Tamil movies having pure Tamil word(s) in the title. This is in accordance with Government Order 72 passed on 22 July 2006. The first film to be released after the new Order was Unnakkum Ennakum. The original title had been Something something Unakkum Ennakkum, a half-English and a half-Tamil title.
Popular Tamil films (in reverse chronological order) does not claim that these are the best Tamil films , though many of fans' all-time favorites will be found on this list. However, the non-Indian explorer of Tamil cinema industry will learn a fair bit about Tamil film history and conventions by watching these films. The list is biased towards recent films, but this may be an advantage for some users of the list, as the recent films are more likely to be found in video rental stores. Submissions of notable older films are invited.
Superstars
Initially, Kollywood was dominated by M.K. Thyagaraja Bagavadharand P. U. சின்னப்பாduring the 1930s and 1940's. Later, in the 1950s till late 1970s, the two highly anticipated Tamil film stars were M. G. Ramachandran and Sivaji Ganesan, and from the 1980s till now are Kamal Hassan and Rajinikanth. By the 1990s there were many stars in the industry. However, Kamal Hassan and Rajinikanth still dominated the decade and brought Kollywood to a new level. The former starred quality films under his production while the latter raised the bar in commercial and family entertainers and became the highest paid actor in the இந்தியா.The top heroines were Savithri, Padmini, Saroja Devi, K.R.Vijaya, Sowkar Janaki and Sujatha from 1960s to 1970s.From 1970s Sri Devi remained as the Lady super star till 1980s.From 1980s till 1990s Ambika, Radha, Revathy, Amala, Nadhiya, Seetha.
During the 90s, the present generation of young superstars, Joseph Vijay and Ajith Kumar, had debuted. Today along with veterans Kamal Hassan and Rajnikanth, actors Joseph Vijay, Surya Sivakumar, Vikram and Ajith Kumar are prominent leading stars who guarantee a good box office opening and appear in most high-budget feature films. These stars have exclusive fanclubs that often resort to passionate display of support. Distributors of films of the stars are able to arrange financing of film-in-progress from banks and exhibitors without much difficulty.The top heroines of 1990s are huge to count.The leading heroines were Kushboo, Meena, Roja, Rambha and Simran Bagga. Simran Bagga uniquely dominated the kollywood from 1997 till 2002 and remained the lady super star.The top heroines of 2000s were Jyothika Saravanan, Laila, Sneha, Trisha Krishnan, Asin and Nayanthara.
Some of these actors like Rajinikanth, are politically influential due to their loyal fan bases.
