Tamil cinema (also referred to as the Cinema of Tamil Nadu,
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.
Silent movies were produced in Chennai since 1916 and the era
of talkies dawned in 1931 with the film Kalidas. By the end of
the 1930s, the State of Madras legislature passed the
Entertainment Tax Act 1939. Tamil Nadu cinema has had a
profound effect on the film making industries of India, with
Chennai becoming a hub for the filmmaking industries of other
languages and also Sri Lankan cinema in the 1900s.
Tamil–language films are further made in other countries.
Today, Tamil films are distributed to various theatres around the
world such as in Sri Lanka, Singapore, South Korea, Malayasia,
Mauritius, South Africa, Western Europe, North America,
and other significant Tamil diaspora regions.
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