TAMIL CINEMA Tamil cinema (also known as Cinema of Tamil Nadu, the Tamil film industry or the Chennai film industry) is the film industry based in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, dedicated to the production of films in the Tamil language. It is based in Chennai's Kodambakkam district, where several South Indian film production companies are headquartered. Tamil cinema is known for being India's second largest film industry in terms of films produced, revenue and worldwide distribution,[1] with audiences mainly including people from the four southern Indian states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andra Pradesh, and Karnataka. Silent films were produced in Chennai since 1917 and the era of talkies dawned in 1931 with the film Kalidas.[2] By the end of the 1930s, the legislature of the State of Madras passed the Entertainment Tax Act of 1939.[3] 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. The industry also inspired filmmaking in Tamil diaspora populations in other countries, such as Sri Lankan Tamil cinema and Canadian Tamil cinema.[6] Film studios in Chennai are bound by legislation, such as the Cinematography Film Rules of 1948,[7] the Cinematography Act of 1952,[8] and the Copyright Act of 1957.[9] Influences Tamil cinema has been impacted by many factors, due to which it has become the second largest film industry of India. The main impacts of the early cinema were the cultural influences of the country. The Tamil language, ancient than the Sanskrit, was the medium in which many plays and stories were written since the ages as early as the Cholas. They were highly stylized and nature of the spectacle was one which could attract the people. Along with this, music and dance were one of the main entertainment sources. Crew Actors M. K. Thyagaraja Bhagavathar was considered to be first most influential actor of South Indian cinema.[37] P. U. Chinnappa, another popular actor in Tamil cinema was slotted second only to Bhagavathar, died suddenly in 1952.[38] M. G. Ramachandran became a prominent actor in the mid 1950s and continued to be a popular actor till the late 1970s before stepping into politics.[39] On the other hand, Sivaji Ganesan, the media-built rival of Ramachandran, was considered to be one of the finest method actors in India of his time.[40][41]. Kamal Haasan and Rajinikanth have been the biggest brands in Tamil Cinema for over twenty five years despite the arrival of the next 3 generations of actors. K. B. Sundarambal, a popular carnatic singer made her film debut with Nandanar in 1935 was considered to be one of the finest actresses of her time. She was paid a renumeration of INR1 lakh (highest pay for a movie star in Tamil back then; amount not adjusted for inflation)for acting in her debut film Musicians Music composers such as Ilaiyaraaja and A. R. Rahman received international recognition.[43] These two composers also hold the record of having won the most number of awards for Best Music Director from the National Film Awards. A. R. Rahman has won two Academy Awards for his work in the British film, Slumdog Millionaire. His debut film Roja was the only Indian film to feature in Time magazine's "10 Best Soundtracks" of all time.[44][45] In the 2003 BBC International poll, "Rakkamma Kaiya Thattu" from the film Thalapathi, scored by Ilaiyaraaja was voted by people from 155 countries as fourth in the world's top 10 most popular songs of all time. [46] TELUGU CINEMA The Cinema of Andhra Pradesh, also referred to as Telugu Cinema or Tollywood, is the Telugu film industry in India. The Telugu language film industry is known for being one of the three largest in terms of no.of films produced yearly in India.The industry holds the Guinness World Record for the largest film production facility in the world.[4] Brahmanandam, a Telugu actor, holds Guinness World Record for acting in the most films in the same language. Industry The Telugu film industry has completely shifted its base from Chennai to Hyderabad in the early 1990's during N. T. Rama Rao's political realm.[7] Veteran actor Akkineni Nageswara Rao was the first person to come to Hyderabad and build a studio, which he named Annapurna Studios. The Telugu film industry is one of the three largest film producers in India. About 245 Telugu films were produced in 2006.[8] To date, more than 11,567 films have been made. More than 50 Telugu films so far have been remade or dubbed into other Indian languages (see List of films remade or dubbed from the Telugu language). Film actors N. T. Rama Rao played three pivotal roles — Karna, Duryodhana, and Krishna — in the 1977 film Daana Veera Soora Karna Chittor V. Nagaiah was considered to be one among the most influential actors of South Indian cinema.[36] S. V. Ranga Rao is one of the first Indian actors of the time to receive international award at Indonesian Film Festival, held in Jakarta for the film Narthanasala in 1963. Film music S. Rajeswara Rao and T. V. Raju were eminent for their contribution to Telugu classical's. The legacy was followed by their sons, Thotakura Somaraju and Saluri Koteswara Rao, popularly known as Raj-Koti duo were one among the few pioneers after Illayaraja, to inculcate western music genre in south Indian cinema. Renowned music composer A. R. Rahman has worked as a key board player for the duo Raj-Koti and Ramesh Naidu in the early 90's[40] Music composers from other regions, like K. V. Mahadevan and Illayaraja, garnered National recognition for their work in Telugu films directed by K. Viswanath. Box office The Telugu film industry accounts for 1% of the gross domestic product of Andhra Pradesh.[47] There is a fair amount of dispersion among the Indian film industries. Many successful Telugu films have been remade by the Hindi and Tamil film industries. The industry also remakes a few Hindi, Tamil, and Malayalam movies. Many Tamil films are dubbed into Telugu on release.[48] State Awards 1. Nandi Awards Life time achievement Award for contribution to Telugu cinema 1. Raghupathi Venkaiah Award Life time achievement Awards for contribution to Indian cinema 1. NTR National Award 2. B. N. Reddy National Award 3. Nagi Reddy Chakrapani National Award Cinema of Karnataka The cinema of Karnataka (Kannada: ), sometimes colloquially ಕನನ ಡ ಸನಮ referred to as Sandalwood and as Chandanavana (Kannada: ಚಂದನವನ) in Kannada,[1][2] encompasses movies made in the Indian state of Karnataka based in Bangalore. Most of the movies are made in Kannada, with a handful of them in Konkani or Tulu. Today more than 100 films are made every year.[3] A handful of the movies are released in the USA, Australia, Germany, UK and other countries.[4] Efforts to further expand its market have met with some success. A total of 650 cinema theatres in Karnataka gives great scope for the cinema industry. 1930s 1931 saw the emergence of talking pictures in the regional languages of South India with the release of Tamil film Kalidas. In 1934, the first Kannada talkie, Sati Sulochana,[5] appeared in theatres, followed by Bhakta Dhruva (aka Dhruva Kumar). Both Sati Sulochana and Bhakta Dhruva were major successes. But prospective filmmakers in Karnataka were handicapped by the lack of studios and technical crews. Sati Sulochana was shot in Kolhapur at the Chatrapathi studio; most filming, sound recording, and post-production was done in Madras (now Chennai). It was difficult, as well, to find financial backing for new film projects in the region; thus, very few movies in Kannada were released during the early years of Indian sound cinema. 2000s The Kannada film industry managed to generate several blockbusters in the first decade of the new millennium. It suffered heavy losses with the demise of superstars like Dr.Rajkumar, Dr.Vishnuvardhan, K. S. Ashwath and Vajramuni. But this decade also saw the emergence of talented artists like Puneet Rajkumar (Rajkumar's third son), Darshan Tugudeep (son of actor Toogudeepa Sreenivas), Sudeep, Ganesh, Diganth and Vijay. Director Upendra turned into an actor and acted in several hit films. Young actresses like Ramya, Rakshita, Pooja Gandhi, Aindrita Ray, Priyamani, Rekha Vedavyas, Sharmila Mandre, Meera Jasmine, Jennifer Kotwal, Radhika Pandit, Shuba Poonja, Nikita Thukral and Sanjana established themselves in this decade. Matured actresses like Tara, Prema and Bhavana (who gave a dynamic and offbeat performance in the single-actor movie Shanti) led the female brigade for off-beat films. Film music Music directors who have made their mark in Kannada films include R. Ratna, M. Venkata Swamy, M. Ranga Rao, G. K. Venkatesh, Ilaiyaraaja, Vijaya Bhaskar, the duo Rajan-Nagendra, Upendra Kumar, Sathyam, C. Aswath, Hamsalekha, Gurukiran, T. G. Lingappa, Mano Murthy, Thomas Rathnam, Harikrishna. Playback singers in Kannada films include: Male Ghantasala, Dr.Rajkumar, S. P. Balasubrahmanyam, P. B. Sreenivas, K. J. Yesudas, Rajesh Krishnan, Hemanth, Tippu, Chetan, Badri, Anup Seelin, Harikrishna, Udit Narayan, Sonu Nigam, Kunal Ganjawala, Vijay Prakash, Raghu Dixit, Female P. Susheela, S. Janaki, L. R. Eswari , Vani Jayaram, K. S. Chitra, Swarnalatha, Sujatha[disambiguation needed ], Manjula Gururaj, Chandrika, Anuradha Sriram, Shreya Ghoshal, Sunidhi Chauhan, B. R. Chaya, Pallavi,Sunitha, Archana Udupa, Lakshmi, Akanksha Badami, Chaitra, Mahalakshmi Iyer, Malgudi Shubha, Priyadarshini, Nanditha. Actors who have done playback Dr.Rajkumar, Dr.Vishnuvardhan, Upendra, Puneet Rajkumar, Sudeep, Shivarajkumar, Ganesh. Cinematographers Important Kannada cinematographers include: B. V. Madhusudhan (Daari Tapida Maga), D.