Kollywood
Also called: Tamil cinema, Tamil film industry
Kollywood is the popular nickname for the Tamil-language film industry of India. The name is a portmanteau of 'Kodambakkam' — the Chennai neighbourhood that historically housed the industry's major studios — and 'Hollywood'. While the term is widely used in journalism and on social media, many Tamil filmmakers and audiences prefer simply 'Tamil cinema' to avoid the implied junior-partner relationship to American film. Kollywood is one of the four largest language industries in Indian cinema (alongside Hindi, Telugu, and Malayalam), produces roughly 200–300 films a year, and has a global theatrical footprint covering Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore, the Gulf, the UK, and North America. Major studios and corporate producers continue to operate from the Kodambakkam-T. Nagar belt, even as production has spread to OMR and electronic-city studios.