Mollywood
Also called: Malayalam cinema, Malayalam film industry
Mollywood is the popular nickname for the Malayalam-language film industry of Kerala. The name is a portmanteau of 'Malayalam' and 'Hollywood'. The industry is small in volume relative to Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu cinema — typically producing 150–200 films a year — but has long had outsized critical influence, both through its parallel-cinema tradition (Adoor Gopalakrishnan, G. Aravindan, Shaji N. Karun) and through its mainstream actors, especially Mohanlal and Mammootty. The 21st-century New Generation movement (Lijo Jose Pellissery, Dileesh Pothan, Mahesh Narayanan, Aashiq Abu) has kept the industry on the global festival circuit while also delivering streaming hits. Production is centred in Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram. As with the other industry portmanteaus, many Malayalam filmmakers prefer 'Malayalam cinema' to 'Mollywood'.