Tollywood
Also called: Telugu cinema, Telugu film industry
Tollywood is the popular nickname most commonly used today for the Telugu-language film industry, headquartered in Hyderabad. The term originated in the 1930s as a name for the Bengali film industry of Tollygunge, Kolkata, and remained in use for Bengali cinema for decades. Through the 1990s and 2000s, journalism increasingly applied 'Tollywood' to Telugu cinema, and that usage has now become dominant in mainstream and global coverage. Some writers continue to use 'Tollywood' for Bengali cinema, and the ambiguity occasionally requires disambiguation in academic contexts. The Telugu industry produces around 200–300 films a year and has been India's highest-grossing language industry for several years running, propelled by pan-Indian releases like Baahubali, RRR, and Pushpa.