ABSTRACT
South India is the largest producer of films in India.1 Yet, for many Bolly-
wood, the popular name given to the Mumbai-based Hindi film industry, is
Indian cinema par excellence. That is, the idea of Indian cinema is pro-
foundly determined, reproduced and articulated through the lens of Bolly-
wood owing to its huge commercial success both in India and around the
world (Velayutham 2006). The growing popularity and interests in Bollywood
needs no further elaboration judging by the numerous events and film fes-
tivals devoted to this cinema. Even academic writings on the topic of Indian cinema tend to primarily focus on the story of Hindi cinema/Bollywood.2
The cultural hegemony and dominance of Bollywood within the Indian film
industry has both marginalised and erased the rich complexities and ethno-
linguistic specific cinematic traditions of India.3 With the exception of Bengali
cinema and the work of Satyajit Ray, the other cinemas of India remain in
its shadow. The Urdu, Marathi, Gujarati, Assamese, Malayalam, Kannada,
Telugu and Tamil language film industries, often referred to as regional
cinema, are both under represented and overlooked. The sheer enormity of the Indian film industry, and its complex and heterogeneous composition
along ethno-linguistic identities and territorial lines, necessitate a more sus-
tained and in depth study of each cinema, if we want to further our under-
standing of what is termed Indian cinema.
