Tamil cinema
Tamil cinema, the film industry producing films in the Tamil language, is centered in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, particularly in the Chennai neighbourhood of Kodambakkam, which led to the industry being nicknamed as
Kollywood, a portmanteau of Kodambakkam and Hollywood. Tamil films are also produced in Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore and Canada. The first silent film in Tamil,
Keechaka Vadham was made by R. Nataraja Mudaliar in 1916. The first talkie was a multi-lingual
Kalidas which released on 31 October 1931, barely 7 months after India's first talking picture
Alam Ara By the end of the 1930s, the legislature of the State of Madras passed the Entertainment Tax Act of 1939. 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. In its modern era, Tamil films from Chennai have been distributed to various overseas theatres in Singapore, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Malaysia, Japan, Oceania, the Middle East, Western Europe, and North America.