Netflix hit RRR by director SS Rajamouli, featuring Ram Charan, Jnr NTR, Ajay Devgn, shows India’s Telugu-language ‘Tollywood’ is no longer in Bollywood’s shadow

Often hot at the heels of Bollywood, the Telugu film industry is transcending geographical, cultural barriers

Indian regional cinema and its Telugu, Tamil films accounted for some 47 per cent of the country’s film revenue in 2019

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Actors Jnr NTR (right), Ram Charan, Alia Bhatt and director SS Rajamouli (left) during the promotion for the film RRR in New Delhi, India. File photo: Pacific Press/Zuma Press/TNS

Published: 4:30pm, 26 Jun 2022Updated: 11:35am, 27 Jun 2022

After years of being in the shadows of its more-popular, better-known counterpart Bollywood, the Telugu film industry, more commonly known as Tollywood, is finally having its moment.

Thanks to dubbing technology and the accessibility of streaming platforms, Telugu films have overcome language and geographical barriers to amass a sizeable fan base in and beyond India. This is no mean feat in a country as complex as India, with numerous languages and dialects.

Student Sudesh Jha, 21, lives in Hindi-speaking Patna, in the eastern state of Bihar, and is a big fan of Indian films. But Hindi films aren’t on his list of top five, which includes Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Tamil films from South India dubbed into Hindi. He streams these films from over-the-top (OTT) platforms like Amazon Prime or Netflix, and watches them on YouTube on his smartphone.

“I like the action, music and style in these movies – very different from Bollywood,” he said.

Tollywood star Jnr NTR and RRR director SS Rajamouli. Photo: Facebook

Hindi films and Bollywood typically dominate the Indian film industry but the south Indian film industry, especially Tamil, Malayalam and Telugu films, are rising in popularity throughout India. A majority of discussions about the Indian film industry usually centre on Bollywood, though regional cinema and its Telugu and Tamil films accounted for some 47 per cent of Indian film revenue in 2019.