Telugu-language Tollywood takes on India's cinematic powerhouse in Mumbai

Bollywood's musicals and action-packed films have long been India’s major entertainment export. That is fast changing, and the driving force is a parallel film industry that has taken the world by storm: It’s called Tollywood.

The Telugu-language film industry, widely known as Tollywood, is one of India’s many regional movie-producing centers. But it's drawn national and global audiences with its high-adrenaline action movies, mythic storylines and grand visual style. It has carved out its own identity separate from Hindi-language Bollywood by leaning toward star-driven spectacle and large-scale epics.

Tollywood primarily operates out of Hyderabad, which is home to Ramoji Film City. The 674-hectare facility, recognised by Guinness World Records as the world’s largest film studio complex, houses massive film studio complexes, dozens of production houses, warehouses, movie sets and post-production facilities. The industry churns out around 300 films every year — fewer than Bollywood but still enough to make it one of India’s largest regional industries.

Tollywood’s growing exposure was in large part sparked by the coronavirus pandemic, as the rapid expansion of streaming services in India allowed regional films to find wider audiences. That expansion also coincided with Bollywood’s struggle to lure audiences back to theaters amid repetitive storylines and rehashes of hits from other languages.

What has also worked in favour of Tollywood is that it offers a rare balance of high-octane action films and nuanced movies charged with real human drama.

Tollywood is known for its high-energy storytelling, big action set pieces and grand spectacle that are heavy on visual effects. It often blends family drama, action and mythology into movies, increasingly marketed as “pan-India” releases and dubbed in multiple regional languages.

The films, like other big Indian productions, have crowd-pleasing visuals and feature viral songs and dances central to the narrative and usually presented as grand performance set pieces.

Many Tollywood films are also remade in Bollywood, which has become a proven formula to expand Telugu cinema across India. Dubbing — where actors record voiceovers in Hindi or a professional voice artist replaces the track — is also a standard and tested practice that has made Tollywood more accessible.

Telugu culture and social issues

The industry does also produce smaller, low-budget films that tend to focus on stories rooted in Telugu culture. Most of them are set in rural landscapes and explore themes such as social issues, regional cultures and class inequality. Some of those films are sent straight to streaming platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime, where they enjoy a wide reach across India.

In theaters across Hyderabad, viewers will commonly dance, whistle and throw confetti in the air during releases of films. Outside, billboards of major stars are a frequent sight in the city.

Tollywood’s rapid commercial success and audience acceptance over the past decade has reshaped the country’s entertainment landscape and pushed regional cinema further onto the world stage.

Much of its recent success has been credited to S. S Rajamouli, who favors larger-than-life heroes and imaginative filmmaking.

Rajamouli became an international name after “RRR,” or “Rise, Roar, Revolt,” his 2022 three-hour epic set in British India. The sprawling anti-colonial tale became one of India’s biggest hits, a global streaming phenomenon that won an Oscar for best original song. His two-part “Baahubali” series, released in 2015 and 2017, broke box-office records in India and a reedited version combining the two parts, “Baahubali: The Epic,” released in cinemas worldwide just last month.

“Varanasi,” his upcoming adventure film that blends time-travel and Hindu mythology, is expected to release in 2027.

“We set out to do something very big that we all are excited about, and we just hope and pray that audiences across the world you know, embrace it as well,” says S.S. Karthikeya, one of the producers of “Varanasi," who is also Rajamouli's son.