South Indian Cinema, simply referred to as ‘South Cinema’, is a collective term for Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, and Kannada films. Of them, Telugu films have the biggest market, with over 1500 screens spread across Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. Yet it is Tamil cinema that has had a decades-long association with making movies at record budgets. Read on to understand this paradox.

Rajinikanth, a legendary actor of Tamil Cinema.
Rajinikanth, an icon of Tamil Cinema.

Yes, Kollywood is smaller compared to its Telugu counterpart in India. Yet there are three factors that give them an enviable edge over their neighbouring industries. They are having a strong base in Kerala, Telangana, and Andhra Pradesh and a massive overseas market.

In terms of language and culture, Kerala has a strong relationship with Tamil, so much so that 75% of Malayalees can understand it while 50% of them can speak it. The icing on the cake is that Malayalam cinema doesn’t produce masala entertainers like Tamil. These factors propelled Malayalees to watch a lot of Tamil content, thus creating a market there.

Kamal Hassan-starrer Vikram (2022) raked in 40 crore INR and holds the record for the highest grossing Tamil film at the Kerala box office.

The second factor that gives Tamil films an edge over others is their distribution of dubbed content. Tamil films (in their dubbed versions) have great demand in Telugu. The fact that Rajinikanth and Suriya enjoy a huge fan following in Telugu states speaks for itself. Admittedly, this sort of success couldn’t be replicated in Hindi. Yet, Hindi-dubbed Tamil films enjoy great viewership when aired on television.

Jailer (2023), the latest Rajinikanth-starrer, minted a mammoth 80 crore INR in its Telugu version alone.

The third and most significant factor is the huge overseas market for Tamil films. With an estimated valuation of 250 crore INR, it’s bigger than the other three overseas markets put together! Here’s a simple explanation of the same. Unlike Telugu, Kannada, and Malayalam, whose overseas markets are concentrated in a single geographical location, Kollywood’s overseas market is spread across the length and breadth of the globe. It should be noted that these markets took birth solely because of Tamilians migrating and settling there. Some of the main international territories for Tamil films are

    • Singapore

    • Malaysia

    • Indonesia

    • Sri Lanka

    • Japan

    • The Middle East (UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Oman)

    • Australia

    • New Zealand

    • Canada

    • France

This is a testament to Tamil Cinema's popularity in Japan.
A Japanese couple in Chennai to watch Jailer (2023).

To conclude, these are the three parameters: having strong bases in Kerala, Telangana & Andhra Pradesh and huge overseas market, which worked wonders for Tamil producers and propelled them to make high-budget films with grand songs, special effects, and technical finesse.

Shankar S., a prolific director in Tamil, is known for making high-budget films. The majority of his ventures, which include Jeans (1998), Indian (1996), Anniyan (2005), Shivaji (2007), Enthiran (2010), and 2.0 (2018), were most expensive Indian films during their times.

Shankar. S met Tamil Cinema's icon, Rajinikanth.
Shankar. S at Rajinikanth’s residence.