Cinema - the word itself says a thousand tales. And if its Indian cinema, then the tales is even more exciting, even more tempting! A nation home to the largest film industry in the entire world, India produces thousands of films every year, in almost all the Indian languages. Apart from the dominating Hindi film industry, India boasts of Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Bhojpuri and Malayalam film industries where movies are made in large numbers. Movies are also made in Assamese, Marathi, Odiya, Punjabi and many other languages.

After remaining in the background for years, regional cinema is now emerging out of the shadows of Bollywood. Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh have been doing a fantabulous job by giving one after another hit. In fact, Bollywood gets its inspiration from them on many occasions. Many Hindi movies have already been remade from these two industries. The Tamil film industry is popularly known as Kollywood and shares a very significant position in the Indian film industry. Last year the Kollywood marked a record high, when the film ‘Shivaji: The Boss’ starring Tamil superstar Rajnikanth and Shriya Saran did a wonderful job at the box office. This blockbuster by S Shankar made many big Bollywood films look stale in front of it. In the current year also, we have seen some top grossing Tamil films like ‘Dasavathaaram’, ‘Anjathey’, ‘Santhosh Subramaniam and ‘Yaaradi Nee Mohini’. But the big news for the Rajnikanth lovers is that he is all set for shooting for S Shankar’s big budget ‘Robot’ this month. Bollywood beauty Aishwarya Rai is also going to act in a crucial role in the film. The movie has musical score by A R Rahman. Meanwhile his full-length animated movie 'Sultan - The Warrior' is shaping up fast.

Noted Hollywood producer Ashok Amritraj has approached Tamil superstar Ajith with his offer of making him the hero for the Tamil remake of the superhit Hindi film ‘Race’ Attracted by the storyline, Ajith has expressed his consent to act in the film. Meanwhile, 'Aegan', the next venture of Ajith is also a remake of the Bollywood super hit movie ‘Main Hoon Naa’. 'Aegan' is nearing its completion.

Tollywood or Telugu film industry also eats a major part of the pie when it comes to the popularity of the films in the country. Some Telugu films that have been completed or on the verge of completion are ‘Bhale Dongalu’, ‘Bujjigadu’, ‘Chintakayala Ravi’, ‘Gamyam’, ‘Jalsa’, ‘Kantri’, ‘King’, ‘Kotha Bangaru Lokam’, ‘Krishna’, ‘Kathanayakudu’, ‘Ontari’, ‘Vaana’, ‘Victory’, ‘Idi Sangathi’, ‘Kalidasu’, ‘Aapada Mokkulavaadu’, ‘Andamaina Mansulo’ ‘Aatadistha’ etc. Now moving towards the East, it seems like Bengali films are made only for winning awards.

Boasting of some of the big names (directors) like Rituparno Ghosh, Aparna Sen, Bikram Ghosh etc. Bengali films have taken film direction to a newer level. ‘Chokher Bali’, ‘Antarmahal’, ‘Bhalo Theko’ are some of the names of recent hits from the Bengali film industry. Moving further East, Assam is also a home for producing some of national award winning films. Jahnu Barua is one such director who has also made a big impression in Bollywood after curving a niche for himself in the Assamese film industry. ‘Dinabondhu’, ‘Kadamtole Krishno Nache’ are some of the few assamese films that have won national awards.

The growth in regional filmmaking is taking the same route that the newspaper or the television industry has taken following influx of funds. Niche is the way to go in a fast globalizing world. It is projected that regional cinema will play a key role in fulfilling optimistic forecasts of the potential of the country's movie industry.