When it comes to the cinema of India, Tollywood vs. Bollywood can be a bit confusing to newcomers, but it’s a fascinating dichotomy. Hollywood may be the center of movie-making in the world, but other countries are not far behind. From Germany with their horror and expressionism to French New Wave to Academy Award-winning films coming out of South Korea, cinema is not only an American-owned product, despite how much the industry produces. And India has a massive filmmaking market that is rapidly gaining mainstream attention in North America.

Better known as Bollywood, the Indian film industry has a tradition nearly as old as Hollywood with its own idiosyncrasies, styles, and fanbase. The term “Bollywood” generally brings to mind over-the-top stunts, giant musical numbers, and genre-switching plots that feature characters involved in melodramatic storylines. These films are known as “masala”, referring to a blend of spices in Indian dishes. Recently, another wing of the Indian film industry has been making waves thanks to movies like RRR. Tollywood is similar to Bollywood, but certain differences define each.

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The T In Tollywood Comes From Telugu

Tollywood, like Bollywood, is a portmanteau of “Hollywood” and, in the case of “Tollywood”, “Telugu”. Telugu is the language spoken in the areas of India where Tollywood developed and currently produces from. Unlike American cinema, where regions don’t necessarily determine what kind of movies are produced in them, India’s film industries have developed along regional lines, leading to some differences. Tollywood is based out of the southeast states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana where Telugu is spoken as the third most spoken language in India after Hindi and Bengali (via Stillman Translations).

Bollywood comes from “Hollywood” and “Bombay”, the original name of Mumbai. Unlike Bollywood films, Tollywood films by definition come from the Andhra Pradesh and Telangana states. Bollywood films can come from anywhere in India though they use Hindi as their language which is generally spoken in northern India and is considered lingua franca in all of India.

Bollywood Films Used To Be Grander Than Tollywood

For a time, Bollywood films had much higher production values than their Tollywood cousins. With a much greater pool of viewership and a language more widely spoken, Bollywood films generally had larger movies than those made in Tollywood, in all senses of the word (via Cinemablend). Bollywood films took place in more locations, the musical numbers were greater, and they had grander effects.

Every advantage that a large studio in America would have over a small studio is the same for Bollywood over Tollywood. However, Tollywood is catching up. The Tollywood film Baahubali 2 from 2017 is currently the highest-earning Indian film (via Box Office India). RRR is also an example of Tollywood’s increasing budgets and scope.

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Bollywood Films Were Made Mostly For Hindi-speaking Audiences, Tollywood Films Are Pan-Indian

One of the major differences between Tollywood and Bollywood is the language each movie is made in. Tollywood uses the Telugu language while Bollywood uses Hindi. Both are major national languages, but Hindi is spoken by a greater number of people, 528 million Hindi speakers vs. 81 million Telugu speakers (via World Atlas). However, those are not the only languages spoken in India. There are over 120 languages spoken in the country, with 22 officially recognized by the government (via Rubric).

While Bollywood has been content to make their films only in Hindi, Tollywood has addressed a gap in distribution by making a point to release their films in multiple languages (via Telanga Today). Tollywood uses actors and stars from all over the country and easily dubs them into a variety of Indian languages. Even newer Bollywood Hindi movies are still only targeted at Hindi speakers. Tollywood movies represent a sort of “pan-Indian” filmmaking that is accessible by portions of the Indian population.

Tollywood Films Have A Greater Focus On Action, Bollywood On Music

The “masala” films of Bollywood combine genres. They are filled with action, romance, comedy, music, and melodrama in equal parts. Tollywood movies, on the other hand, have traditionally focused more on action. Modern films like RRR, the Baahubali franchise, Pushpa: The Rise, and Adipurush are some of the higher-earning films to come out of Tollywood, and each is heavily focused on action set pieces. But that isn’t to say that these films don’t have elements of other genres — RRR‘s “Naatu Naatu” is a particularly exciting and catchy musical number.

Conversely, successful Bollywood films come from a wider range of genres. According to Box Office India, some of the most successful Bollywood films include Dangal, a sports movie; Bajrangi Bhaijaan, a dramatic comedy; and PK, a science-fiction satire. Bollywood can be considered more well-rounded than its southern companion with more options for all viewers. However, international audiences generally seem to respond favorably to more action-oriented movies, so Tollywood may have the right idea when it comes to worldwide exposure.

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Bollywood Is Older Than Tollywood, But Not By That Much

Because Bollywood is synonymous with Indian cinema, it may be logical to conclude that Bollywood has been around much longer than Tollywood. However, Tollywood came about only a few years after Bollywood. The first full-length Indian silent movie, Raja Harishchandra, premiered in 1913 and can be considered the start of Bollywood (via History of Film). By the 1930s, over 200 movies were being made a year in India, via National Film Institute. It was around this time that the modern Bollywood industry began to take shape.

Tollywood followed closely behind with Bhishma Pratigna in 1921, which is considered by some to be the first Telugu film (via CBS). Much like Bollywood, Tollywood movies were made in greater numbers starting in the 1930s, but they still lagged behind the much more prosperous Bollywood industry which had a larger audience and more money to work with. The origins of both industries came about simultaneously so it’s difficult to determine how much of an influence one industry had on another.

Bollywood Makes More Money And Produces More Movies Than Tollywood

Despite the recent successes of Tollywood with movies like RRR, Bollywood is still ahead in terms of movies produced and total box office receipts. Bollywood produces more films than Tollywood every year, with data from 2017 indicating that Bollywood was responsible for 364 movies while Tollywood made 294 films (via Film Fed). This tracks with information from earlier years when Bollywood cinema accounted for almost half of the Indian box office while Tollywood films only earned around 36% (via Motion Picture Association).

The Tollywood vs. Bollywood race could be leaning more towards the Tollywood side in recent years, however. According to CBS and the media consulting firm Ormax:

Tollywood vs. Bollywood is not a true battle, considering both industries can coexist side-by-side. Actors and film professionals easily hop from one to the other but the changing dynamics of what is the most powerful industry in India is a fascinating development.