India: A Cinema of Many Tongues

By Bhavika Lingutla

For decades, global pop culture and the West especially have reduced Indian cinema to a single word: Bollywood. With large-budget Hindi films, glamorous dance numbers, and utopian portrayals of urban families, Bollywood has become the main export of Indian cinema. 

But treating Hindi commercial cinema as the primary form of Indian film ignores one of the world’s most diverse film industries. India produces thousands of films in dozens of different languages, each with their own unique cultural backgrounds.

We must look beyond Hindi films to understand how Indian cinema operates as a whole, and we must follow how regional film industries challenge dominating powers and create their own unique stories and visual styles.

Bollywood’s monopoly didn't happen by accident. Its roots trace back to the strategic, post-independence nation-building of the 1950s. After India gained independence from Britain in 1947, Hindi cinema centered in Bombay (now Mumbai) was used by the government and commercial film industry to build a sense of national unity. Early post-colonial films aimed to unite the divided and ethnically diverse population through shared ideals of modernization.

However, the sense of a “national” screen meant that Hindi cinema only focused on a particular elite within society, representing only specific socioeconomic classes and glossing over cultural differences between various languages and regions. 

These glamorous, idealized films also created rigid standards of virtue, patriarchy, beauty, and the appearance of success. One such example of this is colorism, where only actors and actresses with fair skin had the roles of protagonists and love interests. If people with darker skin were even included, they were usually villains, and this is something we still see the impact of in the Indian film industry today. These standards were impossible for most people to attain. 

Regional films would often go unnoticed. However, they had their own unique ways of challenging the mainstream film industry.

The cinema movement in Bengal during the 1950s, led by Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak, and Mrinal Sen, challenged commercialized films to produce powerful commentary on social issues. Southern film industries began using film as a way to challenge political issues such as caste ideologies and celebrate their language.

Indian cinema has never been a single entity, and it has always been extremely diverse. With the vast array of cultures, languages, and artistic styles within India, regional industries have always been fighting to share their unique stories.

Today, the rising popularity of regional cinema marks a transition from one national narrative to cultural celebration. Industries such as Telugu (Tollywood), Malayalam (Mollywood), Tamil (Kollywood), Marathi, and Bengali cinema have their own unique creative directions with their own large audiences. Each offers unique storytelling techniques and film styles, and dubbing allows viewers to enjoy films from various industries without facing language barriers.

Telugu cinema has rewritten the rules of scale, spectacle, and narrative myth in film. Based in Hyderabad, Tollywood has become a new epicenter of Indian cinema. While Telugu cinema is known globally for its epic, high-concept films such as “RRR” and “Baahubali,” its real power comes from its versatility. Alongside these grand blockbusters, there are many emerging independent filmmakers creating realistic indie films, insightful commentaries on political issues, and coming-of-age films. Popular themes include the relationship between land and rural communities, caste issues, and the struggles faced by young individuals in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

The Malayalam industry focuses on realistic storytelling, complex characters, and local stories. Rather than using artificial sets or hero worship, Mollywood focuses on real life. Themes often include exploring migrant workers in the Gulf, struggles with patriarchy in domestic relationships, and exploring the tension between tradition and modernity in Kerala. Films feature strong character development, intimate drama, and realistic acting, treating ordinary human experience as worthy of cinematic focus.

Meanwhile, Tamil cinema has become one of the most politically powerful spaces on screen, driven by a strong group of anti-caste and social realist filmmakers. Directors such as Pa. Ranjith, Mari Selvaraj, and Vetrimaaran are challenging caste issues, police brutality, land issues, and state violence. Films like “Karnan” and “Dorothy” challenge the status quo and provide a voice for the marginalized, combining with folklore and local music.

From the existential character studies of Marathi independent cinema to the century-old legacy of Bengali art-house film, regional industries show that Indian storytelling can be decentralized.

Of course, all these industries still feature the familiar rendition of the heartfelt rom-com or the feel-good comedy, but it is where they step out of the norm that we can begin to see what makes each one culturally unique.

These industries are just a few of the many present in the subcontinent. From Assamese and Manipuri cinema in the Northeast, which explore indigenous identity and ecological grief, to Punjabi, Kannada, Gujarati, and Odia cinema, Indian film occupies a diverse landscape of storytelling.

The notion of Bollywood as a proxy for “Indian culture” existed because it created an exotic, flashy, cookie-cutter image of a single national identity. The rise of regional cinema pushes back against this monoculturalism, bringing attention to localized struggles and reminding us that there are many voices in many languages across such a vast country with stories to tell.

By engaging with all kinds of films that challenge power, represent marginalized voices, and reflect true diversity, we move closer to a culture that embraces the full, complex spectrum of South Asian life.