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Tamil cinema (also referred to as the cinema of Tamil Nadu, the Tamil film industry, or Chennai film industry) is the Chennai–based Tamil language filmmaking industry of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is based in the Kodambakkam district of Chennai, where several Tamil language feature films are produced, which has led to a reference to the district and industry as Kollywood (Tamil: கோலிவுட்), a portmanteau of the words Kodambakkam and Hollywood. Tamil cinema is known for being India's second largest film industry after Bollywood on first and Tollywood on third, in terms of revenue and worldwide distribution.

Silent movies were produced in Chennai since 1916 and the era of talkies dawned in 1931 with the film Kalidas. By the end of the 1930s, the State of Madras legislature passed the Entertainment Tax Act 1939. Tamil Nadu cinema has had a profound effect on the film making industries of India, with Chennai becoming a hub for the filmmaking industries of other languages, including Telugu cinema, Malayalam cinema, Kannada cinema, Hindi cinema, Sinhalese cinema and Sri Lankan Tamil cinema in the 1900s. Tamil–language films are further made in other countries. Today, Tamil films are distributed to various theatres around the world such as in Sri Lanka, Singapore,Canada, South Korea, Malaysia, Mauritius, South Africa, Western Europe, North America, and other significant Tamil diaspora regions