Regional Cinema in India
India is a large country where many languages are spoken. According to the 1991 Census of India there are about 10,400 'raw mother tongues' in India.If closely related and mutually comprehensible dialects are grouped, the number can be reduced to 114 main languages. These 114 languages are the ones surveyed in the Indian census. Indian film producers have made films in thirty of the largest languages. However, only the very largest language groups support major regional industries. These are: Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Marathi, Kannada, Odiya & Malayalam. Official statistics categories Indian films according to the languages in which they are distributed. Masala movies are made both in regional and Bollywood film industry. But regional films constitute of high percentage in parallel cinema. The regional cinema, obviously in majority formed the alternate cinema. Ever since the decline of regional cinema throughout the nation, and the dying out of the parallel movement, t...