INDUSTRY

The Telugu cinema industry is based in the state of Andhra Pradesh in India.Chennai was the hub for both Tamil, Telugu cinema until the early 1970s, due to its importance and significance as yesteryear’s capital of South India Madras State . Still many Telugu cinemas are shot in the traditional studios such as AVM. Now Hyderabad is the modern hub of Telugu film industry, while Chennai remains to be the Home of Tamil film industry. The Telugu film industry produces the second most no. of films every year in India, with about 245 films produced in 2006. Popular movies tend to open during the three festive/holiday seasons of the region: Sankranthi,Ugadi and Dussera. In 2004, the total revenue for the Sankranthi season was around 1.5 billion (US$37 million, as of 17 July 2007), greater than that of theHindi film Industry Unlike in other states, there are a number of television channels, especially news channels, dedicated exclusively to feature programs related to Telugu films: these include DD Saptagiri,Maa,Eenadu,Zee Telugu,Teja,MAA Movies, Sitara,Maa Music,LocalTv,DG cable, ATV, GCV, Kushi TV while the Gemini Tv network channels are owned by Kalanithi Maran of theSun Tv network.

Currently, about 150 Telugu films are released every year with approximately 3 productions every week, though more than half of the films prove to be failures just like in any other Indian film industry. Just like any other cinema industry, the Telugu film industry produces all genres of cinema. In 2005, the annual turnover reached 2,550 million ticket sales of 160 crores. Today, Telugu films are distributed to various theatres around the world in countries such as the USA, theUK,Malaysia , Southafrica and Austrila. In the USA, Telugu cinema has a huge revenue in the form of NRIs.