Tamil cinema, also known as Kollywood or K-Town, is the segment of Indian cinema dedicated to the production of motion pictures in the Tamil language, a widely spoken language in the state of Tamil Nadu. It is nicknamed Kollywood, a portmanteau of the names Kodambakkam, a neighbourhood in Chennai, and Hollywood. The first Tamil silent film, Keechaka Vadham, was directed by R. Nataraja Mudaliar in 1918. The first Tamil talking feature film, Kalidas, a multilingual directed by H. M. Reddy was released on 31 October 1931, less than seven months after India's first talking motion picture Alam Ara.

The Cinema of India, consisting of motion pictures made by the Indian film industry, has had a large effect on world cinema since 2nd half of 20th century. Indian cinema is made up of various film industries, including Hindi cinema, which makes motion pictures in the Hindi language and is one of the biggest film industries in the country. In 2021, Telugu cinema became the largest film industry in India in terms of box-office. Major centers of film production across the country include Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata, Kochi, Bangalore, Bhubaneswar-Cuttack and Guwahati. For a number of years the Indian film industry has ranked first in the world in terms of annual film output. In 2022, Indian cinema earned ₹15,000 crore at the box-office.