Cinema of India

The cinema of India consists of films produced across India, which includes the cinematic cultures of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, Assam, Gujarat, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Manipur, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, and Bollywood among others. Indian films came to be followed throughout Southern Asia, the Greater Middle East, Southeast Asia, and the former Soviet Union. Cinema as a medium gained popularity in the country and as many as 1,600 films in various languages of India were produced annually.Dadasaheb Phalke is known as the father of Indian cinema. The Dadasaheb Phalke Award, for lifetime contribution to cinema, was instituted in his honour, by the Government of India in 1969, and is the most prestigious and coveted award in Indian cinema.

In the 20th century, Indian cinema, along with the Hollywood and Chinese film industries, became a global enterprise. As of 2013, in terms of annual film output, India ranks first, followed by Nollywood,Hollywood and China. In 2012, India produced 1,602 feature films. Indian film industry reached overall revenues of $1.86 billion (INR 93 billion) in 2011. This is projected to rise to $3 billion (INR 150 billion) in 2016. Enhanced technology paved the way for upgrading from established cinematic norms of delivering product, altering the manner in which content reached the target audience. Visual effects based, super hero science fiction, and epic films like Enthiran, Baahubali, Krrish emerged as blockbusters. Indian cinema found markets in over 90 countries where films from India are screened.

List of highest-grossing Indian films

This is a ranking of the highest grossing Indian films which includes films from various languages based on the conservative global box office estimates as reported by reputable sources. There is no official tracking of figures and sites publishing data are frequently pressured to increase their estimates.

During the 1940s cinema in South India accounted for nearly half of India's cinema halls which had grown to 75% of all film revenues in India as of 2009. Indian films have been screened in markets around the world since the early 20th century. As of 2003, there are markets in over 90 countries where films from India are screened. During the first decade of the 21st century, there was a steady rise in the ticket price, a tripling in the number of theaters and an increase in the number of prints of a film being released, which led to a large increase in the box office collections.

The figures are not adjusted for inflation. Adjusted for inflation, estimates for the 1975 film Sholay reach as high as ₹3.00 billion (US$44 million).