How to understand or classify Indian film industry?


Answer: India has a big and vibrant movie industry  producing between 1500 to 2000 movies per year. But not all of them are Bollywood movies - a term given to movies made in Hindi out of Bombay (mumbai). Only 300-500 of the moves are bollywood movies, the rest are made in over 20 different languages in different states of India. Apart from Bollywood ( movies made in Bombay), there is Tollywood (Telegu and Tamil films made in Telangana and TamilNadu), Kollywood ( Movies made in Kolkota in Bengali), Pollywood (movies made in Punjabi in the state of Punjab) , Mollywood ( movies made in Malayalam in the state of Kerala) etc.  

India is a diverse country with each state having its own distinct culture, language and food and now that is reflected in its movies as well.More and more Indians are enjoying different films from across their contries now thanks to not only cinema but newer OTT platforms like  Netflix India, Amazon Prime India, HotStar etc. 

RRR is a prime example of a Tollywood regional film winning a few oscars this year - and  it is important to note that it is NOT a bollywood or a hindi film. 

So this is usual way to classify the film industry in India - apart from other classifications like Art films or mainstream films.