From Hollywood to Bollywood, what is the secret of ‘wood’ behind the names of 8 big film industries of India?

India 8 major film industries: If you ever look carefully, you will find a common word at the end of the name of almost every major film industry in the world, ‘Wood’. Hollywood, Bollywood, Tollywood, Kollywood, the names are different, the languages ​​are different but this wood is stuck everywhere. But why so? Is this just a fashion or is there an interesting story hidden behind it? Actually the root of this whole story starts from America. Hollywood, which was once a small area of ​​Los Angeles, gradually became the face of the entire American film industry. The glitter of films, the glamor of stars and big studios, everything became associated with Hollywood. From here the word ‘wood’ became the identity of cinema.

Know how Bollywood got its name?

Now coming to India, the history of cinema in India is more than 100 years old and like the languages, the film industry here is also divided into different colors. Just as Mumbai became the biggest center of Hindi cinema, similarly the name Bollywood was created by combining Bombay and Hollywood. After this, other industries also adopted this formula. Tollywood linked to Telugu and Bengali cinema Its name is also based on a place named Tollygunge in Kolkata. Kollywood of Tamil films, which originated from the Kodambakkam area of ​​Chennai, and Pollywood of Punjabi cinema, each name is associated with some city or area. When you hear the name, you understand which language and region this cinema belongs to.

Everyone made their identity through wood

Not only the big industry, but regional cinema also created its own identity through ‘Wood’. The films of Chhattisgarh were called Chhollywood, Oriya films of Odisha were called Ollywood and Gujarati cinema was called Gollywood, whereas after the partition of India, Pakistan’s film industry started being called Lollywood after the name of Lahore. The interesting thing is that all these names were inspired by Hollywood, but every industry added its own local flavor to it.

Also read: Oscar 2026 nomination list revealed, India’s Homebound did not get place