
It’s an imperfect framework to examine a complex, multilingual film culture, but it’s a great way to introduce a tonne of worthy movies to dive into. But rightly or wrongly, the term has come to represent Indian cinema more broadly – taking in everything from the Telugu-language films of Hyderabad to the very un-Bollywood work of Kolkata great Satyajit Ray. This, we know, will upset purists who’ll point out – correctly – that it should only be used to refer to the Hindi film industry based in Mumbai.

For the purposes of this list we’re using it as a catch-all for the full multitude of Indian film industries.


Not as a source of magnificently uplifting movies with great songs and flamboyant costumes – that’s a given – but as a term.
