Southern movies dominate the Indian filmdom, dwarfing Bollywood in turns of box-office hits, number of movies made every year and revenue! Can you believe it? Believe it or not, films made in the four South Indian languages—Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam—account for more than three-fourths of the country’s total revenues from film content in 2008-09, generating more than Rs 1,700 crore.

According to Ernst & Young's report to FICCI report, which was released on Wedenesday at the ongoing convention on the business of entertainment in Asia (FICCI Media and Entertainment Business Conclave), the Telugu film industry makes more movies than the whole of Hindi films. Last year, 230 Telugu films were released.

In terms of overall revenues, Telugu and Tamil cinema account for approximately 45% each (around Rs. 770 crore), while the Malayalam cinema accounts for 8% (Rs. 140 crore) and Kannada for 2% (Rs. 50 crore).

Among the various revenue streams, domestic theatrical revenues is the most dominant, accounting for nearly three-fourths (around Rs. 12.6 billion) of the total revenues earned. Revenues from cable and satellite (C&S) television rights come next in the list, contributing around Rs. 3 billion (17% of the total revenue pie), followed by revenues from international theatrical rights, which contribute around Rs. 0.9 billion or 5% of the total revenue pie.

Other revenue streams, namely, music rights, domestic home video rights, Internet and mobile rights, etc. contribute an aggregate of around Rs. 0.8 billion or 5% of the total revenues earned. South Indian film industry is one of the few in the country to attract masses to theatres and they were able to show movies for a long time in theatres. For instance, Tamil and Telegu movies don’t come to TV at least for an year, whereas across the country, including Hindi, films are telecast within six months, some even within weeks.