We humans, the most intelligent beings to ever grace this planet, have quite a few beliefs that are actually incorrect. Earlier we used to believe that the Earth was flat until Pythagoras blew us out of the water. We also thought that trees were non-living beings but then Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose proved us wrong. Heck, some people still don't know that the tomato is actually a fruit!

Beliefs, whether they be correct or incorrect, are something that is intrinsically present in our lives, but before we take anything at face value, we should verify its legitimacy.

One common belief that most people take for granted is that the term Bollywood refers to the Indian film industry. This opinion is not something that's believed only by some non-Indians, but also by quite a large part of the populace residing within India as well. These people, who think that Bollywood is a metonym for the Indian film industry, could not be any more incorrect. In fact, most Fanpop users are of this idea because the motto on the Bollywood page on Fanpop reads, " Indian movie industry".



Unlike Hollywood, which refers to the American film industry, Bollywood refers only to the Hindi language films that are produced in India. For those who are unaware, India is a land of diversity, and when I say diverse, I really mean diverse!

Thanks to the massive size of the country, a whole host of cultures exist in different geographical locations. Another reason why India is so diverse is its location on the Earth. The country of India was born from the Indus Valley Civilization, one of the three Old World civilizations that spawned in the Bronze Age.

Due to the strategic location of India, numerous tribes settled here to give rise to a modern day country that has an unparalleled plethora of culture! And because of the existence of so many cultures spread all over the massive country, there is an existence of hundreds of languages.

India, by constitution, has 22 official languages along with 27 other languages that have more than one million speakers, even though they are not given official status.

The Indian film industry, therefore, is greatly influenced by the existence of these languages and cultures which simply means that there is, more or less, a film industry for every language!



In fact, the term "Indian film industry", is actually null and void, because there is no Indian film industry. There is a Hindi film industry, a Tamil film industry, a Bengali film industry and almost 20 other notable film industries all operating inside India.

Some might argue that Bollywood is the biggest film industry in India. That statement though, would also be incorrect as the Hindi film industry is actually the third biggest film industry in India after the Telugu and Tamil film industries.

According the Central Board of Film Certification in India, the Hindi film industry released a total of 263 films in the year 2014. The Tamil film industry though released 326 films while the Telugu film industry released a whopping 349 films! In total, all of the film industries in India together produced almost 1800 films in 2014. Hollywood on the other hand produced something between 800 to 1000.

So, the next time you hear someone mistaking Bollywood to be the Indian film industry, seize the opportunity to become a Pythagoras in your own right and let them know that they're mistaken because beliefs, if incorrect, must be broken.