Cinema of West Bengal

Cinema of West Bengal
West Bengal Film Center in Kolkata
Number of screens	Approx. 250 in the state of West Bengal
Main distributors	Shree Venkatesh Films Surinder Films Eskay Movies
Produced feature films (2014)
Total	135
Gross box office (2012)
National films	India: ₹100 crore (US$15 million)

The cinema of West Bengal (Bengali: টলিউড) refers to the Indian Bengali language film industry based in the Tollygunge region of Kolkata, West Bengal, India. The origins of the nickname Tollywood, a portmanteau of the words Tollygunge and Hollywood, dates back to 1932. Although the industry's Gross Box-office is smaller, when compared to large market driven industries of the country such as Bollywood, Telugu cinema, and Tamil cinema, the Bengali film industry is known for producing many of Indian cinema's most critically acclaimed global Parallel Cinema and art films, with several of its filmmakers gaining international acclaim, and prominence at the Indian National Film Awards. Modern Bengali cinema is known for re-inventing the cinematic norms from the poetically theoretical to the in-your-face physical and romantic fantasies, that which is evident in the western world.

Ever since Satyajit Ray's Pather Panchali (1955) was awarded Best Human Document at the 1956 Cannes Film Festival, Bengali films frequently appeared in international fora and film festivals for the next several decades. This allowed Bengali filmmakers to reach a global audience. The most influential among them was Satyajit Ray, whose films became successful among European, American and Asian audiences. His work subsequently had a worldwide impact, with filmmakers such as Martin Scorsese,James Ivory,Abbas Kiarostami, Elia Kazan, François Truffaut,Carlos Saura,Isao Takahata,Wes Anderson and Danny Boyle being influenced by his cinematic style, and many others such as Akira Kurosawa praising his work.