Why Indian Cinema Stars Want to Move Beyond the Bollywood Tag

• Amitabh Bachchan, Jackie Shroff and Shabana Azmi have previously criticised “Bollywood” as a derivative term linked to Hollywood.
• Mahesh Bhatt and Bejoy Nambiar have defended or accepted “Bollywood”, arguing that the label does not determine the quality of films.
• The term “Bollywood” has appeared in Oxford dictionaries for more than two decades and is derived from Bombay and Hollywood. ([India Today][1])
• Chiranjeevi backed the idea and said Hyderabad should become a hub for all forms of cinema.
• Kamal Haasan called for the elimination of labels such as Bollywood, Tollywood, Kollywood and Mollywood in favour of “Indian cinema” at the Telangana Gaddar Film Awards.

The debate over how Indian cinema should describe itself has gained fresh momentum after Kamal Haasan and Chiranjeevi called for the industry to move beyond labels such as “Bollywood” and “Tollywood” and adopt a broader identity as “Indian cinema”.

Kamal Haasan made the appeal while accepting the Paidi Jairaj Award at the Telangana Gaddar Film Awards 2025 in Hyderabad on March 19, 2026. Addressing Telangana Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy, he called for the boundaries between the country’s regional film industries to be removed, saying there should be “one” cinema identified as Indian cinema.

Chiranjeevi, who received the NTR National Award at the same ceremony, supported the idea. He said Hyderabad should become a hub for different forms of cinema and argued that Indian cinema could attract filmmakers from around the world.

The remarks revive an older argument within the film industry over the word “Bollywood”. Critics have long objected to the term because it combines Bombay, the former name of Mumbai, with Hollywood. The word entered Oxford dictionaries in the early 2000s; contemporary reports described it as a colloquial term for India’s popular film industry based in Bombay.

Why ‘Bollywood’ remains controversial

Amitabh Bachchan has previously argued that “Bollywood” presents Hindi cinema as an offshoot of Hollywood rather than as an industry with its own identity. In comments supplied for this report, he described the term as derivative and said he was prepared to pursue its removal from descriptions of Indian cinema.

Jackie Shroff has similarly argued for simply calling the sector the Indian film industry, while Shabana Azmi has criticised the Hollywood comparison and said she had objected to the term for more than two decades.

Priyadarshan has framed the issue in broader cultural terms, arguing that the continued use of Western references reflects a tendency to seek validation from the West. He has advocated replacing “Bollywood” with terminology that better reflects Indian cinema’s own cultural identity.

The objection also extends beyond Hindi cinema. Kamal Haasan’s call at the Telangana awards encompassed “Tollywood”, “Kollywood”, “Bollywood” and “Mollywood”, reflecting his argument that India’s industries should not be treated as separate identities built around Hollywood-style naming conventions.

Not everyone sees the label as a problem

The proposal has never commanded unanimous support.

Mahesh Bhatt has dismissed the controversy as largely semantic, arguing that the name of an industry does not determine the quality or emotional impact of its films. Bejoy Nambiar has taken a similarly relaxed position, acknowledging that the word is derivative but saying he has come to accept it because it has become synonymous with Hindi cinema.

That divide highlights the central question behind the debate: whether “Bollywood” is merely a widely understood shorthand or whether its Hollywood-derived construction carries an implication of cultural dependence.

The distinction is also important because “Bollywood” is not synonymous with Indian cinema as a whole. The term is generally used for the Hindi-language film industry associated with Mumbai, while India has major film industries working in numerous languages and regions.

From a word debate to a wider industry identity

Kamal Haasan and Chiranjeevi’s intervention takes the discussion beyond Hindi cinema. Their call is for a common Indian identity that brings the country’s different film industries under one broader description.

Chiranjeevi linked that ambition to Hyderabad’s potential role as a global filmmaking centre, while the Telangana government has separately said it wants to develop Hyderabad as a major cinema hub. At the Gaddar Film Awards ceremony, the state government also highlighted measures intended to streamline film-related permissions and strengthen Telangana’s position in the industry.

The argument therefore involves more than replacing one nickname with another. For its critics, “Bollywood” represents an outdated framework in which Indian cinema is defined in relation to Hollywood. For its defenders, it is simply an established shorthand whose meaning has evolved independently of its origins.

For now, “Bollywood” remains firmly embedded in popular and international usage. The latest comments from Kamal Haasan and Chiranjeevi, however, show that some of Indian cinema’s most prominent figures continue to question whether that label should remain the industry’s preferred identity.