0

Why does Indian movie industry use a portmanteau as a name?

For instance, I never heard of "Hong Kong-wood".

Improve this question
6
  • 1
    Bollywood is a pun of Hollywood, but "Hong Kong-wood" is not. – Thunderforge Jul 15 '17 at 22:50
  • Because Mumbai was Bombay, and Indian film industry wanted to name it something like "Hollywood", so they named it Bollywood, the same way how Tamil movies become Tollywood. – Deepak Kamat Jul 16 '17 at 3:51
  • 1
    You should have a look at this list - List of Hollywood inspired nick names. – Nog Shine Jul 16 '17 at 4:20
  • @DeepakKamat Tollywood is the name of Telugu film industry. Please do some research before commenting. – Omkar Reddy Oct 20 '17 at 4:07
  • Yes, my apologies, I got confused between Telugu and Tamil. – Deepak Kamat Oct 20 '17 at 7:17
2

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bollywood

The name "Bollywood" is a portmanteau derived from Bombay (the former name for Mumbai) and Hollywood (in California), the center of the American film industry.[14]

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Bollywood

Origin and Etymology of bollywood

Bombay (Mumbai), traditional center of the Indian film industry + Hollywood

First Known Use: 1969

Improve this answer
0
0

The term Bollywood was actually second in line after Tollywood, which is used to refer to West Bengal movies and is also a portmanteau (Tollygunge, a city in Calcutta, and Hollywood combined).

Now, the term "Tollywood", according to Wikipedia, dates back to the 1930s, back when India was still under the British rule. During this age, motion pictures first started to emerge in India. The term "tollywood" was mostly informal, only spoken in gossip. Overtime, it became an official, universally accepted term, especially after it got popularized by the Junior Statesman youth magazine.

After "Tollywood" became official, terms like "Bollywood", "Dhallywood", "Pollywood", etc. began to emerge. The "-ollywood" suffix is used to refer to film industries of different languages and countries.

That explains why you never heard of "Hong Kong-wood". It doesn't follow the "-ollywood" format.

Improve this answer
0