Lighting unit and projection display apparatus

A lighting unit provided with a light source unit having a plurality of solid state light sources that emits same color component lights, the lighting unit comprising:

• a light source controlling unit configured to control, in accordance with an image input signal, a light amount of the same color component lights emitted from the plurality of solid state light sources, and
• an acquiring unit configured to acquire, in accordance with the image input signal, a speckle degree that indicates a degree to which the same color component lights generate a speckle in an image, wherein
• the light source controlling unit includes:
• a first control mode that averagely lowers the light amount of the same color component lights emitted from the plurality of solid state light sources, and
• a second control mode that preferentially lowers a light amount of a same color component light emitted from a solid state light source that has an unfavorable light emission efficiency among the plurality of solid state light sources, and
• the light source controlling unit changes a control ratio between the first control mode and the second control mode, in accordance with the speckle degree acquired by the acquiring unit.