Bollywood Banks on South Divas
By : BVS Prakash
Update: 2024-11-16 06:19 GMT
Top Telugu actresses like Samantha doing the Hindi series ‘Family Man 2’ and ‘Honey Bunny’, while Rashmika Mandanna has proved her mettle in ‘Animal’ and doing another big film ‘Sikandar’ with Salman Khan. Sai Pallavi has completed a Hindi film with Junaid Khan, son of Aamir Khan, which is touted to be a love story and also plays Goddess Sita in the Hindi film ‘Ramayan’. “Telugu actresses are back in the reckoning in Bollywood and they are going to have a great time,” says producer-writer Kona Venkat and adds, “Bollywood has always believed that Telugu and south actresses bring some luck and hailed them as lucky mascots. Rashmika has begun with blockbuster ‘Animal’ and more hits on the anvil from other divas too," he adds.
He claims veteran superstars like Amitabh Bachchan, Dharmendra, and Jeetendra along with Rishi Kapoor have worked with leading Telugu actresses like the late Sridevi, Jayapradha, and Jayasudha are tasted big success. “Jeetendra did more films, but even the biggest stars like Amitabh Bachchan worked with the late Sridevi in ‘Khudha Gawah’ and with Jayapradha in ‘Sharabi’. While Rishi Kapoor had blockbusters like ‘Chandni’, Jeetendra had ‘Tohfa’ and even Anil Kapoor worked with Sridevi and delivered hits like ‘Mr. India’ to mention a few. Telugu actresses were also looking gorgeous in the 80s and 90s and were quite talented too and late Sridevi became a superstar in Hindi, that’s the charm of Telugu movie actresses. No doubt, Jayapradha also proved her mettle in varied movies and tasted success with ''Sargam' and 'Aaj Ka Arjun' in Bollywood,” he points out.
On new-generation actresses like Keerthy Suresh (Baby John), Samyuktha Menon with Prabhu Deva, and Sreeleela are also set to work with Varun Dhawan in the days to come. Is Varun Dhawan, new-age Jeetendra? “Of course, Varun Dhawan is doing films with Samantha and also with Keerthy Suresh but even Ranbir Kapoor has worked with Rashmika and now Salman Khan is wooing Rashmika in his next film ‘Sikandar’ and more south actresses are going to be roped by Bollywood actors and filmmakers since their blockbusters count is slowing down these days,” he points out. He adds, ‘After three or four decades, Telugu divas are shining bright on the Hindi big screen and expanding their fan base,” he adds.
He also claimed that working in a Hindi film gets wider mileage and exposure than doing a Telugu film. “Even today, Hindi film reach and exposure is unmatched the world over and Telugu films fall way behind, despite few pan-India hits,” he informs. After doing one or two Bollywood films, even multinational brands reach out to Telugu actresses and pay them hefty sums. “Any actress who worked in Bollywood films will have an edge in bagging plum brand endorsements since they become more familiar with non-Telugu viewers and could promote a product. It is a win-win situation for both corporate brands and south actresses,” he concludes.