After making waves in Tollywood, reigning Telugu actresses like Rashmika Mandanna, Sreeleela, Krithi Shetty and Pooja Hegde, are making a beeline to Kollywood to expand their fan base. These top rung divas set to enthrall Tamil audiences in the days to come. Is it due to the death of offers in Tollywood. “I don’t think so,’ says ace producer Vishnu Induri, who made Tamil and Telugu movies. “Probably, they have some dates to spare and are doing Tamil films since there is nothing wrong in expanding their brand equity," he adds. For instance, Rashmika has done films with Vijay (Varisu) and Karthi (Sulthan) and is now going to work with Sivakarthikeyan in ‘Boss’. Similarly, Pooja Hegde is returning to Kollywood with a film with Suriya after doing Tamil film ‘Beast’ with Vijay,. “Actresses have to be multilingual to keep their careers going. Besides, Telugu films breached regional boundaries and Telugu actresses are bound to be noticed. Thereafter, they would be flooded with offers from Kollywood or Bollywood, so it is a good time for Telugu divas,’ he points out.
In fact, 20-year-old Krithi Shetty who rose to fame in Tollywood with ‘Uppena’ is doing more than three films in Tamil and working with stars like Karthi, Jayam Ravi and Pradeep Ranganathan. “She shared screen space with Telugu stars like Naga Chaitanya and Ram Pothineni, now expanding her footprint in Kollywood. Moreover, all these actresses are pretty looking and talented too, so bound to get offers opposite new-age Tamil actors,” points out Vishnu.
Sharing a different take on top-league Telugu actresses signing up for Tamil movies, producer Lagadapati Sridhar adds, “Most of the Telugu stars have no dates to spare this year and top-rung divas have to look for greener pastures,” he says. He further claims that most Tamil films are getting released in Telugu and the regional barriers have been breached. “Big Tamil films are bound to be dubbed in Telugu and they are going to be in touch with Telugu viewers too. These days, language and regional barriers have disappeared since Tamil and Telugu films are designed as pan-India,’ he points out.
