The Family Man fame filmmaker Krishna DK has recently shared that actors from the Bollywood industry usually go on to play bad guys in south cinema.
Source- Metrosaga
”All our actors here have gone there and played bad guys including Manoj Bajpayee,” DK pointed out. He further opined that Hindi actors who transition to South films end up playing villainous roles, Sonu Sood and Mukul Dev are recent examples.
Over the years, south Indian cinema has imported many Bollywood stars to act as the villain for many reasons. In Rajinikanth’s Petta that came out last year, Nawazuddin Siddiqui played Singaaram, a character who grows up in a Tamil Nadu village and is spiteful of the hero. Nawazuddin is a critically acclaimed actor and he seemed quite convincing in the role.
While talking about Rajnikanth’s movies, we absolutely cannot miss 2.0. In Rajinikanth’s 2.0, Akshay Kumar played the villain called Pakshiraja and this was a strategic choice. While the makers hoped to capture the Hindi market the star also had to be someone who could match the hero’s image among the audience in the south.
Source- Metrosaga
According to a report of The News Minute, actor Anandaraj, who has played the villain in all south Indian languages, says that this has primarily got to do with business. “I have also done other language films. It is mainly to expand the business and actors do it to expand their market. Earlier, this was not the case. As far as the south is concerned, almost all actors take up roles across industries,” he says.
Sonu Sood, Amit Tiwari, Ravi Kishan and Mukesh Rishi are some of the commonly seen villains in Telugu cinema, who are from Bollywood. Sanjay Dutt was the latest addition to the list of mainstream actors who played a antagonist in KGF 2. While many actors from the south have starred as mainstream heroes in Bollywood, it hasn’t been the same for Bollywood’s leading actors due to the north- south divide as well as the subjective popularity.
Stars like Kamal Haasan, and R Madhavan have had many leading roles in Hindi films and gained immense popularity as well. While female actors like Taapsee Pannu and Tamannaah Bhatia who also appear in leading roles in Hindi cinema are able to land leading roles in south cinema, the men as we see haven’t been that lucky.
