Tamil actress Priyamani has stated that Bollywood keeps portraying ‘South Indians’ in stereotypical roles, as people who just speak Hindi with an accent. Discussing how the Hindi movie industry had failed to provide a proper representation of the county’s south in movies so far, the ‘Family Man’ actress has stated that in Bollywood movies, there has been a dearth of proper representation of characters from the country’s southern half.
Priyamani further stated that there was a time when actresses from the South like Sridevi, Hema Malini, Rekha and Vyjayanthimala used to rule the silver screen in the Hindi film industry, but it all stopped. She added that over the years, the representation of ‘South India’ in Bollywood has been reduced to portraying characters who just do not speak Hindi the normal way, characters whose job is to say things like “Aiyo, kaisa ji, kya bolta ji”.
Speaking to an entertainment portal, Priyamani also expressed pleasure in the fact that slowly, things are changing. She added that eventually, it started with South industry technicians being brought to work on Hindi movies. Many of them made their mark successfully.
“Right now, I’m very happy that finally South talent is also getting recognised here in Bollywood and South stars are also getting their due,” the actress said.
Priyamani stated that finally, the South film industry is getting its due, as the Bollywood audiences are appreciating content from the South and popularising South Indian movie stars.
Priyamani is a popular and successful actress. She has acted in dozens of movies in Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu and Kannada. She was seen in Aishwarya-Abhishek starrer Ravan and had done an item song in Shah Rukh Khan-Deepika starrer Chennai Express.
Priyamani also appeared in the popular web series Family Man, where Manoj Bajpayee and Samantha Ruth Prabhu had also played key roles. It streams on Amazon Prime. Priyamani’s upcoming movies are ‘Maidaan’ with Ajay Devgan and Viraat Parvam’ with Rana Daggubati and Sai Pallavi.
