Amid Pathaan’s moderate performance in south India, Raashi Khanna doubts acceptance of Bollywood actors in south: ‘Don’t know how well they will be accepted as mainstream hero’
Raj and DK’s upcoming web series Farzi marks the Hindi debut of Tamil star Vijay Sethupathi. Like him, we have seen many actors from the southern film industry being accepted in the north including Rajinikanth, Kamal Haasan, Madhavan, Siddharth and others. However, rarely has any Bollywood actor made it big in the south and actor Raashi Khanna doubts whether any actor from the north will ever be accepted by the audience in the south.
In a new interview, Raashi’s Farzi co-actor Shahid Kapoor was asked about not doing any project in a language besides Hindi. To this Shahid reacted, “I haven’t been offered any film in another language.” His statement prompted Raashi to express her apprehension about the acceptance of north Indian actors in the south.
She told Galatta Plus, “Honestly when it comes to acceptance of male heroes in the north doing a south film, I don’t know how well that will be accepted in the south, that too as a mainstream hero.” This made filmmaker DK from the Raj and DK duo point out how many Bollywood actors have essayed the roles of villains in south Indian films and even Bollywood actresses have starred in movies in the south.
DK said, “There are a lot of villains in Tamil and Telugu who are from the north. All our actors here have gone there and played bad guys including Manoj Bajpayee.” Vijay Sethupathi, who was also a part of the conversation, tried to reason that maybe it is because of the types of stories that are being made in Tamil and Telugu cinema.
The same goes for the success of Hindi films in the southern part of the country. The latest box office hit Pathaan has not performed as well in Tamil and Telugu-speaking states as it did in Hindi-speaking states. While it earned around Rs 20 crore in the first week in Andhra Pradesh, it collected somewhere around Rs 10 crore in Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
