Bollywood actors mostly play bad guys in south cinema, not sure they’ll be accepted as mainstream hero: Farzi creator

As projects from south cinema like RRR and KGF have become popular globally and in India, artists from all industries are collaborating on many projects. Malayalam actor Fahadh Faasil starred in the Telugu film Pushpa: The Rise (2021) and the Tamil film Vikram (2022). In creators Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK’s Farzi, which releases on February 10, Bollywood actor Shahid Kapoor shares screen space with Tamil actor Vijay Sethupathi. The former plays a con man, who is chased down by Vijay’s police officer in the Prime Video web series. (Also read: Farzi trailer: Shahid Kapoor literally shows how to ‘make money’, can Vijay Sethupathi catch him?)

While many actors from south have starred as mainstream heroes in Bollywood, it hasn’t been the same for Hindi cinema’s leading men. Actors Rajinikanth, Kamal Haasan, and R Madhavan have had many leading roles in Hindi films. While female actors like Taapsee Pannu and Tamannaah Bhatia are able to land leading roles in south cinema, the men haven’t been so lucky.

Speaking about it, in an interview Galatta Plus, Krishna 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.” The filmmaker pointed out actors who transition to south cinema usually get the parts of the bad guys. Some recent actors who have played villains include Sonu Sood and Mukul Dev.

Mainstream heroes like Hrithik Roshan and Shahid Kapoor have starred in any south films. Shahid, who was part of the same Galatta Plus interview stated that he hadn’t been offered any film in another language yet. His co-star Raashii Khanna went on to say, “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.”

Recent blockbuster Pathaan, starring Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika Padukone, has earned over ₹800 crore at the global box office, but it has performed better in states that speak in Hindi. In Andhra Pradesh, Pathaan earned around ₹20 crore in the first week, while it collected around ₹10 crore in Tamil Nadu and Kerala.