B'wood heroines look forward to South!

Trade analysts are unanimous that the biggest hit in Aishwarya Rai's career is Rajinikanth's Endhiran. The film has given her more reach than any of her Bollywood starrers.

In fact, the film is said to have actually salvaged her career, as all her 2010 releases in Bollywood (Raavan, Action Replayy and Guzaarish) bombed at the box office. Curiously, it was reported during the making of Endhiran that the actress' focus was clearly on her Hindi releases.

However, now, it looks like the wheel has come a full circle. Seeing the phenomenal success of Endhiran, Bollywood heroines are willing to do movies in the south, especially if Rajinikanth is the hero. Recently, Bollywood babes were queuing up to be his heroine for his next film Raana, directed by K S Ravikumar. It is being said that the film's producer soundarya rajinikanth could pick and choose whoever she wanted. Ultimately, the lucky girl was Deepika Padukone, who won over many others lobbying for the role.

Now, the grapevine is abuzz that ace director Selvaraghavan is talking to aishwarya and a few other mumbai stars to play the crucial heroine's role in his next project with Kamal Haasan. K V Anand too is heroine hunting in Bollywood and is rumoured to be talking to Sonam Kapoor and Sonakshi Sinha for his forthcoming film with Suriya, Maatran.

Director Vishnu Vardhan, who is looking for a very glamorous girl for Ajith's Billa 2, says, "Bollywood heroines always have an edge in Tamil commercial cinema. They have the right attitude and style, and can carry the show. For my Billa 2, I need a glamorous-looking heroine to play the mobster's first love. It looks like it will be a heroine from Mumbai, though nothing has been firmed up yet."

A leading director remarks that K-town has always depended on Bollywood imports for heroine roles, "except for a brief period when Asin, Nayanthara and Trisha ruled the roost". "Right now, we have not found worthy replacements for these three actresses and that is why we are going back to big Bollywood heroines. This is bound to create more pressure on Mumbai girls like genelia,sameera and Shriya, who are now being paired with less shining stars," he remarks.

Producer and film industry analyst Allu Sirish says that for Bollywood heroines, a Rajinikanth film is the exception. "For most heroines from Mumbai, producers in the south are money bags. All these heroines are paid a bomb and for them, it is just a source of income, nothing more. I meet so many Mumbai girls every day and every one of them wants to become the next Genelia or Shriya and get a backdoor entry to Bollywood."

A spokesperson of a Chennai-based marketing agency brings in a different angle to the story. "When Bollywood heroines like Aishwarya Rai, deepika and Genelia do films in the south, their endorsement deals double, as there is huge money being spent by Tamil Nadu and Kerala-based jewellery, textile and finance companies to get glam heroines as their brand ambassadors. In short, it is a win-win situation for Bollywood girls when they do Tamil films."