Why South Indian Heroes Not Accepted in Bollywood?

Bollywood has always welcomed South Indian actresses with an open arm, but rarely accommodates its male stars.From as early as the 1960s, actresses such as Vyjayanthimala, Hema Malini, Rekha, Sridevi, Jayaprada and recently Asin have successfully migrated to Mumbai. At the same time, almost all top south Indian superstars of the 1980s such as Kamal Haasan, Rajinikanth and Chiranjeevi had met with some degree of success, but could never establish themselves in Bollywood. Malayalam superstars mamotty and Mohanlal too failed to make an impact. Neither could the new generation actors like Tamil superstar Suriya (Rakthacharitra- 2010), Telugu star Siddharth (Rang De Basanti- 2006), upcoming Telugu hero Rana Daggubati (Dum Maaro Dum- 2011), and Sudeep (Makkhi) find their feet in Hindi cinema. And the latest to join the list, early this month, was Malayalam actor Prithviraj who made his Hindi film debut opposite Rani Mukerjee in Aiyya which turned out to be a disaster. The only south Indian actor who has been able to draw a fine line between his Hindi and Tamil film career is Madhavan (Rang De Basanti, 3 Idiots & Tanu Weds Manu). .He was able to successfully do Hindi films due to his mastery over the language.One of the reason south Indian heroes not being acceptable is their skin-colour and their inability to speak in Hindi in the familiar accent. Says a top south Indian cameraman who has worked in a lot of Hindi films: "Let us face it - our Dravidian heroes are known more for their acting abilities than the accepted looks in Bollywood. If you have to be accepted as a mass star by Hindi audiences, you have to look like them. On the other hand, the southern girls who have made it big have fair complexion and can pass of as North Indians." . With the disasturous debut of Prithviraj, one has to wait and see the fate of Ram Charan and Dhaunsh.Says a popular Tamil journalist: "Our south Indian heroes think that they will get a pan Indian audience if they do Hindi films, which will help them to increase their salary. But in reality those who tried to enter Bollywood have fallen between two stools. They were not accepted by north Indian audiences and the Tamil version of the film got rejected by their fans. Why is it that there are no buyers for Kamal Haasan's forthcoming Vishwaroop, in which he had brought in Hindi actors in supporting roles?

I think people are too shallow.. alot of people don't care about how good the person acts they just wanna see a beautiful face which according to me is ridiculous..

Because Definition of Hero is totally different in BW and South. As bollywood tends more on looks rather than acting and talent

Would love to see Surya & Mahesh Babu doing Bolly films... love their style...

I soo wanna see Mahesh babu in BW...bt i think he doesn't care about BW...

I dnt agree about look factor...if look was d criteria...many of dem had gone long back..(.dont wanna take names.)..yes der are sm who are der bcoz of der looks bt not all...😃
Personally i feel d south indian actors smhow dnt give der 100% wen doing a bollywood movie...compare der performances.. and u can see d diff...😊

I like Surya but sadly he couldn't do much in Bollywood. I still prefer his Ghajini over Aamir Khan's

I somehow think its not about how southern stars looks. Accent yes but not looks, as there are many in bolly who aren't conventional good looking stars. It's the connect a Hindi movie star makes with its audience that is lacking in south stars. Why they are not able to connect to Hindi audiences may have ample reasons. Like their body language, over expressive faces, weird dance step and equally weird dressing sense. I honestly felt Madhavan's character was overtly loud in Rehna Hai TDM. I am in no way undermining their talent, they are immensely talented but its just that sensibilities of audiences is different on both sides. Regarding actresses, they usually adapt better and there are hardly any actress who is simultaneously working in bolly and southern movie industry.

Originally posted by: Mrsimisam

I soo wanna see Mahesh babu in BW...bt i think he doesn't care about BW...

is this the same guy who was in south's "Wanted" (film)

south indian stars get paid around 5 crores to 12 crores for their films while actresses get as high as 1 to 2.5 crores. When they enter bollywood they arent paid much.. so that's the reason why they dont enter bollywood.