Actually Tamilians are generally too conservative for the Shivani bua BF track - the audience there will not accept a bf for a positive female character, in fact any middle aged lady single or divorced with bf will never be viewed as positive by the ultra conservative south audience. Thats why the heroine wears sarees no matter how young - married women never shown in salwar suit or western dress in Tamil shows. In fact dress is a string motif for vampiness - the vampy bahu will invariably be shown in salwar suit and the ‘other woman’ in western attire.
So while south shows tend to be less regressive in some ways they are very traditional & conservative settings.
This is a very good point, tfs.