Originally posted by: kallu_be
Till 1948 hyderabad(telangana) was ruled by nizam and the official language was urdu not telugu so people forced to learn urdu and thats the reason telugu in telangana region has its own distinct dialect with many urdu words(which is reducing).
Coming to chennai, it was capital of madras state till 1956 in which coastal andhra and rayalaseema are part of, So Madras people used to be bilingual in telugu and tamil languages and Telugu film industry was based in chennai till late 70's.
Well actually Hema Malini knows telugu becos most of the technicians working as background support in bollywood and tollywood are mostly from south, hyderabad and chennai..
I had the opportunity to speak to hema ji when she visited my restaurant in London in 1998, along with Esha deol. When she knew that i am a Telugu guy, she spoke to me in Telugu and mentioned to me how she learnt telugu.. Her makeup artist was a telugu guy..