Dial Bollywood for K-Town baddies :TOI

Dial Bollywood for K-Town baddies

Sunayana Suresh

The last few months have seen an increased amount of Bollywood actors, some new, some experienced, being called in for 'character roles' which mostly translate to shades of grey. With nearly a dozen actors from Bollywood actors being seen in recent times, this seems to be K-Town's latest fad.
While the last two years saw Sonu Sood as the baddie in Osthe, Jackie Shroff in Aaranya Kaandam and Milind Soman in a few films, this year has seen more actors enter the scene. The most talked about, of course, were the villains in Billa II, Vidyut Jamwal and Sudhanshu Pandey. In fact, Vidyut is also playing baddie in Thuppaki, which stars Vijay.
The reasons, the makers say, is that the two most sought after names from Kollywood, Prakash Raj and Kishore, are already busy with many films. Vetri Maaran, who chose to cast Mumbai-based actor Kay Kay Menon in his upcoming production NH4, says, "We were initially waiting for Kishore to play the role (of a cop). But, he was busy with many other commitments and we eventually looked outside."
Another maker, on the basis of anonymity, says, "Prakash Raj has enough Bollywood and Telugu films in his kitty too, making it hard for him to accept all the offers. As Kishore too does Kannada, Telugu and Malayalam films, we are forced to look outside for options as there haven't been any interesting people in Kollywood."
Tamil flicks are currently underway with Bollywood actors in grey roles include Vishnuvardhan's untitled flick, which has Mahesh Manjhrekar, Vallinam that has Atul Kulkarni, Krish's Ongaram, where Milind Gunaji plays the villain and Kochadaiyaan with Jackie Shroff. "These roles offer us variety and challenge. Since we reach a saturation point in taking up roles in our native film industries, a role like Aaranya Kaandam or Kochadaiyaan can work as a refreshing change," says Jackie. Another industry insider points out that with Raghuvaran, it was a last of the native Tamil baddies. Since then, the search has been outside — with people like Kishore, Prakash Raj and now Sudeep — making a mark.

Atul Kulkarni

Milind Soman

Vidyut Jamwal