Bollywood portrayed South Indians as people who didnt speak Hindi the normal way: Priyamani

South Indian actress Priyamani, who featured in the web series The Family Man, has opened up about how South Indians ‘used to’ be portrayed in Hindi films.

In a recent interview she said that in Bollywood movies, people from Kerala or Chennai were shown just as those who spoke Hindi with an accent. She also spoke about witnessing a ‘dearth’ of proper representation of South Indian characters in Hindi films after the era of actors like Sridevi, Rekha, and Hema Malini.

In the interview when asked about Southern content gaining popularity among the Bollywood audience, the actress replied: “Finally, the talent in the South is also getting recognised. There was a time when earlier we had people like Sridevi, Rekha, Hema Malini, Vyjayanthimala, who ruled Bollywood. And then there was a dearth. We have only Hindi-speaking actors in Bollywood and they used to sort of portray South Indians – could be somebody from Chennai, could be somebody from Kerala – they used to portray them as people who used to not speak Hindi in the normal way – ‘Aiyo, kaisa ji, kya bolta ji’- like that.”

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She also revealed her reaction to such a portrayal and said, “I’ve also seen a lot of films like that and I used to think to myself that South Indians don’t speak Hindi like that. But you know, maybe it’s their version. Maybe they have come across some people who did speak Hindi like that. And after a point, they stopped that and started getting South technicians to Bollywood. And, we saw a surge of a lot of South Indian technicians coming to Bollywood and making their mark successfully. And right now, I’m very happy that finally South talent is also getting recognised here in Bollywood and South stars are also getting their due.”

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The actress has an impressive filmography of Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, and Kannada movies. She was also featured in a special song in Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika Padukone’s 2013 movie Chennai Express and in both the seasons of The Family Man, co-starring Manoj Bajpayee.