Talented divas gravitating to k-town

It's quite an unfortunate scenario in T-town. Keerthy Suresh, a power-house talent, moved to Tamil films immediately after 'Mahanati'.

"Instead of doing Telugu movies, she did a few commercial movies with Vikram and Vishal and now returned to T-town for an author-backed role.

Probably, she wants to do only meaty roles in Telugu," says director Madhura Sreedhar, who feels that dearth of 'strong women-roles' in commercial movies could be one of the reasons.

"Even Sai Pallavi who made waves with 'Fidaa' and 'MCA', later showed her acting skills in Tamil films 'Diya' and 'Maari 2'.

Now return ing to don a key role in 'Virataparvam 1992," Sreedhar adds.

Perhaps, after doing `roles with substance' in Telugu, Keerthy and Sai moved to Tamil movies to keep their image intact in Telugu, rather than doing non-descript roles and dent their hard-earned image. "It could be true to some extent.

Instead of playing glam prop roles opposite Telugu stars, they opted to park themselves in the neighouring state.

Only returning to Hyderabad, if they get the right kind of role or a women-centric movie to keep their growing Telugu fan following happy," says producer Suresh Babu, who urges Telugu filmmakers to give more 'footage' and 'prominence' to actresses in star-centric movies.

Following the trend, Anupama Parameswaran, who did movies like 'Sathamanam Bhavathi', 'Premam' and 'Hello Guru Prema Kosame' also dabbled with Tamil cinema to keep her stocks soaring.

"She romanced Tamil star Dhanush in 'Kodi' but kept herself busy by doing Malayalam movies," says director Chandoo Mondeti, who reminds Megha Akash's new interest for Tamil movies .

Incidentally, all these actresses are from Mollywood where talent scores over skin show. "These actresses proved that you can look good even in a chudidar or saree and not just in skimpy outfits.

It is true that these divas made waves in Telugu for two years, but later looking to make their mark in other language movies," says director Gunasekar, who feels that directors should pen more realistic and girl-next-door roles to woo these performers back.

"Actually, Gen Y viewers are looking at some of these actresses as an extension of their self as these actors are playing working women, college-going girls, and aspirants of foreign jobs.

Unlike a goal-less heroine in a star-studded potboiler," says Bogavalli Prasad and adds "only good roles can pin them down to T'wood."