Telugu divas have ‘mixed’ luck in B-town

Close on the heels of Rakul Preet Singh returning to B-town with ‘Aiyaarey’, now it is the turn of Regina Cassandra to romance B-town star Rajkummar Rao in his upcoming film this year. Last year, Tamannaah who was making waves in Telugu and Tamil film industries tried her luck in the Hindi movie ‘Devi(L)’ but it turned out to be a damp squib.

“There is nothing wrong in established Telugu actresses trying their luck in Hindi movies toexpand their horizons, but they should pick appropriate roles, rather than just doing films for the sake of it.

Unfortunately, B-town dreams of Tamannaah and Rakul Preet Singh were short-lived as their films bombed at the box-office and were forced to return to Telugu films,” says leading producer Bandla Ganesh who cites the example of Aasin and Ileana who were top-notch actresses in Telugu but lost in the crowd of bevy of B-town beauties.

“Although, Aasin started with a bang with ‘Ghazini’, but later she had to do some small-time films. Similarly, Ileana, who worked with superstars in Telugu had to be contended doing films with lesser known Hindi actors,” he adds.

However, a source close to Rakul Preet Singh denies her plans to move bag and baggage to B-town. “She has no such plans” says the source and adds “Rakul is a great admirer of director Neeraj Pandey, so when she got an opportunity to work the ace director, she took up. Otherwise, she is well-entrenched in Telugu films with stars like Nani, Sharwanand and others. Producers arewilling to pay her Rs 1.25 crore per film, hence her popularity and position is intact in Telugu,” he points out.

Whereas, Tamannaah returned to Telugu and is planning to do films with Chiranjeevi and Venkatesh after her aborted B-town stint. “Luckily, she has offers with top Telugu stars and it is better if she stays back in T-town,since there are a lot of fair-skinned actresses in B-town,” says director Meher Ramesh.

Similarly, Shruti Haasan, who has good market in Telugu hasn’t signed a Telugu film after ‘Katamarayudu’. “Its high time Shruti signs a Telugu film or else she will lose to gorgeous B-town heroines like Pooja Hegde, Kiara Advani and others,” he concludes.