‘South cinema was considered a joke in Bollywood…’: Roja actor Madhoo responds, recalls how ‘wonderful Jr NTR’ changed his look for her

The host also asked her to reflect on how South cinema was a joke in Bollywood a few years ago. The Hindi audience and memes used to make fun of their films and regional cinema was presented as a joke. However, the past few years have seen a significant shift as South film industry has been receiving appreciation for their content worldwide. “Pehle jo mazaak udaaya jaata tha, uss cheez se mujhe bahut dukh hota tha (I used to feel bad about the teasing and jokes). Even I had to face this during my childhood. ‘Ae Madrasan aa gayi’, it had a negative tonality. What do you mean by that?” she revealed.

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The actor added, “We are Indians. Why do we make fun of each other? But, all this was accepted at that time, hence we didn’t react much. But, we all succumbed to it. I didn’t know how to fight it at that time. So, we used to think how to improve our Hindi fluency, so that people shouldn’t get to know from my accent that I am a South Indian.

But today, the situation has changed and Madhoo wears her ethnicity with pride. “I don’t feel ashamed now. If I say something wrong in Hindi or there’s a thickness of South Indian in my accent, I take pride in that. Yes, I am a South Indian and I am speaking Hindi. If you have a problem with my Hindi, then no problem, I can learn it. But when I was young, I was scared of the South Indian tag. There was a fear. I even tried to learn Urdu,” she said.

Moreover, the Phool Aur Kaante (1991) actor wanted to start her acting career with Hindi cinema. “Even when I was wanting to become an actor, I wanted to star in Hindi films. Destiny made me go towards South cinema, but my design wasn’t to be there. But today, I am very proud. I consider myself an Indian film actor now,” she concluded.

On the work front, Madhoo has several projects in the pipeline, including Hansal Mehta’s next Netflix original, a theatrical film with Manoj Bajpayee, and an Amazon Original series in Telugu.

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