I too feel that their Dravidian looks come in the way and may be to a certain extent their accent.Since ladies in Hindi films have to look good and do precious little , things are not so bad for them and in fact they were all very successful inspite of their accents ..

But in Telugu film industry which is as big as Bollywood all the heroines are non - Telgu. Of course these female roles are drawing room show pieces. Histrionics are not necessary here.

I guess barring a few handful of films, there is not much for the leading lady to do in Indian films ! At least in the seventies there was a period when some good film makers like Basu Chatterji, Govind Nihlani, Shyam Benegal and Basu Bhattacharya and Mani Ratnam gave substantial roles to the heroines and in all those films looks were only secondary ...

Those days there were quite a good number of films in which leading lady used to run the entire show like Seema, Lajwanti,Mother India and you know well about such great movies. I think that era will not repeat now.

I too feel that their Dravidian looks come in the way and may be to a certain extent their accent.Since ladies in Hindi films have to look good and do precious little , things are not so bad for them and in fact they were all very successful inspite of their accents ..

But in Telugu film industry which is as big as Bollywood all the heroines are non - Telgu. Of course these female roles are drawing room show pieces. Histrionics are not necessary here.

I guess barring a few handful of films, there is not much for the leading lady to do in Indian films ! At least in the seventies there was a period when some good film makers like Basu Chatterji, Govind Nihlani, Shyam Benegal and Basu Bhattacharya and Mani Ratnam gave substantial roles to the heroines and in all those films looks were only secondary ...

Those days there were quite a good number of films in which leading lady used to run the entire show like Seema, Lajwanti,Mother India and you know well about such great movies. I think that era will not repeat now.

Very true ! however the actresses get a better dela these days with respect to their earnings ..I guess thats what has sopilt the quality .Who cares what do they do on screen as long as good money pours in. Some of the roles and the characters portrayed are so pathetc, the lesser said the better !

Although the south ladies have always been on top in hindi films right from the days of Vyjayantimala, Waheeda Rehman, Hema Malini and then Rekha , Jaya prada , Meenakshi Sheshadri , Sreedevi to Aishwarya Rai and now Deepika Padukone , the men have never had such luck in hindi films.
There was Ranjan in the good old days who acted in some films but did not go far, later Gemini Ganeshan did act in a couple of successful films like Miss mary,Devta , Suvarna Sundari but never got any offers other than south banners. The same was the case of Kamal Hasan and Rajnikant even Malayalam stars like Mammooty and others ! The only actor who was/is reasonably successful is Sunil Shetty. What could be the reson for this ?

Although the south ladies have always been on top in hindi films right from the days of Vyjayantimala, Waheeda Rehman, Hema Malini and then Rekha , Jaya prada , Meenakshi Sheshadri , Sreedevi to Aishwarya Rai and now Deepika Padukone , the men have never had such luck in hindi films.
There was Ranjan in the good old days who acted in some films but did not go far, later Gemini Ganeshan did act in a couple of successful films like Miss mary,Devta , Suvarna Sundari but never got any offers other than south banners. The same was the case of Kamal Hasan and Rajnikant even Malayalam stars like Mammooty and others ! The only actor who was/is reasonably successful is Sunil Shetty. What could be the reson for this ?

Well, Sharukh Khan, Aamir Khan, Akshay Kumar and Amitabh Bachhan have been in Bollywood for more than 10 years! And they are still coming up in movies.

Although the south ladies have always been on top in hindi films right from the days of Vyjayantimala, Waheeda Rehman, Hema Malini and then Rekha , Jaya prada , Meenakshi Sheshadri , Sreedevi to Aishwarya Rai and now Deepika Padukone , the men have never had such luck in hindi films.
There was Ranjan in the good old days who acted in some films but did not go far, later Gemini Ganeshan did act in a couple of successful films like Miss mary,Devta , Suvarna Sundari but never got any offers other than south banners. The same was the case of Kamal Hasan and Rajnikant even Malayalam stars like Mammooty and others ! The only actor who was/is reasonably successful is Sunil Shetty. What could be the reson for this ?

Well, Sharukh Khan, Aamir Khan, Akshay Kumar and Amitabh Bachhan have been in Bollywood for more than 10 years! And they are still coming up in movies.

But none of them are south Indians as far as I know. Shah Rukh Khan was brought up in Mangalore but he is originally from UP or from the northern part of India...

I think, it is due to the style of males that they are not been successful in bollywood, as so far many famous south actors failed to stay more than five to six years due to different styles but in case of females it is completely opposite. :whistle: :whistle: