Over the last few years, a new trend has been growing the South films, especially in the Tamil ones – Bollywood actors are being roped in to play the bad guy. For more than a decade, actresses who are not able to be a top tier star in Bollywood like Tamannaah and Kajal Aggarwal, have moved to star in south films. Now, it seems actors too are looking to explore the world of cinema in the south.
Akshay Kumar as the main antagonist ‘Pakshi Raja’ in 2.0 to Rajinikanth’s Enthiran sequel, not only grabbed eyeballs, but also added star power to an already hugely anticipated film. And while Akshay is known to knock the chocolate out of bad guys in Bollywood films, the superstar didn’t mind getting beat up by the south megastar on the big-screen
similarly, in Petta, we saw Nawazuddin Siddiqui getting the same treatment from Thalaiva, as did Nana Patekar in Kaala. Rahul Bose, a critically-acclaimed Bollywood actor, who’s last noticable appearance in a Bollywood film was in Zoya Akhtar’s Dil Dhadakne Do, grabbed headlines when he starred as the main antagonist in Kamal Haasan’s Vishwaroopam 2. Meanwhile, actors like Vivek Oberoi and Neil Nitin Mukesh have been playing the big bad in South films for many years now.
Telugu superstar Prabhas, best known among Bollywood fans for his Baahubali films, has fans excited for his upcoming action flick Saaho, which not only stars an immensely successful B-town diva in Shraddha Kapoor, but once again stars Neil Nitin Mukesh as the main antagonist. Neil has previously appeared in films like Kaththi (2014) as the villain.
So, what is up with South films wanting to cast the male Bollywood actors are the main villain? Well, according to Veteran director P Vasu, the audience down south love seeing an on-screen conflict between south stars and Bollywood stars and prefer watching the b-town celeb get knocked down. In an interview with Firstpost, Vasu revealed that the B-town casting choices are not done only for star power.
“Our audiences love when the superstar battles a Bollywood actor and that is the reason why I brought in Sonu Sood for just one action scene in Chandramukhi, which worked big time for the film’s success. From MGR days, one of the highlights of a big commercial film is the face-off between the hero and a powerful villain, and it can never be lopsided” – P Vasu said.
Another reason why Bollywood main stream actors are being cast as the big bad in south films is to amp up the content. Usually, malasa films have badly written villains and are treated as a plot device to further the ‘hero’s’ story. However, if an Akshay Kumar or a Nawazuddin Siddiqui is being cast, the writers have to ensure that their character is well-written and developed. Which in turn makes the film even better on the big-screen
