South Stars Asin, Shriya And Genelia Rise On Bollywood

This year, Bollywood earnings have gone south, and south stars Asin, Shriya Saran and Genelia D'Souza have gone to Bollywood! While the sun still rises in the east, Bollywood female stars have started to rise in the south.

This year, Bollywood earnings have gone south, and south stars Asin, Shriya Saran and Genelia D'Souza have gone to Bollywood! While the sun still rises in the east, Bollywood female stars have started to rise in the south.

Genelia D'Souza

Genelia D'Souza, 20, the youngest of the there southern lasses, has made an impressive comeback to Bollywood with Jaane Tu… Ya Jaane Na, after a lack luster performance weeks earlier in Mere Baap Pehle Aap.

Mumbai born and brought up, Genelia started her film career as a 15-year-old in Tujhe Meri Kasam (2003), along with Ritesh Deshmukh. Her next release the same year was the Tamil film Boys, directed by south heavyweight Shankar. It was a huge success, which prompted Genelia to take a break from Bollywood and establish herself firmly as a star in Tamil, Telugu and Kannada language films.

Genelia returned to Bollywood with Masti (2004), which top lined Ajay Devgan and Vivek Oberoi; and then again this year with Mere Baap Pahle Aap, before making it good with Jaane Tu…

Despite her young age, Genelia is now firmly established in Bollywood and equally firmly grounded in life. She is wary of skin show and wants to do films that families can enjoy.

"It's not that I will not wear short skirts or do kissing scenes, but the fine line between vulgarity and being glamorous must not be breached," she says.

Her upcoming films include Rumi Jaffery's Life Partner with Govinda, Fardeen Khan, Tusshar Kapoor, and Prachi Desai; and Anees Bazmee's It's My Life with Harman Baweja and Nana Patekar.

Asin

Dasavatharam star Asin, 26, is set to make her Bollywood debut with Ghajini, opposite Aamir Khan. Asin also tarred in the Tamil and Telugu versions of Ghajini earlier.

Asin, 22, is a Malayalee who was born and brought up in Cochin. She has now settled in Chennai.

Even before the release of Ghajini, Asin has been signed up for two more Bollywood films.

Aise Ko Taisa directed by Priyadarshan with co-stars Akshay Kumar, Suniel Shetty and Paresh Rawal; and London Dreams directed by Vipul Amrutlal Shah with co-stars Ajay Devgan, Lara Dutta, Salman Khan and Urmila Matondkar.

In London Dreams, Asin plays a South Indian musician in London. Explaining his choice of Asin for the role, Vipul Shah says, "I needed a proper South Indian girl speaking accented Hindi. I also required a face not seen in Bollywood. At the same time, I needed an actress, not just a looker who could sing and dance."

Shriya Saran

Shriya, 25, who was born and brought up in a Hindi speaking family, is best known for her Tamil super hit Sivaji (2007), top lining Rajnikanth. Like Genelia, she made her Bollywood debut with Tujhe Meri Kasam, and went on to act in Awarapan (2007).

She will be next seen in Apoorva Lakhia's Mission Istanbul, a taut thriller, top lining Vivek Oberoi and Zayed Khan. Shriya plays a TV journalist in the film set for release on July 25.

"The scribe is someone like Barkha Dutt…one who is there on the spot where the action is," Shriya explains.

Shriya's forthcoming films include Ek - The Power Of One directed by Sangeeth Sivan with co-stars Bobby Deol, Chunky Pandey and Nana Patekar.

Interestingly, none of the three stars plan to work in Bollywood exclusively.

"I don't know why people say Hindi film actress, Tamil film star and Telugu film artiste," wonders Shriya.

"I prefer to term them all as Indian films the language does not matter as long as the role has substance. Why not simply say an Indian film actress?" she asks!