To my utter dismay I discovered I was not buxom enough, nor were my hips ample for the South film industry. The dress dada who came to measure me grimaced as the tape didn’t give him the reading he was hoping for.

“Madam, you need ‘the’ padding” he stated in a very south accent. I walked on to the sets of Chittemamugdu feeling like Donald duck, with a protruding front and rear much to the mirth of South superstar Mohan Babu and my co-star Divya Bharti.

At that time (almost 15 years ago) the south film industry was extremely fascinating to me. I’d heard many stories about their punctuality, large pay packets, fascination for fair skin, ample proportions and time bound shoot schedules.

Well, it was all that and more! And given that back in those days the Hindi film industry wasn’t quite as organised as they are today, punctuality (every artist was on time every single day even if called at 5 am), discipline, money on time and a schedule that ended exactly in its pre-designated number of days was utterly impressive.

But most of us in Western and Northern India are relatively clueless about the world of Southern cinema. I know many of my “society” friends tune into southern channels late night to watch the dance numbers replete with wigs, over-the-top costumes, facial expressions and dance movements and chuckle about how “highly entertaining” it is.

Most of them are shell-shocked when I inform them that the Lollywood star tickling their funny bone is paid more than most of our top actors in Bollywood.

Fact is that the south film industry is very impressive both in terms of cinema (Malayalam cinema is very realistic and story based), and economics. I’m told that Aamir Khan, our highest paid actor, gets merely half of what the top south superstar would command. Bollywood may have a lot of drama and hype and its fair share of crazy fans, however, the adulation of south stars that are given demi-god status and even have temples built in their honour, is unequivocal.

We have many similarities between both the film industries. Be it that our leading luminaries such as Vinod Khanna, Shatrughan Sinha and Vijayanthimala who have used their star power and fan following to garner votes and graduate into politics as have south stars Jayalalitha, NTR, MGR amongst others; the fact that the fan following and hysteria enjoyed by actors in both “woods” is so intense that Amitabh fans took to rioting when their idol was served income tax notices and Rajkumar fans caused a sea of destruction on hearing of their beloved star’s death ; and also the fact that the south stars like Rajnikanth, Sridevi and Kamal Hassan have been able to carve a place for themselves in Bollywood as have our stars like Nagma and Khushboo in Lollywood. <B>From India

Source: .... Times News Network

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