Pooja Hegde’s Strong Statement on South Films

Many actresses who start in South Indian films and later move to Bollywood often downplay or criticize the South film industry. While they accept glamorous roles here during the peak of their careers, once their popularity dips and they get better roles in Bollywood, they claim that the South never recognized their talent and only treated them as glamour dolls.

However, Pooja Hegde has taken a different stand, surprising everyone with her comments. Though she began her career as a Bollywood actress, her most meaningful roles came from Telugu and Tamil films, and most of her major hits were also from the South.

In recent times, her opportunities in Telugu cinema have reduced, while she has been busier in Tamil and continues to get work in Hindi. In a recent interview, Pooja openly admitted that Bollywood never gave her strong roles and mostly saw her as just a glamorous heroine. She added that the roles she got there were not very memorable.

On the other hand, she praised South cinema for offering her well-written and challenging characters. She highlighted her latest film Retro, directed by Karthik Subbaraj, where she played a brilliantly designed role that showcased her performance skills. She expressed her wish to do more such roles in the future.

Pooja also pointed out that in Telugu films like Aravinda Sametha and Radhe Shyam, her characters had emotional depth and scope for acting, whereas in Bollywood, except for Mohenjo Daro, most of her roles were purely glamour-focused.