Malavika Mohanan: I find it annoying when people put Bollywood at a higher pedestal than other film industries

Actor Malavika Mohanan talks about waiting it for a Hindi film until now, and why the south film industry, or any regional movie industry, is at par with Hindi cinema.

Actor Malavika Mohanan is finally set to be seen in a Hindi masala potboiler, Yudhra opposite Sidhant Chaturvedi. After Majid Majidi’s Beyond The Clouds in 2017, she preferred to instead do two Tamil and one Malayalam film, and not take up just about any Bollywood film that came her way.

Actor Malavika Mohanan will be seen in her second Hindi film, Yudhra with Sidhant Chaturvedi.

She reasons, “In the last two years, I have gotten so many Hindi projects, some big ones with A-listers. But they were characters I didn’t really see myself doing. For me, I have always picked my films intuitively. I see my contemporaries picking films just to keep the ball rolling. Their idea is you sign as many films, even if they are half decent, so you could have constant announcements, and they are going to get you more work. While that sounds good for other people, it’s never been something that I want to do.”

And that’s why the 27-year-old decided to wait it out, and Yudhra happened. Having done films such as Petta opposite Rajinikanth and the recently released Master with Vijay, the actor feels that people still tend to overlook other industries.

Mohanan adds that she doesn’t look at cinema that way. “For me, Hindi, Telugu, Malyalam, Tamil, all are on the same level. It’s never been that Bollywood bada hai. Obviously, it has a more national reach. Master was a film which the whole of south India watched, Vijay sir ahs so many fans. It’s almost half the country, but if it was Bollywood, the whole country would watch. For me, Tamil is on par with Bollywood in terms of budget, reception they get. I find it annoying therefore personally,” she concludes.