Voices Pushpesh Pant Sathya Saran S Vaidhyasubramaniam Anuja Chandramouli Madhulika Liddle Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev THE new sunday express MAGAZINE Buffet People Wellness Books Food Art & Culture Entertainment november 15 2020 SUNDAY PAGES 12 Going South With OTT platforms helping foster more young talent than ever, we take a look at the brightest young actors and directors from South Indian cinema EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE T here is something about Diwali that brings with it a ray of hope for a new beginning. And a new beginning is what Indian cinema needs this year. After spending the better part of the year locked down, the industry is hoping for a turnaround. And who better to champion such a revival than the brightest young acting and directorial talent. It is not every day that one gets filmmakers and actors making a significant mark with their very first film, and then go on to impress with subsequent work too. With theatres reopening again in the South, here’s a compilation of the best young talent set to take charge for the years to come. Or so, we hope. Srinidhi Shetty Y ash-starrer KGF impacted Kannada cinema like nothing else did in recent times. The film was also a rage across the country with the sequel expected to , make an even bigger splash. Although Srinidhi—who made her debut with the Prashanth Neel film—only appeared in a handful of the scenes, she is expected to play a more prominent role in the sequel. Despite her limited appearance in the first instalment, Srinidhi won scores of fans and a lot of love from the Kannada audience. This love resulted in her getting signed on for a Tamil film as well—Ajay Gnanamuthu’s actionthriller Cobra. With music by the maverick AR Rahman, she will be seen alongside Vikram. Two biggies lined up across two industries—Srinidhi’s career seems to be taking off big time. Pooja Hegde T his Telugu actor’s rise can be attributed to her reluctance to go by stereotypes. Not afraid to take the road less travelled, her biggest hit, Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo, established Pooja as an actor of note. Sought after by the biggest names in the industry her run looks set to , continue, given that she is all geared up to star opposite Baahubali star Prabhas in his upcoming period drama, Radhe Shyam. She plays a music teacher based in Europe in the film. Like some of her peers down South, Pooja also took a tentative step into Bollywood with Housefull 4. Though the run-of-the-mill comedy is anything close to a big-budget entry into the Hindi film industry the actor , will be looking forward to cementing her arrival with Radhe Shyam, which is a pan-Indian multilingual film. She will also be playing a stand-up comic in Most Eligible Bachelor, co-starring the young heartthrob Akhil Akkineni. It’s this kind of a balancing act that has marked her rapid ascension. Roshan Mathew H e made his acting debut with the role of a rapist in the MammoottyNayanthara Malayalam film, Puthiya Niyamam. It was an unusual and risky move for a first-time actor. But it’s this quality that has got Roshan where he is now. An extremely selective actor, his nascent career has already seen him play roles many lead actors may not be comfortable with. Most recently his performance as Ameer, the mute lover of Nivin , Pauly’s character in Moothon, won accolades. The role was notable for how it wasn’t just another effeminate, gay man depicted in most Indian films. Anurag Kashyap, who wrote the Hindi lines in Moothon, was so bowled over by the performance that he cast Roshan in his own OTT film, Choked. Now, we hear that Roshan will star opposite Alia Bhatt and Vijay Varma in a Hindi production from the Red Chillies Entertainment stable. The actor has also completed another Malayalam film, Varthamanam, which has Parvathy Thiruvothu in the lead, and is working in veteran director Sibi Malayil’s Kothu with Asif Ali. Roshan comes from a strong theatre background, and when not doing films, is known to return to the medium. He recently directed a long-running play called A Very Normal Family, which featured several known faces from the Malayalam film industry It’s clear already that we can expect big things from this man. . Rashmika Mandanna O ne of the brightest talents to come from the Kannada industry , Rashmika crossed shores to make a significant mark in the Telugu industry Having made her debut with Rakshit Shetty’s Kirik Party, she . went on to star opposite Vijay Deverakonda in Geetha Govindam, one of the recent successes in Telugu. Winning hearts, the actor followed it up with an author-backed role in Dear Comrade. As Lilly Rashmika show, cased her acting chops in quite a complex role. Meanwhile, she also starred in Devadas, a multi-starrer headlined by Nagarjuna and Nani. Dubbed by the Kannada media and audience as the ‘Karnataka Crush’, she returned to Kannada cinema with Darshan’s Yajamana and has Dhruva Sarja’s Pogaru in the pipeline. Rashmika continues to be on the path to cement her stardom in multiple industries. Right after starring opposite superstar Mahesh Babu in Sarileru Neekevvaru, she signed on to act in the Allu Arjun-starrer Pushpa. She is also set to make her muchawaited Tamil debut with Karthik’s Sultan. In all likelihood, 2021 will see Rashmika star in three big movies in Tamil, Telugu and Kannada. If that isn’t a power-packed path to look out for, then we don’t know what is. Turn to page 2