2011: Invasion of the South Indian Hotties

South India, which gave us faces like Aishwarya Rai, Asin, Tabu, Vidya Balan has opened it's bountiful coffers of beauty once again

Taapsee Pannu

Taapsee Pannu recently scored a two-film deal with Viacom Entertainment. Her first, 'Chashme Baddoor', a David Dhawan film will hit theaters in November.

In the let one-one-and-a-half years, Taapsee has starred in 8 films. “All the films that I’ve worked on gave me a lot of scope to perform. There were days when I felt exhausted and worn out, but I guess it’s the love of movies that made me push all my boundaries. I hope to be part of more such films in the future,” Taapsee once even refused a film with Amitabh Bachchan due to date issues.

Nidhi Subbaiah

 

Nidhi is rumored to have been approached for the female lead role in Jazz, making her Bollywood debut, along with another Sandalwood (Karnataka film industry) actor, Diganth Manchale. She got this role after Prachi Desai, originally finalized for the role walked out of the project.

She stated: "It's true that I've been approached for the project. The makers have asked me to block my dates till November and are to send me the script soon. I haven't signed a contract yet, but I can confirm that serious discussions have taken place and it does look like I might do the film," says Nidhi.

She has received other offers as well, many of which she has refused."...I wanted the perfect Bollywood launchpad. This film with Diganth seems just right. The producers had seen Pancharangi, in which Diganth and I co-starred, and noticed that we share a great onscreen chemistry. We'd recently done a look test and the producers found our pairing interesting," says Nidhi.

Piaa Bajpai

 

Piaa Bajpai isn't speaking about her Bollywood debut. "Yes, it's true that I am doing a Bollywood movie. But I am not allowed to talk about it until the announcement is made by the producers…all I can say is it involves one of the big production houses in Bollywood."

Priya Anand

Priya Anand will debut with director Balki of 'Cheeni Kum' and 'Paa' fame.The untitled project will be shot in the US - perfect for a a US raised Priya.

According to a source: "Priya has been approached to star in director Balki's next. She will be leaving to New York with the unit by the end of this month. There's enough meat to her character, which made Priya jump at the offer…. Balki had taken some time to decide on his next film after Paa and it was reported that he would work with Amitabh Bachchan and Abhishek Bachchan again.

However, he had confirmed that he's going ahead with a film that will star Junior Bachchan in the lead before doing a flick with Big B. It's for this film that Priya might have been signed on." In both Cheeni Kum and Paa, the women characters were very strong and were pivotal to the film. This film could also be woman-centric where the leading lady is crucial to the story.

Madhu Shalini

The model-turned-actress has worked in Telugu and Tamil language films. Her Bollywood debut is Ram Gopal Varma's upcoming Department, in which she playsa female gangster. The movie also stars with Amitabh Bachchan,Sanjay Dutt and Rana Daggubati.