The line between the Southern film industries and Bollywood is blurring with every passing day. Actors from down south like Ram Charan, NTR Jr, Yash, Prabhas, Samantha Ruth Prabhu, and others have managed to win the hearts of the Hindi-speaking audience with their outstanding performances. Similarly, Alia Bhatt, Ajay Devgn, Sanjay Dutt, and Raveena Tandon are receiving love and appreciation from south India. However, there are a few actors who are not interested in making a movie to Hindi films. Take a look:

Mahesh Babu

During the trailer launch of Major, Mahesh Babu was asked if he had plans of acting in the Hindi film industry. In response to the question, he said, “Bollywood can’t afford me and thus I don’t want to waste my time there.” He added, “The stardom and the respect I get here (in the south) is huge, so I never really thought of leaving my industry and going to some other industry. I have always thought of doing films and becoming bigger. My dream is coming true now and I can’t be happier.”

Shruti Hasan

Kamal Haasan’s daughter Shruti Haasan took part in #AskMeAnything on Twitter and responded to questions asked by fans. While opening up about the whole insider-outsider discussion in Bollywood and the actor said, “I honestly have many times felt like an outsider, especially in Bollywood, there is a whole North-South thing that constantly happens. For example, if I’m doing three Telugu films and three Tamil films, they’ll say, ‘Oh, but you’re not focusing on Hindi,’ as if that is the only industry in the country. And it isn’t. So, I have always felt like an outsider.”

Priyamani

The Family Man actor Priyamani is known for her stellar performances. She said, “There was a time when earlier we had people like Sridevi, Rekha, Hema Malini, and Vyjayanthimala, who ruled Bollywood. And then there was a dearth you know. We have only Hindi-speaking actors in Bollywood and they used to sort of portray South Indians (could be somebody from Chennai or Kerala) – they used to portray them as people who used to not speak Hindi in the normal way – ‘Aiyo, kaisa ji, kya bolta ji’. After a point, they stopped that and started getting South technicians to Bollywood. And, we saw a surge of a lot of South Indian technicians coming to Bollywood and making their mark successfully. And right now, I’m very happy that finally South talent is also getting recognised here in Bollywood and South stars are also getting their due.”

Yash

While replying to Salman Khan’s question on why South films are working in Bollywood, Kannada superstar Yash, who was recently seen in KGF: Chapter 2 said, “It’s not like that. Our films also never used to get this kind of reception, but what is happening from that part of the world, they have started playing dubbed versions here, and people became familiar with the content of what we are creating. What worked today is people got familiar with our way of storytelling, our cinema, so it has not happened overnight. That has been there for a few years and eventually, they started understanding the content, the expression of the direction, and everything.”

Dhanush

In an old interview, Dhanush spoke how film industries are viewed as separate entities. He said, “I was always against (the divide between) south and north Indian films. It is an Indian film and that is how it should always be. We are heading towards that (change) at a very rapid pace. It is very healthy. It is helping all of us with our films, actors, and creative people globally.”