Seema Sinha (BOMBAY TIMES; March 25, 2014)

All eyes are on Alia Bhatt, who portrays Ananya Swaminathan — a Tamil Brahmin girl, in her forthcoming film 2 States. Her character is that of a modern girl, and the two-film old actress was told to play the role without borrowing typical mannerisms or caricaturish character traits.  “The role did not require me to put on any accent. I just learnt a few lines in Tamil, which was needed to converse with my reel parents,” she says.

South Indians have always been a cliché in the Hindi film industry. Should we blame it on Mehmood, who created a Southern stereotype some 45 years ago in Padosan? However, with the audience demanding greater authenticity from Bollywood, the younger lot of filmmakers like Punit Malhotra (Gori Tere Pyaar Mein) and Abhishek Varman (2 States) are more sensitive while handling Southern characters.

 In the recent past, a spate of Bollywood films saw the lead actors as Tamilians and there were some definite signs of change — Dhanush (Kundan Shankar) in Raanjhanaa, Prithviraj (Surya) in Aiyyaa and Abhay Deol (TA Krishnan) in political thriller Shanghai, to name some of the frontrunners. There were others, too. Konkona Sen Sharma (Meenakshi Iyer) in Mr And Mrs Iyer, Shah Rukh Khan (Shekhar Subramaniam) in sci-fi Ra.One, Imran Khan (Sriram Venkat) in romantic comedy Gori Tere Pyaar Mein, Deepika Padukone (Meenamma Lochani Azhagasundaram) in blockbuster Chennai Express and now, Alia in 2 States.