As someone, who has worked primarily in Telugu and Tamil films, the tag ‘south actor’ does bother actor Regina Cassandra. She feels that such labels are often used in a derogatory way. “People don’t understand what terms to use. Some are derogatory when they say ‘south actor’ and it does bother me. Some people are ignorant and they don’t find anything insulting about it,” the actor says.

She goes on to share how the prefix, ‘south actor’ before her name, bothers her. “I am from south India and if I keep hearing it (my regional identity) all the time, I feel like saying, stop it. I think there’s no need to say, south actor... just actor works fine,” she says.

Cassandra, however, feels that things are changing for good, as many actors are transcending the regional identity and emerging as pan-India stars.

“No one has seen so many actors from down south on a pan-India level. The inclusiveness that is happening in the industry now will change things, and in a few years, there won’t be anything like south actor, north actor,” the 31-year-old says.

The actor, who was seen in a cameo in Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa in 2019, ventured into the web space recently with a Hindi project, Rocket Boys: “This was my first big project in Hindi. I couldn’t have asked for a better one to mark my beginning on the web. All great things take time.”