Kerala received its daughter with warmth, with young fashion influencers shouting, ‘I love you’ to Malaika Arora, who was in her home state for a salon inauguration. “I’m a good mix of north and south,” said the actress, who owes her Malayali roots to her mother; her father is Punjabi.

Malaika said that she used to speak a smattering of Malayalam at home in her childhood, but has lost touch now, though she still understands it well. “My mother’s side is from Alappuzha, so I’ve been here quite a few times. We still have family here,” she said, adding that she loved the local cuisine, like the puttu and kadala, which she’d had earlier that day.

I think it says a lot about me. If you can look a certain way at a certain age, that speaks volumes for the way one goes about their life. I am very proud that I am a 48-year-old independent woman, still at the top of her game and not slowing down anytime soon.

It was a family ritual to watch Malayalam films together and I’ve grown up watching Mammootty and Mohanlal movies. To date, I feel some of the finest films, in terms of content, talent and technicians, come from here. That’s why you probably have so many remakes of Malayalam films.