In her 25-year career, Isha Koppikar Narang has been a part of films in varied languages and genres, but there is one role on her check list she has had to wait to tick off—playing an action heroine. With her upcoming Tamil sci-fi film, Ayalaan, also starring Siva Karthikeyan and Rakul Preet Singh, the actor has fulfilled her wish.

“I always wanted to be an action heroine. Ayalaan is an action-packed role, where I am playing the antagonist,” says Koppikar of the R Ravikumar directorial venture.

For Koppikar, who began her acting career in the South three years before she made her Bollywood debut in the Hrithik Roshan-starrer Fiza (2000), it’s only heartening to see that films in Tamil, Telugu, and Kannada are finally getting their due.

“South [films are] carving a niche for themselves. It has been long overdue. I have always appreciated their craftsmanship and discipline. Of course, after Baahubali, KGF, and Kantara [garnering pan-India recognition], it’s there for the world to see. People have started accepting south films without them being remade in Hindi. They are just dubbed,” she says.

After an initial good run in Hindi films, Koppikar took a decade-long break from Bollywood, starting in 2011. But the actor doesn’t consider slowing down a disadvantage. She believes that it was a necessary move, considering the projects coming her way didn’t inspire her to perform.

“I felt that sometimes I was wasted [as an artiste]. What happened was that people overpromised but underdelivered. I want to help the film as much as I want the film to help me. It has to be symbiotic. That is why I became more selective. After a certain point in your career, you don’t want to do run-of-the-mill films. As an actor, you want to show versatility,” says the actor, adding that it was her hunger for creative parts that led her to Marathi and Telugu films. “I have no regrets,” she asserts.

Having said that, Koppikar is now raring to go as she is impressed with the progressive shift in roles written for women in Bollywood. “There is a lot of fire in my belly. The industry has become progressive as better parts are now being written for women. An actor never dies. If you are talented, you are here to stay,” she says.