Jyotika has made a return to Bollywood this year with two back-to-back films, Shaitaan and Srikanth. “The comeback was a surprise for me. It happened very organically. For 25 years, there was no sound and suddenly these two films made such noise,” she says. The actor made her Hindi film debut with Doli Saja Ke Rakhna (1998).

But all these years, Tamil cinema kept her busy, with films such as Raatchasi (2019), Udanpirappe (2021) and Chandramukhi 2 (2023) to her credit. She believes she has returned to Hindi films during the “best phase” of Indian cinema.

“But, in Bollywood, I’m still waiting for the kind of roles I am used to doing in the South. I chose these films as they are beautiful stories, but I am looking for more as an actor, in terms of the length of my role in a film,” she elaborates.

Jyotika admits that the Hindi film industry often sticks to stereotypical portrayals of people from down South in their films. “I agree that some things are over-the-top in the South; we love idli-sambar and action films, but how it’s depicted is definitely overdone. It might be done in good spirits, but frankly, they do get it wrong most of the time,” she asserts.

Recalling the days when she started doing films down South, the actor says, “I saw people weren’t watching a lot of Hindi films there. In Bollywood, people would make fun of the South with (actor) Rajinikanth memes.” But she admits that things are changing. “On the set of Shaitaan, (actor) R Madhavan and I were treated with a lot of respect. Ajay (Devgn, actor) made us feel equal to him. They recognized we are big artistes and not just regional actors,” says the actor.

She shares that venturing into Tamil cinema wasn’t a choice. Accepting that the failure of her first Hindi film “was upsetting”, she adds, “There were many female actors who came in around that time, including Kareena (Kapoor Khan), Rani (Mukerji) and Preity (G Zinta). They were the lucky ones whose films worked.”

While she did look for some work in Bollywood after her debut, it felt futile: “It wasn’t working out. Your first film has to be a hit for the actor in you to be recognized. After that, I did one film in the South, which didn’t do well either, but they recognized my talent. That is a little difference I saw in both the industries.”