Are Streaming Platforms Facilitating the Rise of the New-Age Tamil Heroine?

Kollywood’s obsession with the fair-skinned heroine from the north has been well-documented for years. Say what one may about changing tides and liberal mindsets, but the fact remains that, outside of a handful of leading women from Tamil Nadu who have solidified their place in the industry over decades, most male stars and production houses routinely prefer casting heroines from outside the state in big-budget projects.

A few directors have routinely complained about working with performers who don’t speak or read the language; others bemoan the difficulty of mounting a female-centric script for the same reasons. The pan-India fixation hasn’t helped either, as actors from other industries are often brought in with the hopes of widening the market before a release.

Yet, there is hope. A slew of small-scale projects — some theatrical, but mostly on streaming — have introduced Tamil audiences to several homegrown talents in the past five years. Women who don’t just know the language, but have also grown up with the culture of Tamil cinema in their families and homes, understanding the legacy of the craft and profession. Fangirls who have hit theatres for first-day-first-show outings, and have thronged crowds to catch a glimpse of their favourite stars from a distance. Most importantly, actors who are willing to bet on themselves to bring about progressive change in an industry that is teeming with potential.

“For me, it’s not just about actors who can speak in Tamil coming to the fore, but those who look like they are Tamilian too,” says Harini Sundararajan, most recently seen in the second season of Suzhal. “I look up to powerhouses like Aparna Balamurali and Nimisha Sajayan (from the Malayalam film industry) for defying what were considered ‘heroine standards’ for so long and paving the way for others.”

According to Sundararajan, streaming has been a huge contributor to this change. “The stakes on OTT are different for filmmakers and producers, and more importantly, the audience is now more discerning than ever. You just need to go check a Reddit thread on a new film or actor to see how welcoming everyone is of talent. Also, the roles being written today for younger heroines on streaming platforms are those of stronger women and outspoken female characters rather than the meek, naive stereotype. The real lives and stories of women are coming out, thanks to the writing and direction in small ways. Of course there’s still a long way to go, but things are improving for sure,” she adds.

Sundararajan was cabin crew with an airline, then dabbled in content writing and digital marketing, before taking a full-fledged leap into cinema three years ago. Though she’s appeared in a number of memorable roles in Tamil projects like Lover and Fingertip, she cites the favourite character that she’s played as one from the Kannada film Chilli Chicken – a funny, moving take on the life of migrants in Bengaluru.

“Audiences watching this content at home begin to connect with the characters on-screen; they see people from their own families and neighbourhoods represented on these shows. Secondly, there’s a lot more interest amidst young girls now to enter the industry and put in the work required to make it, and their families are more supportive than ever before,” remarks Angelin B, anchor-turned-actor, who made her debut with the web series Madurai Paiyanum Chennai Ponum. She will next be seen in her feature film debut, Idhayam Murali, in a supporting role.

Angelin graduated in journalism, during which she interned at a media house. The experience there propelled her to work as an anchor with major television networks, along the way presenting audio launches, movie promotions and press meets. “I kept getting offered a lot of movies during this period but turned them down as acting wasn’t on my mind at all. I do regret it a bit now. Having said that, I finally took the step and quickly realised that I was inclined to pursue this as a line of work after all. I enrolled in acting classes to equip myself with all the skills I would need to cut it here,” she says.

There is also a notion in Kollywood that working in OTT curtails an actor’s path to the big screen as it portrays them as a “television star” – one of several reasons why many leading stars refuse to take on streaming roles and even advise others to rather wait it out for a big-screen opportunity.

“My debuted on-screen with Modern Love Chennai and then other shows like Sweet Kaaram Coffee, and TVF’s Engga Hostel followed. I kept getting told that the more OTT projects I did, the more I would get stuck there, but I completely disagree,” says Samyuktha Viswanathan.

Viswanathan completed her masters in performance studies at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, and was all set to continue training and performing further in theatre and acting abroad, but the COVID-19 pandemic saw her return to Chennai for a bit — a move that would alter her career plans dramatically. “So many younger actors get opportunities here that wouldn’t have materialised in a feature film. Take the second season of Suzhal for instance; there were eight of us girls in totally different looks, shades and characters. Sure, the percentage of the audience who would choose OTT content over a theatrical viewing is much lesser, but I do think regional streaming content is primed to bring about change; maybe not immediately, but in a timeline of four to five years,” she says.

Viswanathan also found overnight viral fame after appearing in Sai Abhyankkar’s music video “Katchi Sera”, which shot to the top of the YouTube charts. Suddenly, she was all over the Internet and thousands of content creators posted reels mimicking her now-famous hook step from the video. “The song’s popularity did really bring me lots of opportunities, but the only issue was that everyone thought I was only a dancer and not an actor. So I made a very deliberate decision to focus on acting; not that I’m saying no to music videos, but be a bit selective about them.”

Meanwhile, it was the other way around for Sanjana Sarathy who made her way into feature films as a teenager in supporting roles, but then looked towards OTT to make her mark as an adult. Initially noticed for playing the role of Tamil superstar Vijay’s sister in his 2012 blockbuster Thuppakki, she has since been pushing to break out of being continually cast as the leading star’s best friend or sister. After being part of shows like Fingertip and Time Enna Boss, her breakthrough came not in a Tamil project, but in the second season of Netflix’s Mismatched.

“Thuppakki was 13 years ago, and it’s taken a while for me to stop getting offered the typical supporting character role,” she says. “Thankfully, most of the current generation of watchers know me best from Mismatched, which broke the monotony in a big way.”

She explains that one thing that works to the advantage of the younger lot of actors coming from Tamil Nadu is that they can all speak different languages. “Just because we are Tamilian, it’s not that we are restricted to only acting in Tamil films; most of us know Hindi and a couple of the other regional languages as well. I love that this new breed of OTT actors are also breaking the stereotype that southern actors would struggle to act in Hindi projects because of the language barrier,” she says.

Sarathy, who already made her Telugu debut with #Bro a few years ago, is now looking forward to the release of Sarasalu Chalu, in which she plays the female lead, as well as a Tamil feature film that sees her take on the role of a basketball player.

“I really feel like this generation can change this status quo of representation in the coming years. Let’s say a film features the character of a rural girl from Tirunelveli, then people now want to see a girl from Tamil Nadu play her! Why get an actor from north India, change her entire skin tone and look for this?” she asks.

Sundararajan agrees, “I can see filmmakers being relieved when they see I can speak in Tamil; that gives them the space to work with me on the lines and help me improvise too.”

But Angelin says she’s also heard from production houses and casting teams that they want a heroine who speaks in broken Tamil. “Since that is what the ‘classic heroine’ should sound like,” she sighs.

“Even though the ability to speak and read Tamil has given me an advantage, a producer’s core focus is looking at the commercialisation aspect of an actor. I overestimated how much the skill set of being a trained actor or dancer would matter. Filmmakers will appreciate it, but experience and brand value weighs a lot more here and that’s what translates more towards getting a role,” adds Viswanathan, who will soon make her feature film debut as the female lead in the Tamil romcom Mr. Bhaarath, which is a Lokesh Kanagaraj production. After that she has a fantasy drama and a Malayalam film in the works, as well as a web-series adapted from a book.

This new generation of female actors are not in a rush to chase commercial success or fame from day one. They are willing to wait it out, bide their time for a role of substance to come their way, and make their way up the ladder.

“Kanna Ravi, one of my co-actors, told me something really pertinent: that the first five to six projects we do are for the industry to notice us; it’s only later that the audience will take note. And that’s what I’ve observed too, with filmmakers being an eager bunch, watching all the shows that come out and ready to spot talent,” recalls Sundararajan, who will next be seen as the female lead in an Amazon Prime Video show, as well as in the Kannada thriller Vritta.

She adds that many of them also share a heartening sense of solidarity with each other, “There’s such a warm, nourishing friendship that exists here today between many of us. We might be auditioning for the same role, but it’s always healthy competition and no bitterness. It’s fantastic to have people to talk to about navigating the industry together, as they are in it with you.”