Tamannaah, 2009’s most-popular heroine, still has a girl-next-door image which has worked to her advantage in a series of films and helped her strike gold at the box-office. A lot of hope was riding on Anushka, but she failed to impress with Vettaikaran in which she had an itsy-bitsy role and looked too tall even with Vijay, who is relatively taller than most heroes in Kollywood.
Yes, size does matter in Kollywood, and heroines have to be small built and look shorter than our heroes, most of whom who are less than six feet. , “A heroine in a Tamil film has to be petite, and at the same time, look glamorous and have terrific screen presence, says director Vishnuvardhan who made Nayanthara sizzle in Billa”
Styling and grooming have become an important part of the making of a glamorous heroine. Says a leading fashion designer in Chennai, “Recently, a hitherto Plain Jane heroine, who went in for a glamorous look, looked so uncomfortable wearing the mod clothes to the extent of seeming embarrassed and apologetic. The crucial factor is whether they have the right attitude and élan to carry off revealing costumes on screen.”
Some of the new girls who are trying to get into the ‘hot-and-sultry’ category in the 2010 are Ileana, Neetu Chandra, Kajal Aggarwal, Hansika Motwani, and the lone girl from south, Poorna. The producers of director Vikram Kumar’s new film 24, which has Vikram in the lead, reportedly paid its heroine Ileana a bomb to do the film. 24 is a futuristic science fiction film and the latest we hear is that Ileana is getting the best costumer and hair dresser from Mumbai to give her the ‘ultra chic’ look.
Meanwhile, Vishal has spent a fortune to make his heroines - Neetu Chandra, Sarah Jane and Tanushree Datta -look super glam for his Theeratha Vilayattu Pillai. Bollywood’s top choreographers, Bosco-Caesar have choreographed the hit song in the film, which features all the three heroines. This song and the glam look of the film have created such a stir in the trade that the film’s rights have now been snapped up by the market leaders in distribution. Kajal Aggarwal, who rocked in her Telugu blockbuster Maghadheera, is pinning a lot of hope on her glam look in Susindran’s Naan Mahaan Alla, in which she has Karthi as her hero.
And those who saw the stills of debutant Sudha Kongara’s Drogi swear that Poorna, the Asin look-alike, is going to be the next big glamour girl in Kollywood. Hansika Motwani, who is debuting opposite Dhanush in Maapilai, sums it up best. “I have taken extra care to look glamorous in Maapillai, which is my first film in Tamil,” she says emphasizing the need for new heroines to project a sizzling look. Well, it looks like these new glam girls are all set to rock Kollywood and make 2010 their own!
