Speaking Telugu like a native is in these days. Priyamani, the famous Tollywood actress, is Malayali by birth and has grown up in Benguluru. But she speaks Telugu fluently and takes pride in it. This Malayali kutty says, “Since I can speak the language it becomes easy for me to converse with my unit on the sets. I am confident I can do my own dubbing very soon.” However, this trend of learning the language by non-Telugu actors dates back to the 90s when Amrish Puri did his own dubbing for movies. Prakash Rawal, the popular villain has taken a leaf out of Puri’s book and does his dubbing himself.
Madhushalini, one of the few Telugu speaking actresses in the industry says, “I think this condescending attitude towards Telugu developed in the younger generation because we were restricted from speaking in Telugu at school. Soon, it became “downmarket”. But that’s changing now.” Madhu confesses that the language is one unifying factor in an industry like Tollywood where talent is outsourced from all parts of the country. “It’s a language we think, speak and even dream in. Thankfully, new age T’wood movies have done their bit in making Telugu cool again.”
Some have learnt it from their colleagues and some by watching Telugu films. Says Nikita, a Punjabi by birth, “Nitin helped me learn the language when we were shooting for Sambaram. I also picked up a lot after watching Telugu movies.”
