Jyothika, the acclaimed actress known for her roles in South Indian cinema, recently revealed in a conversation with News18 that she had not been approached for any Hindi film in the past 27 years. The actress, who made her acting debut in Bollywood with ‘Doli Saja Ke Rakhna’ alongside Akshaye Khanna, shifted her focus to South Indian films after the movie did not perform well at the box office.
Reflecting on her journey, Jyothika explained, “I didn’t receive an offer from Hindi films even once. I drifted into South films 27 years ago and have only worked in South films ever since. My first Hindi film didn’t run well in theatres. It’s all very formula-based. Your first film needs to run for you to get more offers.”
She also mentioned facing tough competition from her female peers in Bollywood at the time. “When I had started my career, there was an entire bandwagon of girls working with big production houses. Even my film was produced by a big banner but as fate would have it, it didn’t run. Luckily, I had signed a South film and diverted from Bollywood,” she recalled.
Jyothika moved to Chennai and later married actor Suriya, which led many in Mumbai to assume that she was not interested in returning to Hindi cinema. “People in Bollywood also thought that I was a South Indian and they assumed that I don’t want to do Hindi films anymore. It was a journey, and I’m still grateful about it. I did some fabulous work there. It’s not like I refrained from doing a Hindi film. It’s just that I wasn’t offered any script in so many years,” she clarified.
