South actress Jyotika made a comeback in Bollywood with two hits Shaitaan and Srikanth, 25 years after her debut film Doli Saja Ke Rakhna. The actress recently in an interview shared that there is no division between North and South films as the audiences have started expecting it as one. She also felt that there was a huge difference between the worlds in the South Indian film industry and Bollywood. The Shaitaan actress further shared her disappointment that during the time of her debut, many actresses in Bollywood including Kareena Kapoor Khan, Rani Mukerji and Preity Zinta got big banner movies which gave them wide recognition.

In an interview with Hindustan Times, Jyotika said “This whole comeback has been a great surprise to me and it happened very organically. For 25 years, there was no sound, and suddenly these two films made such noise.”

She continued, “There is no North-South divide anymore and the audience is looking at everything as one. But in Bollywood, I am still waiting for the kind of roles I am used to doing down South. I chose to be a part of Shaitaan and Srikanth because they are beautiful stories, but I am looking for more as an actor in terms of the length of my role in a film.”

Jyotika added, “When I went to the South, I saw that people there weren’t watching Hindi films much. And when I came North, I saw a lot of fun being made of the South industry with the Rajinikanth memes and all sorts of things. It was sad to see that there was this huge bar between both the worlds. On the sets of Shaitaan, me and  R Madhavan were given so much respect. Ajay Devgn made us feel equal to him and the team recognised us as big actors from the South instead of thinking of us as regional actors. We could see love for the South that had penetrated through Bollywood, and it was mutual.”

She also spoke about dealing with failure after her first movie. Jyotika said, “It was very upsetting. There were many girls who came in around the time I debuted, including Kareena Kapoor Khan, Rani Mukerji and Preity Zinta. All of them were introduced by big banners, and so was I, but they were the lucky ones whose films worked, and they went forward.”

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Jyotika is known for hit movies including Raatchasi, Chandramukhi, Sillunu Oru Kaadhal, Kaathal – The Core, Thirumalai, Ponmagal Vandhal, Dumm Dumm Dumm, Chekka Chivantha Vaanam to name a few. She will be next seen in Sudha Kongara’s Sarfira. It stars Suriya Sivakumar, Akshay Kumar, Radhika Madan, Paresh Rawal, and Seema Biswas in key roles. The movie is scheduled to be released in theatres on 12th July.