Aditi Rao Hydari opens up about the North vs South debate; says, ‘We need to be more inclusive’

Recent weeks have seen the country be involved in a debate over the north and south Indian film industries. While an online spat between Ajay Devgn and Kichcha Sudeepa set it all to life, a number of stars have shared their two cents on the issue. The latest actor to do so, is Aditi Rao Hydari. 

Talking to FIlm Companion on the sidelines of the Cannes International Film Festival as reported by Indian Express, the actor said that maybe because she was exposed to cinema from different languages, she never saw a difference and that it was all about directors, content and stories, which according to her, is a more simplistic way of looking at it. 

Aditi pointed out that we need to be more conscious and questioned the use of words like “South actor” and “regional cinema”. She said that every area is a region and that each region has directors who are visionaries, who tell beautiful stories. 

The actor further said that each of us have the responsibility to understand that we need to stay together and that the cinema coming from Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam are wonderful and we must celebrate them. 

“It is not fair that they are doing well and suddenly we are like ‘okay this is also us’. We need to be more inclusive. We should have done it earlier. Rather than saying why we are not doing that, we need to understand that ‘that we’ is also us,” she added.

Aditi Rao Hydari was one of the many stars who recently walked down the Cannes red carpet as part of India’s contingent at the festival. She has worked in Malayalam, Tamil, Hindi, and Telugu projects across her career and was last seen in the Tamil romantic drama, Hey Sinamika, co-starring Dulquer Salmaan and Kajal Aggarwal.