If you’re tall and pretty, you may become a beauty queen or a model but can hardly hope for a job in Kollywood.
According to a survey taken by a leading marketing agency, it is heroines who are on the shorter side (like Trisha, Asin and Genelia) who are preferred by Tamil filmmakers and consumer goods manufacturers to sell their products in south India.
In Kollywood, last year’s hot and happening heroine Anushka - after Vijay’s Vettaikaran and the yet-to-be-released Suriya’s Singam - has no new offers coming her way. Bollywood babe Sameera Reddy, after Vaaranam Aayiram and Aasal, has a lone Gautham Menon untitled film with a newcomer on hand. Namitha, one-time glamour queen, has only her much-delayed Azhagana Ponnuthan pending for release. Similarly, other tall girls - like the beautiful Vimala Raman and the gorgeous Lakshmi Rai - have been virtually driven out of the industry due to their height. Both these girls are doing well for themselves in Malayalam and Telugu, where the average height of the leading men cast opposite them is 5 ft 10 inches!
Says a leading cinematographer, “Sameera (5’8), Anushka (5’9), and even Namitha (5’10) are all photogenic but what goes against them in Tamil films are their Amazonian looks and height. They’re all too tall and dwarf our heroes. We can’t place the camera at a top angle throughout the film.” The cameraman illustrates the point by saying that during the shoot of a recent film, the hero had to sit on the same sofa as the tall heroine throughout! Explains the cameraman with a smile, “It was so funny. He had to be literally propped up with two cushions under him so that he’d look taller. No wonder our heroes prefer Nayan, Shriya and Tamannaah who match them perfectly.”
A leading Tamil film director, known for his preference for Mumbai girls as heroines, explains, “The first thing I tell my heroines is that they have to perfect the art of wearing flat heels while doing Tamil films. They also have to listen to the instructions given by the cinematographer without asking questions, especially while doing song sequences, as the numbers mostly have to present the hero as a person taller than his towering heroine.” Recently, a tall heroine came to the outdoor shoot of a film wearing shoes with a three-inch heel, and made a big show by kicking off her shoes before sitting on a chair and loudly asking her staff members to keep it safely till shoot finishes. It upset the hero, who told the director and other unit members - “ Enna Thimiru...” (what arrogance)!”
Fashion designer Chaitanya Rao, who has worked in many films, says, “In the fashion industry, the taller the better. But in Kollywood, being too tall does not work. Sometimes, it is difficult to design the clothes suitable for tall girls, because the heroines end up looking even taller when they wear certain western outfits where heels are a must.” Some heroines wear heels but hide it under their sari so that they don’t expose their feet. Concludes a leading fashion photographer, “The ideal height for a heroine who wants to succeed in Kollywood should be in the 5 ft 2 in to 5ft 6 in range.”
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