New Delhi: Film enthusiasts are eagerly waiting for the release of 'RA.One'. October 26 has become the date to look forward to. Shah Rukh Khan is going to play a software engineer Shekhar Subramaniam in the film who loves to be geeky and thus he develops a game to make his son happy.
Once a very famous western director had said that films actually shows the typecasts but at an unpredictable point. Shah Rukh Khan seemed to pick the word typecast from the statement more than any other thing. He is going by the popular notion prevailing in north India which views most of the educated south Indians as technical geniuses.
The film's teaser is already released in Tamil and the producers are leaving no stone unturned to promote the film in south India. Shah Rukh's simultaneous appearances in several programmes on different TV channels are taking care of north Indian audiences.
Normally, Hindi films keep a distance from south Indian characters when it comes to showcasing them in lead roles. One can find all types of Malhotras and Pandeys as the protagonists but it's unlikely to find Murthis, Ravindrans and Shivpalans in the major roles.
Even if these names get featured in important roles, they play either politicians or comedians who help the heroes in finding their love interests.
There is one smart breed of filmmakers also that want to strike a balance between north and south Indian movie going fraternities.
The makers of 'Rehnna Hai Terre Dil Mein' belonged to such group as their hero had a name which was acceptable to both the Indias. Madhavan donned the character of Madhav Shashtri in the film while the heroine was a Malhotra. The character was further modified to 'Maddy' to suit the tongue as well as the mindset.
Renowned filmmaker Manirathnam was also not brave enough to present the characters with south Indian names in stunningly picturesque 'Raavan'. Almost everybody got the feeling right from the beginning of 'Raavan' that the set up clearly belongs to south India but the names suggested that the proceedings are taking place in north.
'3 Idiots' is among those few films which dared to flaunt an otherwise not preferred surname Wangdoo as the lead actor's title but there was a catch too. Aamir Khan discloses his real name only towards the end. Throughout the film Khan remains as Ranchodd Das Chanchad, a name with ample north Indian-ness. And even in the climax, the heroine says that she would not like to have a surname as funny as Wangdoo.
Definitely some films will present south Indians names in near future but they are more likely to be given to some corrupt politician in the wake of Bellary mining scam or Karnataka housing scheme scam.
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