Pink's Taapsee Pannu and 5 other South actresses who struck gold in Bollywood

Before Delhi girl Taapsee Pannu, who stars in a prominent role in this week's release Pink, made her Bollywood debut in 2013's Chashme Baddoor, she was starring in some of the best films down south, such as the National Award winning Aadukalam. Before she left a mark with her turn as a spy in Neeraj Pandey's 2015 film Baby, she had already appeared in the hit Tamil film Arrambam, starring Ajith Kumar.

Bollywood, has, time and again, looked down south to pick talent and cast them in Hindi films. This has a lot of reasons. One, they are already trained professionals. Two, their fanbase down south helps their Hindi film gather a market in the four states viz. Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala.

MOVIE REVIEW: Pink

ALSO READ: Why Amitabh Bachchan is Bollywood's most high-profile 'character actor'

ALSO READ: Before Pink, these are 5 Bollywood courtroom dramas you must watch

Here's looking at five South female actors who worked in regional films before coming to Bollywood, which is where they did some of their best work, just as Taapsee Pannu has done in Pink:

Sridevi

Sridevi debuted as a child actor in the Tamil film Thunaivan at the age of four. Since then, she had acted in numerous Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam films, before she finally entered the hearts of cinegoers all over India through her stellar performance in the critically acclaimed Sadma (1983) followed by the cult blockbuster Himmatwala (1983). After that, there was no looking back for the Hawa Hawai girl.

Bhumika Chawla

Bhumika Chawla's performance as Nirjara, the coy but passionate Brahmin girl, who falls in love with a rowdy Radhe Mohan (Salman Khan) in 2003's Tere Naam, was widely appreciated and very soon, she became a face to reckon with. But before that, she had already done some great South Indian films, particularly, in Telugu viz. Kushi (2001) for which she received a Filmfare Award, Okkadu (2003) and Simhadri (2003).

Genelia D'Souza

Genelia started off with a career down south as well as with one in Mumbai. While her Bollywood debut film was 2003's Tujhe Meri Kasam, that very year, she also had her Tamil debut - Shankar's Boys starring Siddharth. But after appearing in 2004's Masti, she disappeared from Hindi films and concentrated on film career down south. During this time, she starred in some stellar films like Bommarillu (2006) and Santosh Subramaniam (2008). However is 2008's Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na that put her on the national map.

Ileana D'Cruz

Ileana won everybody's hearts in the 2012 Ranbir Kapoor-starrer Barfi! The South Indian actor who had appeared in some major Telugu films like Pokiri (2006), Jalsa (2008) and Kick (2009), easily got into the skin of a traditional but fun-loving Bengali girl from Darjeeling in Barfi!

Kajal Aggarwal

Like Genelia, Kajal's first film was actually a Hindi film, Kyun...! Ho Gaya Na (2004), in which she played Aishwarya Rai Bachchan's friend. However, she soon found fame, fortune and critical acclaim in high-profile South Indian projects, particularly, 2009's Magadheera, 2010's Brindavanam and 2012's Thuppakki. She made a stellar comeback to Bollywood with the 2011 hit Singham starring Ajay Devgn.

( The writer tweets as @devarsighosh )