Actor Suniel Shetty Shares Why He Takes Few Roles in South Film Industry

Bollywood Veteran Suniel Shetty has opened up about his conspicuous absence from mainstream South Indian Cinema, revealing that filmmakers from the Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, and Kannada industries frequently approach him only for villainous roles. Speaking at the Lallantop Adda 2025 public session in the capital on Thursday, the 64-year-old actor explained that the persistent typecasting of Hindi film stars as antagonists is the primary reason he turns down most southern offers.

“I do get offers from the South, but unfortunately what happens is, you will notice this trend that we get offers for negative roles,” Shetty said. “They want to cast the Hindi heroes as powerful from an antagonistic point of view—they say that’s good for the screen and for the audience. And that is one thing I don’t like.” The actor stressed that he is unwilling to be pigeonholed as the “North Indian villain” simply to provide contrast for the heroic South Indian protagonist.

Despite the general reluctance, Shetty made exceptions for two projects out of personal admiration and encouragement. He accepted a substantial negative role in the 2020 Rajinikanth-starrer Darbar purely to share screen space with the Tamil superstar. “I did a film with Rajini sir only because I wanted to tick that box of having worked with him,” he shared. More recently, he made a cameo in the Tulu-language film Jai to support Regional Cinema, noting that the movie is performing strongly at the box office.

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Shetty emphasized that language is no longer a barrier in Indian Cinema and that quality content now transcends regional boundaries. “Today there is no language barrier. If there is a barrier, then it’s perhaps because of the content. If your content is good, it will cross all barriers,” he said, pointing to the pan-India success of films across industries.

On the work front, the actor was last seen in the action series Hunter 2 alongside Jackie Shroff. He will next feature in the star-studded comedy Welcome to the Jungle, sharing the screen with Akshay Kumar, Sanjay Dutt, Arshad Warsi, Paresh Rawal, Raveena Tandon, and others. Shetty also confirmed that shooting for the third installment of the Hera Pheri franchise is scheduled to begin in February or March 2026.

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