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by Reena Daruwalla, guest writer for Nancy Hayssen.com

I live in Bangalore, which is the capital of the South Indian state of Karnataka, where there is a flourishing Kannada (that is the state language) film industry. Neighboring states of Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, similarly have their own flourishing film industries. What is common to each of these is their concept of the ideal actress, a point that I have touched on before. There is no concept of plus size here; but being curvy, well endowed, voluptuous is a must and often the popularity of an actress, (heroine as the leading lady is known as in India) or her perceived sexiness is proportional to her measurements. This I do not say at all tongue in cheek, this is just me stating the facts.

Take Namitha for instance, she is one of the most popular actresses down South and such is her popularity that she has done roles in three of the four South Indian languages so her appeal is pretty much pan South Indian.

Then there is Nayanthara, who is considered to be one of the hottest actresses from Tamil Nadu, in Tollywood as the Tamil film industry is called.

Shriya Saran is someone who started her career doing music videos but then moved on to cinema, first Tamil, then Telugu and then Kannada and Hindi cinema. Apparently her appeal is wide enough that she has even moved on to a role in Hollywood.

Vimla Raman is originally from Australia and has acted in Malayalam and Telugu movies.