Although we are used to cat-fights between the superstars of Bollywood as they juggle for space at the top of a very narrow pyramid – and dog-fights too, if the recent SRK/Salman spat is anything to go by – it is less common in the more peaceful and rural surroundings of the south – but that’s not to say it never happens.
Recently, a real humdinger has developed between the top two actresses in the Tamil-language industry – Trisha and Nayanthara. Trisha is still number 1 as the recent Filmfare Awards South demonstrated but her throne was rocked recently by Nayanthara’s stunning bikini-clad appearance in Billa. Suddenly, Nayan was getting all the best offers to star opposite the biggest heroes.
The situation was made worse over the movie Kuruvi. Trisha felt she had nabbed the lead role opposite Vijay only to find in the press that Nayanthara was claiming the role was hers. Trisha couldn’t take this lying down and after a bit of string pulling, the role was hers. We can only imagine Nayanthara’s response to that. The movie in the end turned out to be fairly average.
Nayan scored a point when her Tamil version of a Trisha Telugu film was a big hit – but lost ground when she was dropped as a brand ambassador to the Chennai Superkings in the IPL – a move that she linked to Trisha’s manoeuvrings.
Things recently took a more serious turn when Nayan filed a police complaint claiming that her enemies were deliberately circulating an MMS showing her in a compromising position with actor Simbu in order to defame her. “This is the work of rivals jealous of my fame and bankability on the eve of the August release of Kuselan and Sathyam both big budget ventures,” she claims. However, fake clips made through morphing software are commonly circulated in the South showing famous actresses in compromising positions.
The sad thing is that the two stars had previously been such good friends, brought together in their common antipathy towards Asin who had been dominating the scene for the last couple of years before getting her big break with Aamir in Ghajini. They both breathed a big sigh of relied when she left – and then the jockeying began for the new no.1 position.
