Embrace cinema across India: Aishwarya Rai on North vs South debate

CHENNAI: Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, who is playing the pivotal character of 'Nandini' in Mani Ratnam's magnum opus 'Ponniyin Selvan-1' stated that the current time is the best for the Indian film industry as the content across languages is now ‘accessible’ to people through various platforms and they know “our cinema nationally.’

Speaking at a press conference in New Delhi while on promotional tour of Ponniyin Selvan-1, Aishwarya weighed in on the ongoing north vs south debate and reamrked, "I think we need to break away from perceiving cinema, and artistes in that typical way. It's such a great time right now, where all the barriers (of North and South) have come down. People now know our cinema nationally and they're wanting to see cinema from every part. It's just the perfect time, where it has become accessible nationally through so many platforms where everybody can view cinema for what it is across India."

She added that we as an audience need to break away from the conventional way of thinking. "We need to help our viewers, audience, and readers and also not slide into the typical way of viewing art and artists. Art has always been there and found an audience that appreciates and avenues are there which are accessible to everybody and the proof of the pudding is in the eating," she said in a video that has been storming the internet,

The actor who made her debut with Mani Ratnam’s 'Iruvar' continued, "It's so evident now that people are embracing and lapping up cinema across the country which is a great time and very liberating and we collectively need to give more power to this liberation together".