🔥 THE SHIFT NO ONE EXPECTED — BUT EVERYONE IS TALKING ABOUT
For years, pooja hegde was a fixture in Tollywood’s top-tier heroine circle, sharing screens with the biggest names in telugu cinema. But in 2025, a new question is shaking up the South film industry:
Is pooja hegde choosing kollywood over Tollywood?
Her recent film signings strongly suggest a strategic shift — and this move is making more noise than many of her movies did.
🎬 FROM PAN-INDIA GLAM TO STRATEGIC REALIGNMENT
pooja entered the industry over a decade ago with projects across telugu, tamil, and Hindi.
Her real breakthrough, however, was in tollywood — working with:
Mahesh Babu
Allu Arjun
Jr NTR
Prabhas
Ram Charan
These films made her a household name and a bankable star in the telugu market.
But the pandemic changed the rhythm of her career.
Her bollywood push didn’t take off as expected, leaving her in need of a fresh direction.
kollywood stepped in at the perfect time.
🔥 tamil CINEMA: WHERE POOJA’S CALENDAR IS FULL
Her re-entry into tamil films began with Beast opposite Thalapathy Vijay.
Since then, it’s been a tamil signing spree:
✔ Retro with Suriya
✔ Special appearance in Rajinikanth’s Coolie
✔ Jana Nayagan with Vijay again
✔ Kanchana 4 with Raghava Lawrence
✔ Almost locked for a Dhanush–Rajkumar Periasamy project
This is not a casual line-up.
This is a full-blown pivot.
When an actress signs back-to-back films with Vijay, Suriya, Rajini, Lawrence, and dhanush — she’s not testing waters.
She’s planting a flag.
🛑 THE tollywood SLOWDOWN: WHERE ARE THE BIG PROJECTS?
On the telugu side, the silence is hard to miss.
Her last film with a major telugu star was four years ago.
Since then:
One film with Dulquer Salmaan
Strong speculation about a project with Nani
No confirmed bookings with Tier-1 telugu heroes
tollywood is crowded with new heroines and younger faces.
Competition is fierce, and line-ups move fast.
pooja may simply be unwilling to wait for the “right offer” that never comes.
✨ IS THIS A SMART CAREER MOVE? ABSOLUTELY.
kollywood is currently:
Strong in content
Strong in experimentation
Strong in heroine-centric scripts
Strong in delivering surprise hits
Strong in industry stability
tamil cinema is known for giving actresses longer, stronger, more meaningful runs.
For pooja, the timing is perfect.
She gets:
✔ big banners
✔ superstar pairings
✔ diverse scripts
✔ industry warmth
✔ back-to-back visibility
This is not a gamble.
This is career reinvention.
🧠 IS IT A PHASE OR A PERMANENT SHIFT?
Right now, it looks like a conscious, calculated move.
Could she return to Tollywood? Yes.
Will she? Only if big banners come calling.
But as of 2025:
👉 Pooja Hegde is a kollywood girl.
👉 Her next major impact will come from tamil cinema.
👉 Tollywood is no longer her priority — at least for now.
The industry may call it a shift.
She might call it evolution.
🔥 THE SOUTH indian SPOTLIGHT HAS MOVED — AND SO HAS POOJA
pooja hegde isn’t disappearing.
She’s repositioning.
She’s rebuilding.
She’s re-strategizing.
She’s choosing momentum over waiting.
She’s choosing movement over stagnation.
She’s choosing opportunity over nostalgia.
And kollywood, right now, is giving her exactly that.
Whether this turns into a career renaissance or just a temporary detour remains to be seen — but one thing is clear:
Pooja Hegde is not slowing down.
She’s shifting gears.
And tamil cinema is where the engine is roaring loudest.
click and follow Indiaherald WhatsApp channel