Tamannah Bhatia who was so far perceived as a family entertainer with a wholesome non-controversial image, has outraged filmmakers and fans alike in the South with her on-screen intimacy , not just in one, but two back-to-back webseries.
In Amazon’s Jee Karda Tamannaah was hopelessly miscast as woman who lusts after the brother of the man she is about to marry. Just weeks after this in Netflix’s Lust Stories she was seen sharing smouldering smooches and blistering bedroom intimacy with her rumoured boyfriend actor Vijay Varma.
Tamannaah’s fans in Andhra Pradesh are not amused. Speaking from Hyderabad a prominent filmmaker wonders what the actress’ game-plan is. “What is she doing? For over twenty years she had a no-kissing no-intimacy policy in Telugu cinema.She was loved and respected for her demure wholesome image. Now suddenly she is trying to be another Priyanka Chopra. It hasn’t worked for Tamannaah. This kind of image-shift has not worked for anybody.”
This filmmaker, who incidentally has directed Tamannaah in the past, informs me that the actress has eroded her own fan base with her sudden switch from ‘Hema Malini to Zeenat Aman’. “She has lost a lot of credibility. You can’t say, you had one policy regarding ethical boundaries on one platform(cinema) , and you have another policy on another platform(OTT). It smacks of desperation.”