Time for a thread on Indian stereotypes

Read on to know why a some "Madrasis" haven't had a pan-Indian impact

Legend has it that the Madrasi is anyone who's south of the Vindhyas—the coconut oil-loving Malayali, the Reddy who's a spicy food addict or the dark-skinned, lungi-clad Tamilian who speaks broken Hindi.

But even stereotypes seem to ignore an entire state and its peoples—Karnataka and Kannadigas. And that's weird considering Indians love to reduce anyone and everyone to caricatures.

Look around you: movies, TV serials or even ads have a stock representation of people from different regions.
The Bengali? Voracious fish eater. Punjabis? Love grand weddings and break into the Bhangra at the drop of a hat.

The ready reckoner for someone from Karnataka is practically absent. What's the stock portrayal of Kannadigas in Bollywood and Hindi TV channels? Please enlighten me. How would their attire, language be portrayed?

As far as I know, the last time a mainstream Bollywood flick portrayed a lead character as from the state was perhaps Ghajini, in which Asin says her father was some "Shetty" from Mangaluru. Know of any other examples? Feel free to reply

An exchange of talent between film industries helped establish impressions: Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan from TN; Venkatesh and Rana Daggubati from Greater Andhra; and Mohanlal, Mammooty from Kerala.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the likes of Rajkumar, Srinath or Ambareesh—great actors in their own right—rarely ventured out of Sandalwood, the Kannada film industry.

Sure, Girish Karnad and MS Sathyu were trendsetters in art cinema. Shankarnag directed "Malgudi Days", an all-time Doordarshan classic. His brother Anant Nag won national awards. But actors from Karnataka didn't make a mark on mainstream Hindi cinema-the dominant film industry.

I'm, of course, not talking about the recent Yash-starrer KGF, the Kannada flick that was dubbed into multiple languages and released. That was an exception, not the norm

After all, Kannadigas were among the initial settlers in Mumbai from "down south", setting up "Udupi" restaurants. When the Shiv Sena attacked them in the '60s, I'm guessing they were identified as the "Lungi hatao pungi bajao" group.

The Shettys, Rais and Pais from coastal Karnataka made a mark in Mumbai but very few are identified as from the region. Case in point: Aishwarya Rai, Prakash Raj, who were wildly popular in Tamil and Telugu cinema before they entered Bollywood...

Shilpa Shetty and her sister Shamita, both hailing from Mangaluru, barely acted in Kannada movies.
Sudeep, once a regular in Ram Gopal Varma's movies, is an established Kannada actor. But I don't know if he'd consider it as a selling point in his career

Or take the case of Deepika Padukone, the "Mannina Magalu" (daughter of the land), badminton champion Prakash Padukone's kid.
She wasn't even sold to audiences as a Kannada actor despite debuting in Sandalwood.

This disparity exists even among movies made in the south. Tamil movies have had more Telugu or Malayali characters. Rare as he/her was, the character that spoke Kannada in Tamil films was rarely portrayed with dignity—a function of the Karnataka-TN Cauvery water dispute...

...One honourable mention stands out. Dharala Prabhu (Tamil remake of Vicky Donor) was refreshing in that the leading lady spoke Kannada on screen and she wasn't villified!

Look at our entrepreneurs: NRN or Azim Premji founded companies that transformed India. So did Dhirubhai Ambani. But you'd have phrases like "epitome of Gujaratiness" to describe the Reliance group's patriarch. Find me one such phrase to describe NRN/Nilekani or others

Take politics. Be it NTR or Chandrababu Naidu; K Kamaraj, MGR, Karunanidhi and Jayalalithaa; or from EMS Namboodiripad to Pinarayi Vijayan, there were multiple politicians from these three (now four) states over the decades that had a national footprint.

But barring S Nijalingappa, who served as president of the Congress party in the 1960s, there weren't many leaders from Karnataka with a pan-India impact. RK Hegde may have made it big, but the phone-tapping scandal of the 80s did him in... (Correct me if i'm wrong)

...The likes of BS Yeddyurappa, DK Shivakumar and HD Deve Gowda, who served as prime minister for a short stint, may be rare exceptions. HN Ananth Kumar may have been another, but he died young for a politician

Is this because how the state was created? A portion of present-day Maharashtra and Telangana were carved out to form north K'taka. These regions are still known as Bombay Karnataka and Hyderabad Karnataka. B'luru & Kolar have always had a high number of Telugu, Tamil speakers.

Other states like Odisha and the north-east, too, face a similar situation. While on it, how many of us can list out a few dishes from Odisha? As for the North-East and Jammu and Kashmir, they seem to exist in a mental black hole to all of us.

But why should this matter? If people aren't considering a region even for stereotypes, how would it remain in our collective consciousness? Even Doordarshan has stopped making videos like "mile sur mera tumhara..."

the "mile sur mera tumhara" had two people dressed in Coorgi attire representing Karnataka. My guess is the video's makers may have gone for it as the Coorgis—an enterprising people—have a distinct attire.