South Indian actresses to sizzle in Bollywood

Lots of women flocked to Rohan Sippy's Dum Maaro Dum recently, but more because of the hunky Rana Dagubatti than Abhishek Bachchan. Stars from the south seem to be in a mood to dominate Hindi cinema, and the girls are doing it even more than the men.

After Genelia D'Souza, Asin, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Deepika Padukone have already blazed quite a trail in the industry, here's a look at other established southern heroines we'll be seeing in Bollywood films soon:

Ileana D'Cruz

The stunning Ileana has bagged a starring role in Anurag Basu's Barfee where leading man Ranbir Kapoor plays a mute.

D'Cruz, star of Kedi and heroine of Shankar's upcoming 3 Idiots remake, was picked over Southern aspirants Deepika Padukone and Asin because of her clear and correct Hindi diction. Priyanka Chopra is the film's other heroine.

Making her debut in the Telugu Jhummandi Naadam, young Taapsee starred opposite Dhanush in her Tamil debut, Adukalam.

Last seen in Mammootty-starrer Malayalam hit Doubles, she has several high-profile Telugu films coming up, including Veera, with Ravi Teja. With all this success under her belt, Taapsee's set for making her Bollywood debut with David Dhawan's Chashme Buddoor remake.

Tamil actioner Singham might have featured Suriya and Anushka Shetty in the lead roles, but while Shetty was on the shortlist for Rohit Shetty's Hindi remake, she was eventually pipped to the post by Kajal Aggarwal.

Aggarwal, a Telugu actress who started her career with a bit role in Kyun... Ho Gaya Na!, returns to Hindi with Singham later this year, starring Ajay Devgn.

One of Tamil cinema's top actresses boasting of such mega blockbusters as Ghajini, Chandramukhi and Billa, Nayantara replaces Ayesha Takia in Prabhu Deva's sequel to Wanted.

Titled Most Wanted, the Salman Khan film has already made the headlines because of Nayantara's scandalous affair with director Prabhu Deva.

Mumbai-born Charmy Kaur, 23, has made quite a name for herself in the South, especially in Telugu cinema.

Having appeared opposite Venkatesh, Nagarjuna, Ravi Teja, Sumanth, etc, she is a prominent heroine indeed. The young actress will be seen in Amitabh Bachchan starrer Bbuddah Hoga Tera Baap, directed by Puri Jagannath.

Kannada-born Lakshmi Rai, once rumoured to have been in a relationship with Mahendra Singh Dhoni, will soon hit Bollywood screens as she romances Himesh Reshammiya in Satish Kaushik's next, Hey Gujju.

Funnily enough, Rai was chosen in the film because Kaushik was hunting for a suitably Punjabi-looking actress for the part.