Genelia's professional movie career began, with her Bollywood debut "Tujhe Meri Kasam" in 2003. Film critic Taran Adarsh noted, "Genelia is a wonderful performer. She catches you unaware with a performance that's natural to the core." The film was a box-office success. However, it could not do much to propel her career in Bollywood. Later, she decided to act in South Indian films. The same year, she made her Tamil debut as the teenage girl Harini in "Boys", a story about five teenagers having stereotypical teen-boy fantasies. The movie, though noted for its vulgar sexual content, was a box-office success, and subsequently she started receiving Telugu film offers. She left Tamil cinema for a while to concentrate on the Telugu film industry. She made her Telugu debut in 2003 as a medical student in "Satyam". Sify noted in their review that, "Genelia is excellent as her body language is her major asset." The movie was well received, and it raised her profile in the Telugu film industry.