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Moviestar to Millionaire
This decade, a super-star broke out in Bollywood, and Bollywood broke out on the world stage.
2000 Hrithik Roshan
Phata poster nikla hero! He could sing, he could dance, he could romance, and he could beat the s**t out of the bad guys. He could easily be the boy-next-door, Rohit, and just as easily be the larger-than-life hunk, Raj (Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai). After a debut that was the stuff of legends, which thrust him into public consciousness as a superstar, Hrithik Roshan could play God if he wanted to.
Kids looked upto him, single girls wanted to marry him and the married ones wanted to tie him a rakhi. The men cursed him in awe and envy. King Khan wasn’t the monarch of Bollywood anymore – there was a new taker for the crown.
2001 Dil Chahta Hai cult
For the longest time, Bollywood was for wide-eyed small towners, for the joint families yearning for masala in their salt-and-pepper lives, or for the Sholay generation who still thought melodrama was cool. The urban Indian was happy with HBO. But that was before Farhan Akhtar arrived.
Who knew that a film starring 30-something men with radical hairstyles, in a movie about friendship could redefine the Bollywood landscape? Dil Chahta Hai did just that. It brought the MTV generation to the cinemas, caused the multiplex revolution, and singularly had the biggest cultural impact on urban fashion since bell-bottoms. The movie had made Bollywood ‘cool’.
2002 The Oscar buzz
Even Aamir Khan hadn’t thought it could work. He initially rejected the script many-a-time, but was finally convinced by Ashutosh Gowarikar that the movie, set in the pre-independence era, about a village taking on the British Raj, through the… err… game of cricket, was a viable idea. But not only did Lagaan reinterpret the way India looked at sports movies – with throngs of cinema-goers on their feet, whistling and applauding in theatres – it got India an Oscar nomination after 13 years. For the rest of the year and beyond, all roads led to the Oscars and all movies were potential nominees – from Devdas to The Legend of Bhagat Singh.
2003 Munnabhai, the hero
Sanjay Dutt playing the role of a ‘bhai’… again in a movie about a ‘bhai’ studying to be a doctor. The absurdity of it all could have easily resulted in a box-office bomb.But one Raju Hirani, a first-time director, had added a secret ingredient to the mix – old school goodness. The movie made us laugh and cry at the same time, catapulted Arshad Warsi as the next-best-thing in comedy, and made Jadoo ki jhappi a cultural statement. Hirani gave a whole new meaning to the age-old term – If laughter was the best medicine, Munnabhai was the doctor for you!
2004 Sleaze fest
It was Mallika Sherawat’s Murder, which set the mercury rising in Bollywood. Filmmakers no longer shied away from making Bollywood movies rated ‘A’, actresses no longer shied away from shedding inhibitations, and well, Emraan Hashmi didn’t shy away from smooching more actresses.
Sherawat’s scandalicious quotes, audacious photoshoots and legendary on-screen kisses made her a paparazzi favourite, several Murder clones - ‘bold’ sleazefests on extra-marital affairs – became the trend of the season.
2005 Ab tak Bachchan
In an industry where survival depended not on talent, but the ability to look and act young; sexagenarian Amitabh Bachchan, with his grey beard intact, continued defying stereotypes since his comeback on the big screen with Mohabbatein in 2001. Instead of being fit in roles that demanded younger characters, movies were being written around him, and for him, and it was suddenly the season’s fad to cast a 60-plus actor in the lead – only if the actor was Amitabh Bachchan.
2006 Socially conscious Bollywood
It’s not easy to wake up an entire generation from sweet slumber. But two movies, with drastically different ideologies, had the most significant socio-cultural impact on India in its history.Rang De Basanti brought youth activists to the streets with candlelight vigils as protest, even as people across the country, inspired by Lage Raho Munnabhai, were sending flowers to highlight pressing issues, in Gandhigiri style. The youth had found finally found a voice.
2007 Aamir’s the man
He had done it before. Rang De Basanti, Lagaan, Dil Chahta Hai, Ghulam had all been successful at the box office. But with the drastically offbeat Taare Zameen Par, Aamir Khan proved it once, and for all, that he had his fingers on the pulses of the moviegoers.
With his first film as director, and second film as producer, Khan cracked the box office through the poignant tale of an unlikely hero – an eight-year-old child suffering from dyslexia – which defied all Bollywood sensibilities. Not only did the movie provide a platform for a strong social message, it established Khan as the most intelligent actor in the movie business – if it can be done, Aamir’s the man to do it!
2008 Rise of the indie
Independent cinema in India has been a much-confused concept. Called parallel cinema or arty cinema or even offbeat movies for the longest time, the indie movie finally got its due in 2008, when understated, under-hyped low-budget movies, came from nowhere, and took over cinemas by storm.
Strongly aided by the multiplex phenomenon and UTV’s production house specifically dedicated to modest-budget movies, A Wednesday, Mumbai Meri Jaan and Fashion won over critics and audiences alike. A new cinema had emerged, and with audience support, it’s here to stay.
2009 Slumdog Millionaire
It was the ultimate underdog story of a boy from the slums who won over the girl of his dreams and a Crore Rupees in the meanwhile. And Danny Boyle’s emotional rollercoaster, Slumdog Millionaire, managed to win over the hearts of people across the globe as well.
The movie struck gold at the BAFTA and the Oscars,
A R Rahman was hailed, Anil Kapoor found his groove, Freida Pinto and Dev Patel were discovered, and India became the toast of the world. As talks of Shantaram being revived come up, Maximum City set to be revived, and Boyle collaborating with Anurag Kashyap on a trilogy, it is not the last we’ll see of Mumbai on the world stage. And hopefully, not the best either.
