It?s better to be actors than stars

Slow and steady wins the race seems to be the new success mantra for gen-X actors, writes Diganta Guha.

Slow and steady wins the race — this seems to be the new Bollywood mantra. Slog, slog and slog till success finally kisses your feet. The era of sensational debuts seems to be over (at least for the time being) because gen next actors want to be actors first and then stars.

Let's take it this way. Which was the last debutant who made an all India impact? Hrithik Roshan in his father’s Kaho Na Pyaar Hai in the year 2001. Since then there hasn’t been a single actor who could match Hrithik’s aura and the hype he created with his debut film.

Similarly, in the ‘80s Bollywood was witness to quite a number of debutants who created ripples and had producers and directors queuing up at their doors with offers. One such one-film wonder was Kumar Gaurav who was launched with a lot of fanfare by his father Rajendra Kumar in Love Story (1981).

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Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai catapulted Hrithik to stardon overnight.

The film worked and Gaurav became hot property. But a series of flops meant Gaurav was down and out. Then came Rajiv Kapoor, better known as Raj Kapoor’s youngest son who caught everyone’s fancy by kissing — oops smooching his leading lady Mandakini in

Ram Teri Ganga Maili

(1985).

And he too left the scene with success eluding him after that. Joining the elite club was Rahul Roy, who came and went after the superhit

Aashiqui

(1990).

Roy’s hairstyle was a rage among youngsters, but thanks to a series of dudes after his debut film, he was nowhere to be seen (he is now trying to make a comeback we heard). Yes, there have been successful debuts as leads (not necessary their debut release) like Sunny Deol and Amrita Singh in

Betaab

(1983), Aamir Khan in

Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak

(1988), Salman Khan with

Maine Pyar Kiya

(1989), Jackie Shroff with

Hero

(1983), Ajay Devgan with

Phool Aur Kaante

(1991), Shah Rukh Khan with

Deewana

(1992), to mention a few.

Even SRK’s wasn’t as sensational as Hrithik’s was. Meanwhile, two debutants who showed some promise were Viveik Oberoi with

Company

and Shahid Kapur with

Ishq Vishq

. But today’s actors are much more choosy and professional than most of their seniors.

If we have a look at the track records of our new-age actors we will find they are slowly and steadily consolidating their positions in the industry —Abhishek Bachchan, John Abraham, Priyanka Chopra, Lara Dutta, Ayesha Takia, Shreyas Talpade, Riteish Deshmukh and Shiney Ahuja, to mention a few. Yes, Priyanka, Lara, Shreyas and Shiney had successful debuts, but they have taken it easy after that.

It took John one Dhoom to finally make it to the big league. Priyanka on the other hand, had some success with her first two releases The Hero and Andaaz, but it was only with films like Mujhse Shaadi Karogi, Aitraaz and then Waqt that she made it to the top bracket. It has also got to do with the kind of films they are signing. Abhishek, Priyanka and John are big stars but they are good actors first.

They have also done off-beat films — Abhishek (Antar Mahal) and John (Water) or Ayesha (Dor). Take for example Bipasha Basu — she became hot after Ajnabee and Jism, but even she acknowledges the fact that she is passing through the best phase in his career now after Corporate where she came in with a changed image much hatke from her sex bomb tag in Ajnabee and Jism.

To a certain extent the new crop of actors is lucky. They have come at a time when a lot of experimentation is happening in the industry. Actors like Gaurav, Roy and others had to be content playing stereotypical roles that hardly had anything to offer. Yes, Roy had films like Jaanam and Phir Teri Kahaani Yaad Aayee to his credit, but to no avail.

Our new-age actors on the other hand have directors with new ideas and this has widened their options. They are ready to venture out and try different and challenging characters, which is why Ayesha bid adieu to her glamour girl image to play a village belle in Dor. Shreyas played deaf and dumb in his debut as a lead in Iqbal. And Abhishek and John looked out of the masala format.

“Today’s actors know that there is no point running after anything or everything. They are much more groomed and know what they should be doing instead of getting carried away with the hype,” says filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar.