Eat, pray and love Bollywood, then you better be in Mumbai. That’s how it was a couple of years ago. Then in 2009 along came a string of Delhi films, spawning the Capital’s very own community of ‘junior artistes’. Three years on, the dream merchants of Bollywood have come to depend on Delhi for fresh blood.
There are about 5,000 junior artistes in the city. But Delhi’s novelty lies not just in its numbers.
“What makes Delhi artistes different is their good looks and profile — doctors, lawyers, teachers...,” says RP Singh, a city-based line producer who provides film production services for Bollywood and Hollywood.
Where Delhi scores over Mumbai is the cost factor —artistes charge less — and absence of artistes’ unions.
The only glitch is that city artistes are often posher than the film stars. “A lead actor once had a problem because the junior artiste would come in a BMW while he had an Innova,” says Gurmeet Kaur, casting director of Saheb Productions.