In continuation of my last weekend blog on nepotism and camps in Bollywood.
In the last weekend blog I forgot to mention one name who has survived 2 decades in the Bollywood because he is a son of one of the biggest celebrity parents of Bollywood, I am talking about Abhishek Bachchan. He is one person who has staged many comebacks. He started his career in 2000 with film called Refugee, which at box office was a complete failure and whatever business it did was the audience curiosity for watching Jaya & Amitabh Bachchan’s son and Babita & Randhir Kapoor’s daughter Kareena. Although Abhishek is not a bad actor but after his debut most of his films where he had lead role never did good business, few of his films which were multi starrer did good business. Very few films where he had lead role were successful, and they were Bunty aur Babli, Bluff Master, Guru etc. For last 2 decades he is still surviving in Bollywood because of his surname Bachchan, and other actor of similar calibre would have been shunted out from Bollywood long time back.
Now let is talk about few actors who had no contacts within Bollywood but they made it. In the recent times the first name which comes to mind is that of Shah Rukh Khan. He graduated from Doordarshan to films in early 90s with film called Deewana in 1992. He was lucky enough to be picked by Yashraj Films (Yash Chopra’s banner) early in his career for film called Daar(1993), and he did many films with that banner. In the first decade of his career he developed good equation with other camps like Dharma Production (Yash & Karan Johar) and few other small camps. He was reluctant to take chances with other directors and refused many films with them. He started his own production house initially with actress Juhi Chawla, and then his independent production house. He got stuck up with his lover boy image, but as he grew older people rejected his lover boy image, and later whenever he experimented with other roles, the films did not create any box office wonders. His son and daughter both have shown inclination to join Bollywood, and it is certain that they will be launched by either his production house of some other big camp. So NEPOTISM now.
Second actor who achieved success without any godfather and contacts in Bollywood is Akshay Kumar. He also started his career in early 90s, initially he mostly starred in action films and his action were very much appreciated, later along with action films he started doing comedy roles also, and he appreciated in his comedy also. In the last one decade he has switched to very meaning full cinema, and some of his films of recent times like Airlift, Raid, Padman, Rustom, Kesri and others were highly appreciated by audience. Along with acting in meaningful cinema, he keeps on acting in other Masala films also where he has to do either comedy or action. He is one actor who had evolved with the times, and is surviving in Bollywood without belonging to any major camps.
Other actor who has done good for himself is John Abraham, he entered Bollywood through modelling and is still surviving for almost 2 decades. He, like Akshay Kumar, also does not belong to any camp, and has survived on his own talent.
In recent time one actor, who is in an outsider in Bollywood, who has survived and made a niche for himself is Ayushman Khurana, who debuted in 2012 with Vicky Donor. In last couple of years he has done some brilliant work in films like Andhadhun, Badhai Ho, Bala, Dream Dirl. One more actor who is from outside and who is also doing good work is Raj Kumar Rao. Both of them do not belong to any camps, as they are not any threat to the superstars of the Bollywood who are there at the top because of nepotism or camp,so they are surviving. Presently they are doing films with small banners and have not signed any films with big banners. We do not what will be their fate when some big banner signs them. Will they have suffer same like Sushant Singh Rajput?
Some other actors who were outsider and made the name for themselves in recent times are Kangana Ranaut, Kirti Sanon, Karthik Aryan, Vidya Balan, Sonu Sood, Deepika Padukone, Priyanka Chopra, Sushmita Sen and Preity Zinta. They are prime examples of the actors who have survived being an outsider.
The fact is that after Shah Rukh Khan & Akshay Kumar, no hero has achieved super stardom after coming from outside. Actors who have made it to super stardom are Aamir Khan, Salman Khan, Saif Ali Khan, Karishma & Kareena Kapoor, Ranbir Kapoor, Hrithik Roshan, Aalia Bhatt, Varun Dhawan are all insiders. There are so many other insiders who are waiting in the wings to enter the Bollywood.
One thing is certain that Bollywood is one industry where chance of insider succeeding is much greater that the outsider succeeding.
Awaiting your feed backs/views/comments.
Anil Malik
Mumbai, India
10th July 2020