Future tense for Bollywood wannabes
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Bollywood
is often accused of essentially a family-based fraternity where
connections matter the most. But when no new star emerges even after
dime-a-dozen talent hunts, it is time to sit back and introspect. Every
other day new talent hunt show winners are announced but very few are
heard thereafter. Last week, Aditi Sharma and Sarwar Ahuja, who won Zee
TV's talent show "Zee Cinestars Ki Khoj", got a rare chance to star in
"Khanna & Iyer".
The quality of the two star wannabes
notwithstanding, they did not even have a fighting chance given the
poor script and nearly no publicity.
"Khanna & Iyer" had
Mukta Arts - a production house known for qualitative promotion - as
one of its producers. Yet the two actors were launched without the
customary hype and hoopla. Though Zee partnered with Mukta Arts on this
film, its promotion was extremely low-key and the quality of promos was
not up-to-the-mark either.
"Say Salaam India", which also
released last week, features a number of new faces but its distributors
- Adlabs - did not invest much in publicity of the film. Though the
unfortunate ouster of Team India from the cricket World Cup had a
bigger role in the cricket-based film going largely unnoticed.
Though
India produces the highest number of films in the world annually, the
dependence of the entire filmdom on half-a-dozen saleable stars and
even a lesser number of production houses is bad economics.
The entire Hindi film fraternity can be broadly divided into camps.
Yash
Raj Films is clearly the industry's number one banner. They will be
working with all the top actors from Shah Rukh Khan to Saif Ali Khan to
the Bachchans (Amitabh and Abhishek) to Madhuri Dixit to Preity Zinta
to Rani Mukerji.
Then there is the Karan Johar camp, whose
Dharma Productions shares its pool of stars and clout with Yash Raj.
Next prestigious film group is the Rakesh Roshan camp, which is the
most closely-knit family affair.
The new players who are
coming in on the clout of money are business tycoon Anil Ambani-backed
Adlabs and Ronnie Screwvala's UTV, who produced the hit film "Rang De
Basanti".
Adlabs has tried tying up with stars like Hrithik
Roshan and Akshay Kumar to multi-million-rupee deals while there is
talk that UTV has got director Rakeysh Mehra into a four-film Rs.2.8
billion deal. At least for now, the big moneybags do not seem too keen
on launching new faces.
Even the mavericks like Vidhu Vinod
Chopra and Ram Gopal Varma have their own band of favourites. The
Bhatts (Mukesh and Mahesh) also work in silos making their kind of
movies with their kind of actors.
Even the influx of corporate
money has not made the path less arduous for new comers, especially
males, with no connections in Bollywood. In the 1980s, the Film and
Television Institute of India (FTII) used to be a good source of acting
talent. The acting course was resumed at the FTII two years ago, but
the graduates are not making any news.
Luck, however, has
favoured some female actors like Ayesha Takia and Kangana Ranaut. While
the latter was discovered when the filmmaker was on a lookout for a
fresh lead to cast opposite a star kid he was launching, the former got
lucky when she ran into a filmmaker at a coffee shop.
But in
the Hindi film industry there is only so much a female actor can
achieve. Take Kareena Kapoor for instance. She just bagged prestigious
awards for her acting prowess but is jobless because she has fallen out
of favour with nearly all Bollywood camps. Clearly, for the talent pool
to grow big banners need to launch films with newcomers.
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Star
wannabes with Bollywood family connections are assured of at least a
good launch. Where they go after that will depend on which camp they
are able to align with. The star kids waiting in the wings are Neil
Mukesh, son of Nitin Mukesh and grandson of legendary singer Mukesh,
who will make his debut in "Johnny Gaddar".
Soniya Mehra,
daughter of late actor Vinod Mehra, will bow in Bollywood with Anant
Mahadevan's "Victoria No 203" remake. Anil Kapoor's daughter Sonam will
debut with Sanjay Leela Bhansali's "Saawariya". She stars opposite
Ranbir, son of yesteryears hit actors Rishi and Neetu Kapoor.
Mithun
Chakraborty's son Mimoh's film is also ready for release but given the
fact that Mithun did not belong to any Bollywood camp there is no
telling how long the film will take before it has enough financial
backing to be launched.
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Some Bollywood wannabes
without connections to the film fraternity have come up with the shock
therapy way to grab attention. Talented Mallika Sherawat, who has now
landed a prestigious Hollywood film, has perfected the art. Others are
hoping to shine too.
Revealing posters of female debutantes in
films like "Waqt" and "Mumbai Express" suggest we are in for more shock
and awe assaults by star wannabes.
By Priyanka Khanna, Indo-Asian News Service
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