Baadshah of Bollywood

Where will our next superstar come from?

Bollywood today is a happy place in terms of Superstars. If you look at the three Khans, Akshay, Ajay and Hrithik - then you could more or less be convinced that you are looking at half a dozen superstars. Then if you look at our female actresses probably a similar number is going very strong. That is good news today, tomorrow could be really bad.

We just don't have a good number of reliable superstars for tomorrow. Some of them are discussed below but somehow, they have not really come across as that convincing today that they could carry forward the immense good work that the six names mentioned above have delivered so far.

Ranbir Kapoor - if I could say that he has been the most disappointing by his choice of films in the past few years and yet he remains our best bet for the next decade then I am stating the biggest irony of Bollywood right now. RK showed such tremendous form in his initial movies like ‘Bachna Ae Haseeno’, ‘Rajneeti’ and ‘YehJawaani Hai Deewani’ in particular as this one almost convinced that here is an actor who has solid range and also that X factor which gets the audiences inside the theatre, what stood between him and that crown of the next emperor was a big hit and then came ‘Besharam’. Directed by a man who had ‘Dabangg’ behind him and an actor who could do nothing wrong at the box office the movie tanked big time. Since then Ranbir's movies have become patchy, sure the critics fell in love with his ‘Rockstar’ and ‘Tamasha’, and to be fair the man put his last molecule of energy in it - yet the movies were dragging and added to the bombed at box office list for the Kapoor. ‘Jagga Jasoos’ had its heart in the right place yet it is one of the biggest failures of Bollywood this year and Ranbir is now a pale shadow of his two-three years ago past. Having said that, if there is still one actor who we can hope to turn things around its Ranbir.

Ranveer Singh - Truly an outsider. Dismissed as loud by the critics initially. Laughed at for his speaking style initially. Ranveer Singh, after Govinda and Akshay, was the most laughed at actor. Till Sanjay Leela Bansali developed a liking for him. ‘Ramleela’ and ‘BajiraoMastani’ added with ‘DilDhadakne Do’ has ensured RS is an A-lister propah actor. To be fair his acting has grown in leaps with every outing. Again, in his case, the irony is so matching to the initial years of Govinda and Akshay, outside the ‘Khiladi’ movie Akshay and outside the David Dhawan directed movies Govinda were blanks. You can match that to the Bansali and Ranveer duo. Outside his teaming up with SLB, Ranveer just does not have anything to show. Yes, there was a ‘Band Baja Baraat’ that was so long ago it seems as old as the Taj Mahal. Again, like Ranbir, this man has everything in him to be the king and yet the X factor is eluding him. In fact, unlike Ranbir, outside the Bansali tag RS' movies do not even bring the initials.

Arjun Kapoor - You might want to ask does he even deserve to be discussed as a future probably “Baadshah” of Bollywood try looking at his track record, some of his movies, as bad as a ‘Gunday’ were profit making bets for his makers. ‘Half Girlfriend’ and ‘2 States’ are some of the better ROI stories of Bollywood in recent years. Sure, his acting so far is not something where you remember his go to roles but he is good enough in the hurt-lost-brooding roles. A dark horse for sure, should he keep shooting these surprise hits, you never know. We can keep him in the impossible bet section but an impossible bet also has its chances remember. AK falls in that category, remember not many gave his uncle many chances too, he came super close to toppling Amitabh from the throne once.

There are other names too Sidharth Malhotra and Varun Dhawan for instance. Both are competent. Both have some track to show. But, give me one solo hit of these two, which was to their credit. Riteish Deshmukh stole the thunder in ‘Ek Villain’, where to be fair Sidharth Malhotra did put in a decent effort. Superstars do not let other steal their limelight. Period.

So, the wait for the next Baadshah is on.