We Need To Talk About Bollywood Stardom!

Added: 2026-05-06

[00:00:06]Everyone can't be popular for the rest of their lives.

[00:00:15]Every day you learn something in front of the cameras.

[00:00:19]And to just say I'll take a break for 3 years and then come back and assume that you know you're going to be in the same position.

[00:00:26]Is a fallacy.

[00:00:28]Before the end credits of Pathaan rolls, Salman Khan and Shah Rukh Khan as Tiger and Pathaan were found casually talking about the industry and its future. This is January of 2023. The atmosphere prior to this movie releasing was inundated with Bollywood movies failing at the box office. A highly anticipated movie like Brahmastra did average business compared to the investments financially and the highest grossers included the likes of Drishyam 2, Kashmir Files, Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 and Gangubai Kathiawadi.

[00:00:56]These were the handful of hits in a calendar year. The Hindi audience getting tired of remakes with star-led movies like Vikram Vedha and Laal Singh Chaddha terribly tanking. The same year had Telugu projects like RRR and Karthikeya 2 doing really well in the Hindi market. Kannada projects like KGF Chapter 2 and Kantara doing brilliantly and Tamil projects like Ponniyan Selvan and Vikram doing extremely well from a pan-India perspective. Then everyone assumed the tide was shifting. Hindi cinema was as bleak as one could imagine. This coupled with a debate at that point of time fueled at least online with a boycott Bollywood movement did not even consider the prospect of new stars being produced. It had created condolence messages already announcing the death of an industry. So when Pathaan with SRK and Salman's cameo did the unprecedented box office business that it did and presented a conversation in the end with the two stars who have given decades of hits to the industry stating "Humein hi karna padega bhai.

[00:01:53]Desh ka sawal hai. Bachchon pe nahi chhod sakte." You believed it then. The reason why I provide context to all of you of where we were where we are today is because the most convenient thing in an argument is the luxury of retrospect.

[00:02:07]When the Hindi film industry was in the mud absolutely getting beaten left, right and center by every other industry and one hope of a blockbuster genuinely emerged, you really thought it is the 90s stars of Hindi cinema that can bring life to an industry that was barely staying afloat. However, when the question arises of the statement "Bachchon pe nahi chhod sakte." I believe this statement has aged like milk because of what Amitabh Bachchan stated about stardom in the introduction. This is true for relevance in the Hindi film industry specifically.

[00:02:36]Stardom in Hindi cinema is transient and hugely dependent on one thing, success.

[00:02:42]I think you realize as you spend more time in this medium and maybe it's true for many and this is what we do so this is what we understand. It's driven by success. It's not driven by excellence.

[00:02:52]It's not driven by achievement. It's just essentially, primarily driven by success and nobody knows what success is and how to get it. So I think that's an insecurity that lies in this profession for the because of the nature of I think this is important to acknowledge when you look at the evolution of stardom in Hindi cinema since the 70s. Whenever I speak to my parents' generation, they say their earliest memory of fandom, of absolute madness, of pure hysteria regarding a Hindi film star was Rajesh Khanna. A man who was giving consecutive hits and was loved for his charm and flamboyance from the late 60s to the early 70s. The nature of what is transient in the Hindi film industry is that you never know who will take the mantle of being the next big thing.

[00:03:32]Amitabh Bachchan ruled the 70s with the rise of the angry young man and Salim-Javed movies and there was an assumption that he would be unstoppable.

[00:03:40]But this changed in the 80s. This era that is considered to be the dark ages of Hindi cinema where we mostly were seeing remakes of Tamil and Telugu movies appear as answers to commercial Hindi cinema. The presence of Anil Kapoor, Sunny Deol and Govinda showcased credible new talent as leading men and set in stone the notion that probably with each new decade there will be new faces that will rule the audience's heart. However, there is a unique feature to the 90s batch of stars from Hindi cinema that I believe is not acknowledged enough. It is remarkable that there are three actors. It happens to be the three of us, but it is remarkable that there are three actors who've got such a long span. Right. And all three equally successful and all three exactly the same time.

[00:04:23]It's not very common. If you were to consider the late 80s to the early 90s where the likes of Aamir Khan, Salman Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, Ajay Devgn and Akshay Kumar were launched as leading men, the unique feature of these stars is they are still after close to three decades still relevant, still working as leading men and still with the right project can command a unique hold at the box office. There is still for the most part a connection with the theater-going audience that has not fully gone despite the likes of Hrithik Roshan, Shahid Kapoor, Ranbir Kapoor, Ranveer Singh, Vicky Kaushal, Varun Dhawan, Rajkummar Rao and Ayushmann Khurrana actively working in the Hindi film industry as leading men. Why I think the arrogance of assuming that this will last forever is naive from the older generation of actors is because nothing lasts forever.

[00:05:16]I don't compare my career with either of them because they've had failures in their career. Your answer YOUR ANSWER IS THAT'S A GOOD ANSWER. Who knew that after the success of Pathaan that in the same year Sunny Deol would have a blockbuster with Gadar 2. The callback value of an iconic IP is one thing, but Deol had not had a box office hit since guess what? 2011 with the first Yamla Pagla Deewana. In the same year Ranbir Kapoor would star in a box office blockbuster like Animal and Hindi cinema with success dispersed throughout the calendar year saw one of the most profitable and financially lucrative years they had seen since quite some time. So whenever there is a sweeping statement that creates a binary, "Manje ye hai toh kuch nahi. Main hoon aur baaki sab theek hai." You should always take it with a grain of salt or with humor because the oscillating nature of this industry is such that you can be at the top of your game at one point of time and just completely falter within a few months. Avid fans of Hrithik Roshan would assume that he would soar even higher after a blockbuster like War and the predicament post the pandemic has been entirely different. This is true for Akshay Kumar whose movies and their box office performances are unpredictable. A movie like Selfiee can gross 23 crores with a 100 crore budget, but a mid-level project like OMG 2 could become a massive hit. Ajay Devgn can have a 200 crore blockbuster with Shaitaan and in the same year have a project like Aur Mein Kahan Dum Tha that grosses in its lifetime run around 12 crores. This makes me go back to what Siddharth Roy Kapur once said when everyone was discussing what is stardom.

[00:06:51]Mind you, this is prior to the pandemic.

[00:06:54]What is star power? What they bring you in on your opening day. Right. Which was 15 crores. Yeah.

[00:07:00]>> opening of all time in Indian cinema.

[00:07:02]That's the star power. Then it's about the film.

[00:07:04]>> But with Hindi cinema today, when this day one number is not even guaranteed across the board, then what becomes the star? It is not the individual, but the project. And this is where I have to mention the three horse race that people consider the baton being passed to from the 90s batch of actors, which is Vicky Kaushal, Ranbir Kapoor and Ranveer Singh. We often reminisce about the era in Hindi cinema where we would get a wide variety of films on the big screen with the likes of production companies like UTV and Phantom where even the supposed indie mid-budget films had a huge patronage in cinema halls. But this was prior to the digital and streaming platforms takeover, which normalized viewing exceptional storytelling from the comfort of your home. Anomalies will always exist, but the standardized approach for all producers post the pandemic has become what Ayushmann Khurrana said on a round table a few years ago. The trigger, the usher towards theaters, I think has to be great.

[00:08:00]Good is not good enough. Nahi toh OTT pe dekh lenge. This is something every actor who is even being discussed as a star has realized to in the current market and they are hell-bent on making sure that their filmography is something that people mark in their calendar years. This is what the likes of Ranbir Kapoor, Ranveer Singh and Vicky Kaushal specifically have decided now. The same Vicky Kaushal who did Zara Hatke Zara Bachke and Govinda Naam Mera, the same Ranveer Singh who did Lootera, Jayeshbhai Jordaar, the same Ranbir Kapoor who did Rocket Singh and Barfi will think 10 times before signing such projects. I know I have to be an optimist, but it is the harsh truth.

[00:08:39]Now the premise, the scale, the director involved and the investment associated with the projects has to be something that stands out from the plethora of content available. Ranveer Singh's upcoming project Prithvi, Ranbir Kapoor's slate with Ramayana, Love and War and Animal Park and Vicky Kaushal's with Mahavatar after Love and War prove precisely that. You have to remember why these three are making these decisions.

[00:09:01]It's because the obituaries written after a flop in Hindi cinema are dramatic announcing like it is end game versus how the audience reacts to failures in the other industries, especially with stars. Think about the Telugu and Malayalam film industry stars specifically. A Ram Charan can appear in back-to-back failures after RRR in the form of Acharya and Game Changer, but the audience is equally hyped for his upcoming movie Peddhi. The failure of movies do not translate into articles being written about Ram Charan's stardom being over. Devara with Junior NTR becomes an average grosser and War 2 becomes a disaster, but the NTR project with Prashanth Neel will still command a hype that will be unprecedented. The case of Prabhas is the most unique of the list of stars. Terrible flops, movies that are of extremely poor quality and in some cases even Prabhas being poor in those movies like Radhe Shyam, Adipurush and Raja Saab are criticized when they release, but the audience always pivots the attention towards what may be good in the midst of mediocrity, namely Salar and what lies ahead, hopefully, in the form of Spirit.

[00:10:05]If you were to see two legends like Mammootty and Mohanlal as well, their failures never lead to the media announcing their careers or stardom to be over. Their contribution to the industry is far too profound to be dictated by one flop. So, a Mammootty can have terrible projects like Christopher and Turbo. A Mohanlal can feature in face palm inducing films like Barroz and Vrashabha. The latter being one of the biggest financial disasters in the last 10 years or so, by the way.

[00:10:31]But, Drishyam 3 and Patriot will still have a lot of hype pre its release. A flop, especially pertaining to stars who have given years of fond memories at the movies, do not act as a final nail in the coffin. It's a mere blip in the long journey. Aamir Khan has proven that something with earnestness can garner an audience, but his endeavors as a producer and the brief cameos have left more to be desired. He may have the ability to adapt to do character roles and supporting characters in movies, much like how Amitabh Bachchan, Rishi Kapoor, and Anil Kapoor pivoted. But, I guess only time will tell. I, however, know one thing very well, something with certainty, that Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan will go the Rajinikanth route of being the lead hero who kicks ass till their last breath. Now, this can be packaged really well, like it was for Mohanlal in Thondimuthalum Drikshakshiyum, like Mammootty in Bheeshma Parvam, like it was for Kamal Haasan in Vikram. But, there is a point where it won't work. And the audience would urge the stars to evolve. While SRK is trying to formulate an action entertainer in the form of King with most of the industry cast in the film, it may be early days to judge this movie, but I hope it isn't an extension of the CGI slop the audience right now has developed an aversion towards, especially after the grounded action they have celebrated in packed theaters just a month ago with Dhurandhar. But, Salman Khan's predicament is extremely concerning. Post the pandemic, Salman Khan has only featured in terrible to mediocre films. Even what was considered to be a guaranteed no-fail zone in the form of Tiger ended up being just an average grosser. With Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan and Sikandar terribly tanking, all the eyes were on Battle of Galwan on whether this project can provide some respite in Salman Khan's career in this downward slope of sorts. And what this movie is dealing with is probably something you may have not seen in years in the industry. We are seeing movies getting banned, but this is a different case altogether. A movie based on recorded history, a conflict that happened in front of everyone's eyes, is being instructed by sources based on an article by Bollywood Hungama from official channels to not mention the word China in its entirety. A conflict with China is not allowed to mention the word China. This has presumably led to the makers of the movie heavily altering the film, not only changing its title from Battle of Galwan to Matrubhoomi, but re-shooting 40% of the film. The result that you see of essentially a war movie now just releasing marketing material with romantic numbers is all due to the several changes the makers have been instructed to employ. I am not at all insinuating as if the movie was going to be a masterpiece otherwise, but it's absolutely baffling to me on how the makers of movies now have to be on their toes regarding the transient nature of global geopolitics because a country could be our enemy in one year, but in the next our ally. So, just like YouTube videos where movie topics become irrelevant within a few days, even movie ideas become irrelevant within a few months. We have gone from boycotting Chinese apps and products just a few years ago to not being allowed to name them in a conflict that happened just a few years ago. This is not even the most concerning part because I anyway had my doubts on Battle of Galwan's quality, but it was rumored that Salman would be doing his next project with Raj and DK, a collaboration I was so excited about, presumably about a retired disgruntled superhero past his prime. It made me assume that it will have the self-awareness and zany humor we all love about Raj and DK's filmography.

[00:13:51]But, Salman's next project after Matrubhoomi is with the director of Virus. And I can't help but exclaim just one thing on how it feels to be an optimist regarding Salman Khan's film choices at this point. Brother, it's not a joke, brother. While I conclude by mentioning the frustrating nature of Salman Khan's choices, I know it is in the hands of someone as popular as Salman Khan only to change his box office fate. It just takes the right project and genuinely for the actor like him to simply give a that can change the trajectory of his career. The likes of Ranbir, Ranveer, and Vicky are the ones commanding the big projects that will have us hyped for months and years to come, I'm sure. But, the important point to understand with the '90s batch of stars is that they can never be fully discarded as having lost their stardom because they always will have a banger that can come out of nowhere and prove to you that they've still got it. Again, I say this to you, anyone who makes sweeping statements and binaries that the Khan stardom is over, that the '90s batch are old and irrelevant, that they can never come back, it's simply naive and not acknowledging the unexpected nature of the industry that can throw curveballs at you with that one right project that you least expected. Stardom is transient, but goodwill lasts a lifetime. And that was the video, guys.

[00:15:08]Write down in the comments below what you think about this concept of stardom.

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