The popular culture of our times is  accustomed to celebrity reinventions. These are well-documented second acts of the life drama — sometimes even engineered for better visibility. We don’t want to mention Rakhi Sawant at this point but she springs to the mind!

When even Rakhi says she is going to ‘reinvent’ herself this year (by not being a ‘drama queen’ and a cry baby), you can gauge how popular the concept is! The celebrity world is indeed the world of second acts. Stuck careers and image problems have been smoothly overcome by a carefully worked-out makeover.

Rakhi’s just promising to, but the person who did really repackage himself in recent years is Akshay Kumar. Who would have thought a small-time chef from Bangkok, who had a passionate interest in the martial arts, would go on to become a much-admired superstar of our times, a hero with impeccable comic timing. Mind you, when he first strode on to the screen, he was your typical early 90s hero — all brawn, no emotive muscles and nothing to set him apart. But boy! Did he reinvent!

Then there is Shahrukh Khan. King Khan mumbled and bungled his way into Bollywood, irritating and annoying most people on his way up, with his over-the-top mannerisms and self-admitted range of five expressions. But he has been an individual who has always believed in reinvention to stay ahead.

When heroes shied away from roles that portrayed them as anything less than heroes, Khan coolly became an anti-hero and literally made a career out of being the poor little bad guy. And then, when that went out of fashion, he went on to reinvent Bollywood’s idea of a lover boy.

Shahrukh converted the soppy, pansified, chocolate hero to somebody with attitude and oodles of charm — a rake in fact.  He didn’t stop there.

As Bollywood began exploring scripts that went beyond puppy love and family dramas, Shahrukh sprung a Swades and a Chak de.

Today, in a time when lead actors’ bodies speak more than their eyes, Khan has a six-pack to rival the best in the business.

Making a career

Internationally, there is no better example than pop diva Madonna. Madonna has had more reincarnations than most people have in seven lifetimes. One suspects that her fame today is more due to her many makeovers than anything else that she has achieved. Sample this: She is a pop icon, a diva, a hippie, a children’s writer, an actor, a theatre artiste...Queen of Reinvention, if there was one!

Sometimes, celeb reinvention involves changing professions. Take the case of Arnold Schwarzenegger. From stone-faced performances in mindless action flicks to er..stone-faced Governor of California! Similar was the story of superstars N T Rama Rao and M G Ramachandran, both legendary actors, who reinvented themselves as legendary politicians.

Other times, reinvention becomes absolutely necessary to survive in showbiz. Look at Amitabh Bachchan. In financial trouble after the debacle of ABCL and fast losing his immense popularity, Amitabh’s reinvention began on television as a host of the game show KBC. What the audience saw was a man they had always admired, trying hard to bounce back, with wry humour and baritoned irony. And they loved him for it. And today, nothing it seems can stop the Bachchan juggernaut, except Bachchan himself.

Everybody, they say, deserves a second chance. And if you are still in doubt, just look at the stars.