Are young actors overthrowing Bollywood’s Top Six?

While the Khans, Devgn and Roshan take a back seat, the newbies have been ruling the screens. However, some of their track records don't seem promising

Films have never been the same since 2020 for obvious reasons. The changes are not only wide-ranging but defining, chiefly because of the concurrent rise of the web originals.

And so it is assumed, presumed, predicted, and concluded that the reign of the top Six — Aamir, Salman, and Shah Rukh Khan, Akshay Kumar, Ajay Devgn, and Hrithik Roshan — is over and that young blood is set to take over.

After all, why should today’s generation accept icons of their fathers’ generations? They want stars they can relate to and identify with. But is such a breed ready to take over the mantle?

And can this young blood cope with the financial demands of an industry that needs to get out of the terrible slump it has seen since March 2020? Stars are distilled and marketed, like wine, over years by a combination of factors that begin with successive hits and extend to individual charisma, a huge and broad audience-pulling draw, professionalism, and to an extent media support. They are not created overnight (remember Kumar Gaurav?), and in a big-screen-entertainment-hungry culture like ours, are needed to sustain a mass-medium like cinema.

Let us, therefore, examine some names as possible successors.

Ranveer Singh

This actor broke the 300 crore monopoly of Aamir and Salman with ‘Padmaavat’. His other “quantum hits” were not only Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s two earlier films, ‘Goliyon Ki Raasleela—RamLeela’ and ‘Bajirao Mastani’ but also ‘Gully Boy’ and Rohit Shetty’s ‘Simmba’. A huge fan base and a firm head on his shoulders that salutes the cream of Hindi cinema from the ‘70s to the ‘90s make Ranveer the best, if not the only, candidate as of now for future superstardom.

His films to come — ‘83’ as Kapil Dev, ‘Cirkus’ based on William Shakespeare's The Comedy Of Errors and ‘Jayeshbhai Jordaar’, are a good mix. And he is back as Simmba in a cameo in ‘Sooryavanshi’. Added asset: Ranveer has steadfastly avoided films directly streamed on OTT. For stardom is about exclusivity, right?

Tiger Shroff

Within certain parameters, Tiger is a star, because even his mediocre products (‘Baaghi 2’, ‘Baaghi 3’) and ‘War’ have enjoyed better first week collections than the lifetime collections of films of lesser names! Yes, he is exclusively slotted for now in the Biff!-Pow!-Bang! cadre. But then, so were many other big names from the past, like Ajay Devgn and Akshay Kumar. Next to Ranveer, and subject to his choices, Tiger is the best bet for a future superstar.

Ayushmann Khurrana

The dream six-hits-in-a-row record has been a shade diluted with the average hit ‘Article 15’ and the disaster that was the OTT release ‘Gulabo Sitabo’. Ayushmann may be correct in his modest choices, but his audience, mostly, is modest too — like his next rom-com, ‘Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui’. But stardom is much more than just doing a different kind of cinema, even if successful. Remember Amol Palekar?

Kartik Aaryan

Kartik Aaryan is getting there, but slowly because of his erratic choices. His track-record shows anything but consistency, with a ‘Love Aaj Kal’ coming after ‘Pati Patni Aur Woh’ and ‘Luka Chhupi’. ‘Bhool Bhulaiya 2’, however, looks promising again. As of now, he is hardly a big star or mega-revenue material and needs to work on his range.

Ranbir Kapoor

The ace up his sleeve is his monumental talent. Otherwise, his choices too tend to go wrong. Ranbir Kapoor’s ‘Brahmastra’ and ‘Shamshera’ seem to be getting stale now. However, maybe he is getting the act right finally with an actioner like ‘Animal’. After all, the South knows how to pull in the audience better than their Mumbai counterparts, right?

Varun Dhawan

Here was a star with great potential as seen from his early brushes with success. Of late, however, Varun Dhawan has been going woefully wrong. In any case, Varun never commanded the kind of fandom the Top Six have.

Shahid Kapoor

Obsessed with so-called “quality” cinema, Shahid Kapoor had a rude awakening when ‘Padmaavat’ and ‘Kabir Singh’ became mega-hits. Shahid is now doing another South remake, ‘Jersey’ and a web series to satisfy his creative urges.

Rajkummar Rao, Vicky Kaushal, Vikrant Massey, and Ishaan Khatter are other names that are meant for niche projects. Sidharth Malhotra and Arjun Kapoor need a lot of luck and great judgment. Abhimanyu Dassani, Aayush Sharma, and Siddhanth Chaturvedi do not even begin to count.

In 2021, therefore, we have to rely on the Big Six for the industry to survive. And web or no web, the grandeur of big-screen entertainment will continue to enmesh us in entertainment.