Young talent leads at the Indian box office

MUMBAI: New stars are emerging in Bollywood, with fresh talent currently more popular among cinema audiences and studios than established names as the industry hunts for a successful formula.

Ranbir Kapoor and Imran Khan, both aged 27, have starred in two of the most successful films of 2010 - Raajneeti and I Hate Luv Storys.

Raajneeti took INR320 million in its first week while I Hate Luv Storys took Rs790 million, leading film critic and analyst Taran Adarsh told India FM.

Meanwhile, names such as Hrithik Roshan, 36, Abhishek Bachchan, 34, and his 67-year-old father, Amitabh, have suffered a slump, as studios count losses running to an estimated Rs5,000 million since the start of the year.

Roshan’s Kites failed to live up to its pre-release hype while Abhishek’s Raavan also fell flat.

Even megastar Amitabh’s underworld thriller Teen Patti made little impact, despite an appearance by British veteran and Gandhi star Ben Kingsley, while the drama Rann also failed to make waves.

Big B, last week admitted he had no current film offers, which had prompted him to return to television as the host of “Kaun Banega Crorepati”.

Advertisers have taken note of the apparent shift in Bollywood’s demographics, which reflects a broader trend in the population. About a third of India’s nearly 1.2 billion people are under 15.

Until recently, Bollywood relied on a handful of big name stars for box office success.

But that has been proven to be no guarantee, particularly when actors such as Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan have cut back their filming schedules, concentrating on one big film a year or projects through production companies.

Among the young upstarts, Kapoor and Imran have the perfect credentials for future success in Bollywood -- most importantly they have one or more famous family members.

For Kapoor, it is his grandfather, the acting legend Raj, and father Rishi while Aamir is the nephew of Aamir Khan.

However, not everyone is comfortable with being termed stars.

“I have seen the film world from very close quarters, as my family is in this business,” said Imran. “I have seen tremendous highs and tremendous lows. It’s a very uncertain place to be.”

“Today, everyone is praising you but tomorrow if your film flops, people will not even recognise you.

So you have to be grounded all the time and work hard to prove yourself every day. I have a long way to go in my career,” he said. AFP

Published in The Express Tribune, July 14^th, 2010.