By Surendra Bhatia
Toss Of A Coin…
Every time a star considers signing a new movie, he is at a crossroad. Irrespective of how good a script may seem, and the experience of technicians behind it and track record of the director and financial clout of the production house, a movie launched is not like an aircraft in flight, programmed to fly for a certain duration and land smoothly at the selected destination on schedule – a movie project is more like a crow taking off from a branch – there’s no telling where it would perch next or when.
Shah Rukh Khan has had a series of films that have disappointed the markets but it is not his fault, really. Among the many projects he must have been offered at each stage when he had to opt for a new one, he chose the one he thought best. At a crossroad, he took the path that seemed perfect or more correct to him – it just happened to be wrong. It was a choice that went sour. A couple of Aamir Khan hits had been offered to him first – like Lagaan – but he chose otherwise. He can’t be blamed for it, of course. How can anyone know – even the crow, for that matter – where the flight would take it?
It’s tougher for an A-lister like Shah Rukh because he chooses to do only one film at a time, one a year. So, the choice of film he selects is, as it is for all A-listers, the flip of the coin – heads or tails, with one of the two choices headed to disaster. Unfortunately, Shah Rukh called wrong – not once or twice but several times over the last few years. His work ethics, his acting skills, his commitment to the project are never in question. Whether the film ultimately ends up as a superhit or a flop, Shah Rukh always puts in his best. Today, he is unable to get himself to go through the toss again. He’s taken a break, a sabbatical just to gear himself up to make that crucial choice again. That’s how tough it can get for a star to zero in on a project.
But a crossroad offers a choice of this or that. It’s worse when a star, usually lower down the hierarchy from an A-lister, is at an intersection, when the need is to select not this or that but as many as five-six out of ten or fifteen different projects. It might seem easier in theory as the law of averages dictates that one-two of those five-six is/are likely to lead to success but what if just about each of those chosen paths turns out to be the one where the crow has dropped his load?
Sonakshi Sinha came into the film industry as Sona, the Golden Girl. Launched as Salman Khan’s co-star in super-hit Dabangg, she reeled off hit after hit for a few years till the intersection she was at confounded her. In recent years, the three-four projects she signs on each year have proved to be non-starters or flops, in sharp contrast to her early years in Bollywood. The Golden Girl – Sona – seems to have become a sleeping beauty at the box-office. It’s again not right – as with Shah Rukh – to blame her for it. She still looks great and does well in most of her films but the paths she has chosen at the intersection lead nowhere. What can she do about it? It’s just the choice that determines success or failure, apparently, not the hard work put into a film.
Take, for instance, Aamir Khan. He’s had an almost impeccable track record ever since the beginning of 2000; every film of his has not just been a crowd pleaser but has also won critical acclaim. Yet, the biggest film he’s done in this century, Thugs Of Hindostan, and possibly the most awaited because it co-starred him for the first time with Amitabh Bachchan, proved to be an unceremonious disaster. Aamir is known for his excellent choice of subjects which have often been startlingly different and yet successful. Unfortunately, Thugs Of Hindostan proved to be so different that even the combination of Amitabh and Aamir could not rescue it. Ultimately, it really boils down to the choice of film. After the release of Thugs…, most in the industry wondered how Aamir and Amitabh could not see it coming as the very script of Thugs… was full of holes. But, it is, after all, a toss of the coin. So, sometimes, even the best call it wrong.
However, stars unlike mortals, have an ongoing opportunity to take the turn that would lead them again on to the path of success. They may not be able to undo the past but their future could get rejuvenated with such zeal that the past failures don’t count. Salman Khan, between 2006 and 2008, went through a phase where everything that could go wrong in his career actually did, with films flopping one after the other so resoundingly that bugles were brought out to announce his last retreat. It wasn’t even a matter of whether his career was over; it was, quite simply, done and dusted, according to the obituaries then written. But then came Boney Kapoor’s Wanted which brought Salman back to the front, and then films like Dabangg, Ready and Bodyguard made mockery of the obituaries. By 2009-10, no one doubted that Salman was there to stay, and at the very top, and he has done just that in the years thereafter, despite a few flops here and there.
The phase that Shah Rukh Khan is going through currently is no different from what Salman endured in 2006-08. The series of poor choices that plagued Salman’s career then is casting its shadow now on Shah Rukh Khan. And Sonakshi Sinha. And a host of other stars. The choice of films is so much a matter of luck that it could well have some explanation in astrological charts. Maybe the answers lie there and manifest themselves as choices.
How else can anyone explain the incredible run currently enjoyed by the new Golden Girl of Bollywood – Alia Bhatt? Is there a step she takes that is wrong? Ever since her debut with Student Of The Year in 2012, Alia has had the kind of run that newcomers dare not even dream of. She has scored with almost every film (save Shandaar and Kalank), bringing in the crowds like nectar draws bees. Some of the films she has acted in seemed non-starters, like Raazi, for instance. A film about Pakistan that wasn’t overly anti-Pak… how could that work in India? But it did superbly, even though her hero, Vicky Kaushal, was a non-entity then, and her director, Meghna Gulzar, had an unenviable track record. The film just took off from the moment of release, like it was meant to be a huge hit. The same about Udta Punjab: its release was hampered by so many controversies that at one point, it seemed, it may have a hugely truncated opening; the hero, Shahid Kapoor, was not going through the best phase of his career, and the film was as dark as an owl at night; Alia herself was playing a deglamorised character, with a bit of meat in the role but not much popular appeal. But the film did not hesitate at the box-office. It took off brilliantly despite being held back in certain territories. It would be too much to attribute Alia’s luck for the success enjoyed by films like Raazi and Udta Punjab but surely, at the intersection, Alia and her film unit colleagues chose the right road.
Her Student Of The Year co-star, Varun Dhawan, has had a similar golden run. He too has had films that didn’t smell of success before release but which raced to the finish line in super-speed. In fact, Varun and Alia are the most outstanding stars at the moment, with track records that would be the envy of even A-listers. The same can’t be said about the other hero of Student Of The Year, Sidharth Malhotra, who has had a rocky career since his launch. But that is, as they say, the toss of the coin, camouflaged as choice of films, stars in astrological charts, and luck.
Whatever it may seem from the outside, it’s a tough life for stars. Failure, success, longevity of career, even survival, is so dependent on luck or choice of films that nowhere can they feel really in control. It’s simple to say that all they need to do is make a good film. Well, all film people start out trying to make a good film but then what explains the fact that almost 85% films released annually bite the dust? It is against such odds that stars try to sustain their careers, convinced that somehow or the other, against all odds, the film they have worked on so hard, will click at the box-office. That is not an easy way to live, to live and die by the toss of the coin, is it?
