By Surendra Bhatia
There’s much to disbelieve in fairy tales and children stories put together to provide kids with a moral compass that adults loathe to heed. Like the story about the hare and the tortoise… okay, so the first time the hare was taken by surprise and he may have lost out but that wouldn’t become the norm, right? Surely, never again would a tortoise be able to beat the hare in the race.
In Bollywood, Ayushmann Khurrana is proving to be the fairy tale that has become difficult to believe. The man, not taken too seriously despite sterling performances in Vicky Donor and Dum Laga Ke Haisha — the films were surprising hits — is charting a course that is incredible. There are unlikely to be similar instances in Bollywood history. Ayushmann, in the last couple of years, has been piling on hit after hit, starting with medium-budget ones like Bareilly Ki Barfi and Shubh Mangal Saavdhan, and gaining in intensity with each new release, with his latest — Bala — pulling in his highest ever opening of Rs. 10.15 crore! Astonishingly, in these last two years, he has had not a single flop.
Some people might compare Ayushmann’s successful run to that of Rajesh Khanna when the latter hit a golden patch and his films over two years celebrated silver jubilees. But the comparison doesn’t hold. Khanna was a heartthrob and a huge star after his initial hits. Ayushmann, even today, is not even one-tenth as big or popular as Rajesh Khanna was after Aradhana and Do Raaste — which, actually, makes Ayushmann’s successful run even more difficult to believe… Rajesh Khanna became the star who couldn’t fail because of his personal popularity. Ayushmann is what he is becoming because of his films. Huge difference, this. Fans used to crowd cinemas to see Rajesh Khanna in a way they don’t for Ayushmann; but they seem to like every film Ayushmann Khurrana does.
While Ayushmann is gaining in popularity and becoming a star, the real story of his success is about the films he has done, and is doing. Over the last two years, or maybe from the very beginning of his career with Vicky Donor, Ayushmann has opted for unusual film stories that won’t make sense to established stars or even young actors with starry ambitions. But, with him, they have worked, superbly.
That really is his secret to success. In a way, he seems to have Aamir Khan’s nose for stories. Aamir’s story sense has failed him only once, in Thugs Of Hindostan, in this century; Ayushmann’s nose is probably the most envied one in Bollywood — for stories, that is — for, it has not really failed him as yet in the last two years.
However, maybe it is the scale of his films that is also doing the trick. At investments of just about Rs. 30-40 crore, he can afford to select stories like Bala and Article 15; would he click in productions that cost upwards of Rs. 100 crore and need to collect over Rs. 200-250 crore to be blockbusters?
That is a big question that will throw up answers in the near future. And let it be said here, right away, that if Ayushmann strikes gold with a Rs. 100-150 crore production, he may just become the hottest young property in Bollywood, giving Ranveer Singh, Ranbir Kapoor and Varun Dhawan a run for their producer’s money.
