(This
article by Anna MM Vetticad first appeared in The New Indian Express on
September 25, 2011.)
KAREENA, QUEEN OF THE TIGHTROPE
WALK
Good looks,
charisma, perfect grooming, reasonable acting talent (or the willingness to
work hard in that department), sex appeal, a flair for dancing, a mind-boggling
wardrobe, the ability to look good in both Indian and Westernwear, a thick
skin, PR skills... Phew! Long list, huh?! Well, if today’s most commercially
successful Hindi film actresses were required to send out their curriculum
vitae, these are the qualifications they’d be listing.
And then there’s
that other characteristic that you’re unlikely to read in black and white on
any heroine’s bio-data, although it’s essential in this male-dominated
industry: popularity among the industry’s leading heroes.
At first glance
Kareena Kapoor is not the ideal candidate for the job. She is known to speak her
mind, she has antagonised several colleagues over the years with some of her
utterances, and her personal life has resulted in several tricky equations in
the industry that would have intimidated a lesser professional. But as
Bollywood collectively rubs its eyes in disbelief at the collections continuing
to pour in for Bodyguard, the year’s
biggest hit so far, it’s clear that Kareena must be doing something right.
After all she is, as of now, the most commercially successful Bollywood heroine
of her generation, she has earned a fair share of critical acclaim, she’s the
only one to act with every single top male hero of her time (more than once)
and she’s a favoured colleague of all the three Mega Khans.
Since money talks
more than anything else in the Hindi film industry, let’s first take a look at
Kareena’s track record at the turnstiles. According to the trade website
boxofficeindia.com, if a projected estimate for Bodyguard’s lifetime gross collections were to be made, then with a
possible Rs 225 crore earnings, the film is likely to end up as Bollywood’s
second highest grosser of all time worldwide, next only to the Aamir
Khan-Kareena-Madhavan-Sharman Joshi-starrer 3
Idiots which notched up Rs 350 crore. There’s more. Take a look at the
record holders for opening week net collections (after entertainment tax
deductions) in India alone: Bodyguard
(Rs 101 crore), Dabangg (Rs 81
crore), 3 Idiots (Rs 76 crore), Ready (Rs 69 crore), Golmaal 3 (Rs 62 crore), Ghajini, Raajneeti, Tees Maar Khan,
Singham and Housefull. Kareena is the only heroine with three films on this
list (her third is the ensemble cast comedy Golmaal
3).
Naysayers will
point out that these blockbusters notwithstanding, Kareena has more flops in
her filmography than her contemporary Katrina Kaif. There are film buffs and
critics who believe that Kareena — unlike Priyanka Chopra and perhaps even
Deepika Padukone — has been far less experimental in her choice of films, and
especially in recent years has primarily stuck to masala-driven entertainers
rather than roles that challenge her as an actress. This is particularly
disappointing for those who were impressed with her decision to start her
career with J.P. Dutta’s unglamorous Refugee
instead of a frothy romance, and the early evidence of her desire to be different
that came in the form of Sudhir Mishra’s Chameli.
Says veteran film critic Rauf Ahmed: “Kareena is one of the most talented
actresses of her generation but she knows on which side her bread is buttered.
She’s very smart like SRK who is not at all a bad actor, as we have seen in
films like Chak De, but is now
playing to the gallery. Kareena realised early on that the Chamelis and performances will not give her the box-office success
she wants. So she went about it smartly. She realised that the three Khans are
the ones delivering hit after hit, so she kept them in good humour, and
remained with them rather than experimenting outside, just the way Katrina
stuck to Akshay Kumar for some time. And it worked well for her.”
Fans may deem this
an unfair trivialisation of Kareena’s achievements, but those who’ve witnessed
the male supremacy in Bollywood’s power structure will understand the
constraints that even the most talented actress must contend with. And even
Kareena’s harshest critics will concede that she has rarely, if ever, played a
mere pretty appendage to a leading male star. Even in her most commercial
outings, her character has been essential to the story and never that of a
showpiece without substance. Says Malayalam-Tamil-Hindi filmmaker Siddique,
director of Bodyguard: “There is no
doubt that my film is centered on the hero, but at its heart it’s a love story
and the heroine is extremely important because Salman Khan, no less, is playing
her bodyguard. The girl’s role required a star who was also a performer, and
that’s what Kareena is.” The actress herself believes that it’s no mean
achievement to have a significant and substantial role in a Salman-starrer.
“That hasn’t happened to any actress in the last five years!” she says in
vintage Kareena fashion (see interview). And what about her role in Ra.One, the film that is better known as
the next Shah Rukh Khan vehicle? Says Ra.One
Director Anubhav Sinha: “I look at it like this — Ra.One is a father-son story, but can I tell you that story in
three lines without naming
Kareena’s character? The answer is no, that’s how important her role is.”
And that, in The
Gospel According to Kareena Kapoor, is a happy place to be in. The actress’
forthcoming roster of films would be the envy of any female Hindi film star.
After Ra.One with SRK, there’s
director Reema Kagti’s untitled film with Aamir Khan and Rani Mukerji, Agent Vinod with boyfriend Saif Ali
Khan, Karan Johar’s production Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu in which she co-stars with a hero nearer her age, Imran Khan,
and of course Madhur Bhandarkar’s controversial film Heroine.
The commotion over
Heroine mirrors the story of
Kareena’s career. The part was first offered to her, but she declined it — due to
lack of dates, say she and Bhandarkar; due to a disagreement over fees and the
“bold content”, say the industry grapevine and sources close to Kareena.
Aishwarya Rai Bachchan was subsequently cast in the role but when Ash announced
her pregnancy after shooting a part of the film, she was scissored out of the
project and Kareena was persuaded to walk right back in. Wasn’t she concerned
that she would be souring an already awkward relationship with her sister
Karisma’s ex-fiance Abhishek and his powerful family? Those who ask, don’t know
Kareena. “There are movies that I haven’t done that somebody else has done, how
does that matter?” she asks. “We’re here to do our work, not to hold hands and
sing in the park.” But the parting of ways between Aishwarya and the team of Heroine was very public and very
unpleasant, so was Kareena not worried that her acceptance of the role would
create further tension with the Bachchan clan? “Not at all,” she says
emphatically. “They have their own life, and the Kapoors have the deepest and
utmost regard and respect for the Bachchans and vice versa. Such a thing has
not even crossed my mind.”
Still, it’s hard
not to wonder about the difficult personal terrain that Kareena in
particular — more than any of her female colleagues — has negotiated in her 11
years in the industry. Though Kareena and ex-boyfriend Shahid Kapoor have
publicly said that they would have no problems working with each other, their
break-up was clearly acrimonious if their last few public appearances together
around the time of Jab We Met’s
release are anything to go by. Not only did Kareena quit Hrithik Roshan’s debut
film citing an insubstantial role, she is known to have been in a relationship
with him in the early part of the last decade which reportedly ended bitterly
on the sets of Main Prem Ki Diwani Hoon.
Ranbir Kapoor will certainly not be accepted as a hero with her since they are
cousins (unless they play siblings in a film) so there’s one upper-crest hero
ruled out for her for reasons beyond anyone’s control. She is widely known to
have not got along with Bipasha Basu during the making of Ajnabee which led to some friction with Bipasha’s then boyfriend
John Abraham. And then of course there is Abhishek.
Despite Kareena’s
assertions about personal and professional lives being separate, the truth is
that she’s not worked with Hrithik since Main
Prem… in 2003, with Abhishek since his engagement to Karisma ended, or with
Shahid since Jab We Met in 2007. But
Komal Nahta, founder of the trade website koimoi.com,
explains at length why Kareena survives and thrives despite these hurdles: “The
male stars who are not on good terms with her are mostly not right on top of
the rung. On top are the three Khans, Hrithik and probably Akshay. Abhishek is
not in the reckoning for the top slot, and in any case she was not doing films
with him since the Bachchans and Kapoors don’t get along, so nothing has
changed because of Heroine. As for
Hrithik, well, nothing is permanent in this industry and after all these years,
if some project comes along I think both of them will be more than willing to
work together. That leaves us with Ranbir who does just a couple of films a
year. But considering that she has a great rapport with the three Khans, what
does she need to worry about?”
What, indeed?
Nahta elaborates further: “It would be unfair to say Kareena has cultivated the
Khans — the Khans too need beautiful heroines who are good actresses and
dancers, and have sex appeal. There aren’t too many girls who could match the
three of them. There’s a shortage this side as well as that side, so it works
both ways.”
And so,
Bollywood’s most famously undiplomatic star is more complex than you can
imagine. She may take potshots at John, but the Khans love her; she may
question Priyanka’s accent on a talk show, but on film sets — which is where
the professional in her kicks in — she is what director after director
describes as “a hassle-free star”. Says Karan Johar who worked with her on Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham: “She’s not a
diva on the sets. She gets ready easily, she is quick on the uptake, she’s a
director’s dream and a production house’s delight.”
Besides, her
refusal to mince words about some colleagues is part of the star persona that
her fans find both charming and disarming; it provides constant fodder to the
gossip press that keeps the public amused and the actress in the news. “There
was a time when even I didn’t talk to Bebo (Kareena’s pet name) for a whole
year, but that didn’t stop her from emerging as a movie star,” says Johar who
now describes her as one of his closest friends in Bollywood. Adds another
buddy, Rohit Shetty, Kareena’s director in Golmaal
Returns and Golmaal 3: “She’s
undiplomatic but she’s one of the most seedha
bachchas (straight kids) in the industry. I’ve told her that though she
thinks she’s very smart, she’s actually a bhondu
(fool). She just goes with her heart, that’s why she gets into trouble.”
Adding to the
Kareena package is the fact that she’s never been taken lightly as an actor.
Though her roster of films now appears more mindlessly commercial than
cerebral, she does have her very own calling card on the acting front: Jab We Met. After Refugee and Chameli, Jab We Met is the film that gave Kareena
an opportunity to showcase her immense talent and screen presence. It also
grossed Rs 50 crore at the box office worldwide (unprecedented in these times
for a female-centric Hindi film), and marginally chipped away at the industry
stereotype that heroine-oriented films don’t rake in big bucks. Now that her CV
boasts of three back-to-back solid earners at the box office in Bodyguard, Golmaal 3 and 3 Idiots,
she’s returning once again to a film which focuses on her: Heroine.
Today, Kareena is
the Hindi film actress who can be your chammak challo or your Chameli,
depending on where you are coming from; whose wolf-whistle-inducing screen
presence takes nothing away from her acting chops; who fits well into haute
swimwear and makes salwar kameezes look hot. She is also currently her
industry’s highest paid heroine. Trade sources reveal that post-Bodyguard she commands Rs 5 crore per film,
followed closely by Priyanka and Katrina who are in the Rs 4-5 crore category,
Aishwarya who charges about Rs 3 crore for a film and relative newcomer Deepika
who gets Rs 2-2.5 crore per project. Cousin Ranbir says he’s “a big fan” and
that he’s “really really proud of what she’s achieved”. Siddique says he’d love
to work with her again after Bodyguard
because “she’s the kind of actress who grabs your attention on screen with her
charm, her screen presence, her body language, her voice, her smile” and also
because “it gives me as a creative person great satisfaction to work with an
actress like her who contributes something to my vision of a character”. Madhur
Bhandarkar calls her “a lethal combination of a glamorous woman and a talented
actress” who “will be around for another 10 years”. And Kareena’s father
Randhir Kapoor (whose long estrangement from her mother Babita, kept him away
from Kareena throughout her childhood) can barely contain the pride in his
voice as he adds: “These girls (Karisma and Kareena) have made a big success of
themselves completely on their own steam, without my support, and I’m very
proud of the fact that they’re bloody good at what they do.”
Kareena is
undoubtedly in a commanding position in the industry, and her goal now is “to
act in different kinds of films, strike a balance, do the small films, the big
films, everything”. That’s good news for her dad who wants to see her “trying
out more meaningful cinema, not rotten appalling films like Tashan which was one of the worst movies
made in India. I’d really like to see her in more sensible films like Jab We Met.” His views are echoed by
Kareena’s well-wisher and Chameli
director Sudhir Mishra who urges her to do more roles that do justice to her
talent. “She has the rare ability to surprise herself when she goes before the
camera,” he says. “I’m not advocating that she do art films or boring films,
just films that make her stretch herself. And if such offers don’t come often
enough to Hindi film actresses, then they should become like the men, take the
bull by the horns, construct films, produce films. Our female actors should be
more political in a sense, take it as a challenge to encourage directors who
want to make female-centered films instead of waiting for things to happen. I’m
sure there are many stories around, many directors both male and female who are
dying to work with Kareena.” Next step, Ms Kapoor?
(The writer is
on Twitter as @annavetticad)
Original link:
Related link: Kareena Kapoor interview
Photographs courtesy:
(1) Kareena Kapoor’s profile shot:
Raindrop Media
(2) Jab
We Met
poster: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jab_We_Met
(3) Chameli poster: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chameli_(film)
Note:
These
photographs were not sourced from The New Indian
Express
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete