Art scores over mart for few B’wood actors

Mainstream Bollywood producers often lament that there is no young actor available to do just commercial cinema as the current lot clearly prefers art over commerce.

Rishi Kapoor’s fear that his son, Bollywood’s most sought after youngster at this point, will remain the modern day Amol Palekar (choosing middle-of-the-road cinema over commercial films) has been assuaged. Ranbir, whose choice of cinema is eclectic, has managed to strike a balance between art and mart by doing the odd commercial film, like Raj Santoshi’s Ajab Prem ki Ghazab Kahani (2009), Prakash Jha’s Raajneeti (2010) and Imtiaz Ali’s Rockstar (2011). “I don’t see cinema as commercial or art house. If a script and director excite me, I go for it,” says the actor.

But Ranbir’s upcoming flicks are more thinking cinema than masala fare. He will be seen next in Anurag Basu’s Barfee, Anurag Kashyap’s Bombay Velvet and reportedly in Dibakar Banerjee’s untitled venture. (Dibakar was not available to confirm the news because he is currently promoting Shanghai.) One can clearly see that in Ranbir’s effort to offset his hatke choice, he is currently shooting with his close friend Ayan Mukerji for Yeh Jaawani Hai Deewani. “But the ratio of commercial versus different is 3:1, so you know his leanings clearly,” says a trade analyst.

Imran Khan, who met failure early on in his career (Luck and Kidnap) has also started thinking like Ranbir. The actor, who tasted success with Delhi Belly, is now doing Vishal Bhardwaj’s Matru ki Bijlee ka Mandola and is likely to give priority to Tigmanshu Dhulia’s (of Paan Singh Tomar fame) Milan Talkies.

Imran is unlikely to give up the I Hate Luv Storys genre of cinema, but will take his time to give a nod to something that he isn’t entirely convinced about just for the sake of being in the running.

Not to be left out, Ranveer Singh is also settling for projects by ‘thinking’ filmmakers, like Vikramaditya Motwane (Lootera) and Sanjay Leela Bhansali, as opposed to a variety of big names who have tried to seek him out for their cinema.

The message is loud and clear. These youngsters cannot be tempted with mega bucks. Each of them is looking to rewrite the rule book and earn posterity by taking the road less travelled.

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