Who holds Power Baton in Bollywood

An article by Puneet Singh

The origin of this article is in the rushes of Bollywood in the daily reality shows where producers are promoting their upcoming films. For example, Aishwarya’s recent visit to Master Chef India confirms the extent to which film marketing has gone to. But amongst this entire hullabaloo, I try to scrape out the power exuberated by these Bollywood icons. It astonishes me to see news reports telling us where a famous actress’s mother fell down! Come on, the whole India isn’t waiting to hear that.

But that is power. The power of a name, face and iconic personality.

Aishwarya Rai and Shah Rukh Khan may be Bollywood’s faces to the west but it’s not for anything unsaid and passé. Is power demonstrated by traffic stopping in Berlin for SRK or being the world’s most beautiful face and being in India! Don’t you think it actually is? But can we equate power and acting? Is it proportional or what actually matters is how many Bombay Times parties have you been attending and the IPL teams you own? As a skeptic to this, I wonder if I can say Vidya Balan, Kajol, Juhi Chawla, Akshay Khanna and Abhay Deol for instance are way powerful than Katrina Kaif and Akshay Kumar?

Kareena Kapoor is a part of the handful who are the bell ringers in both the areas. Her penultimate scene acting in Kurbaan ( I highly recommend the last 5 minutes of the movie) can send shivers down! What a powerful acting! And yes, she is the paparazzi favorite too! Abhay Deol in Dev D shocked us! His portrayal of the drunk lover got the attention of critics and masses alike! It wasn’t his star image that pulled the audience to the multiplexes, it was purely his acting! Do we define power like that then?

Power in crude and real terms is ‘how much you matter to the world, or probably masses’. Is the world waiting for your next move? Or is it talking of your last alleged affair still? Its intimidating to know how fake and unreal these people need to be. I was watching a video on YouTube where Jennifer Aniston had caused a major airport rush as she came after a break up with John Mayer and the entire press had gone crazy for her statement on the same! That’s power for her, don’t you think? Come what may, we all like attention, don’t us? It is like the fourth level of Maslow’s need hierarchy- Self esteem needs!

We all admire these people. We all wish to wear their shoes and live their lives. Ultimately, that is power! Let me not touch anything or anyone apart from Bollywood in regards to power, because India holds great people who don’t feature on Page 3 but move mountains and do great things. I feel Bollywood comes closest to us, because it is what we want and ultimately these celebs are delivering it.

Power is to move and move others, with your every move! And its exemplified exactly why people are more interested in Jennifer Aniston and David Beckham than Julia Roberts and Ricky Ponting!

Power shows and well!

PS: It is my analysis and my views. Any contradictions are most welcome. It’s a personal opinion.