How Alia rode the Highway to Udta Punjab and got the Audience Raazi!

Yes, yes Bollywood is a boiling cauldron of nepotism. If you ever nursed dreams of a career as an actor, and if you are still ruing why you weren’t born to Karan Johar, you can suck it up, take it in your stride or knock your head on the wall. The truth is it’s here to stay and let’s not make sweeping statements like it prevails in every industry because even if it does, it doesn’t justify succumbing to the pressure of following the herd. So firstly, let’s start by doffing our hats to all those filmmakers who go beyond the tried and tested and actually mentor and launch non-star kids. Having acknowledged this tribe, since the industry is teeming with star kids anyway, let us now look at some who have actually hit the jackpot. While there is a horde of stars who can thank their genes, surnames and privileged backgrounds for their launch and a longer innings than outsiders, we look at two girls who have risen above the ranks at breakneck speed, and managed to not only pave their way to get noticed but have also won adulation in the process. One of them in fact is actually reaping the benefits of going beyond all the prejudice levelled against her to please both the critics and the masses. Having made their debuts almost around the same time, the reason I am pitting them against each other is to also prove how sometimes it is not merely the banners you are working under, the marketing that goes in to glossing over an average caper or which designer is doing your wardrobe but much more that finally gets you the accolades. Pitch powerhouse talent to a well-etched story and voila! A gifted actor is born and by the end of this post, you will know who’s beaten whom, fair and square.

So here’s a brief look at the career graphs of Alia Bhatt and Shraddha Kapoor to see how you need much more than just a Business Class pass to make it big in Bollywood.

Shraddha made her humble debut in a film that starred Amitabh Bachchan, Madhavan and (low whistle!) Ben Kingsley called Teen Patti in 2010. Suffice it to say that the film did nothing to get her noticed, exacerbating her bad luck by its dismal failure at the box-office. She followed this up with another dampener Luv ka The End the next year which sank without a trace, once more doing nothing for establishing her star presence. 2013 turned her fate in favour of the box-office with Aashiqui 2 which served as a relaunch vehicle opposite Aditya Roy Kapur. The film released under the banner of Vishesh Films the patrons of which are the Bhatt brothers- Mahesh and Mukesh Bhatt and revived the love saga popularised in the ‘90s (energised with cult music, love in the backdrop of conflicting drama and the fresh chemistry of a young couple played by Rahul Roy and Anu Agarwal). Aashiqui 2 was a surprise hit and suddenly, Shraddha’s name was catapulted to gain instant fame and recognition. She soon bagged roles in substantial films like Ek Villain and Haider, the latter helmed by Vishal Bhardwaj. The films fared decently and even though her roles may not have been meaty, the industry had finally accepted Shraddha with open arms.

Even while all this was afloat, 2012 saw the glamorous debut of another star kid Alia Bhatt under the

grand tutelage of Karan Johar. Having strategically chosen not to be launched by her own father, Alia got a dream vehicle to bite in to her share of the celluloid pie, starring as the sole love interest of two handsome hunks also launched in the same film. The film could have easily dismissed her as another chirpy teenager in a bubble-gum romantic date movie but Alia had other ideas on her mind. No sooner that the dhamaka of her launch started fading than she hit a hattrick in 2014 with 2 States, Highway and Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania. Now this was a girl who could hold her own opposite the male lead. This was an actor who had enough spunk to kill with her groovy moves in ‘Saturday Saturday’ from HSKD as deftly as she could nail a complex role as a captive girl who develops a bond with her kidnapper in Highway. Even a dud like Shaandaar produced by her Mentor Daddy-O KJo couldn’t keep her fans from going ga-ga over her artistic ability to change her colours as per the role, whether it was as a privileged but disturbed kid in Kapoor & Sons or a struggling drug addict in Udta Punjab. Alia has managed to walk a fine balance between the commercial and intellectual, drawing fans galore from both perspectives with a Badrinath ki Dulhania on one hand and Dear Zindagi on the other. Such is her professional knack and utmost discipline towards her craft that it has elicited praise from all her directors, be it the unconventional Gauri Shinde, or the more masala-oriented Shashank Khaitan of the ‘….Dulhania’ series of films. The cherry on top this year has been Raazi of course which now seals her status as a legit moolah-grossing actor of worth after hitting the INR 100 crore mark at the box office. It is almost as if she has justified her claim to the throne of ‘Twinkling Star Kid’. Her detractors and especially those trolling her under the nepotism tag may keep wagging a finger at the easy entry she may have won on account of her family name but Alia is someone who has dared to defy age, stereotypes and mixed opinions to hold her own among contemporaries like Shraddha Kapoor and Parineeti Chopra who are still clearly finding their feet in the cacophany that is the industry.

In a fickle world where fans may switch loyalties at the drop of your status with a flop on any given Friday, Alia is going from strength to strength, meticulously pacing her grip on her strengths and using her vulnerabilities to appeal to a cynical audience, quite like she does in her role as the surprisingly spirited spy Sehmat in her latest outing.

Meanwhile, Shraddha has kept the ball rolling with ho-hum films like ABCD 2, Baaghi, Rock on 2 and Half-Girlfriend none of which have actually earned her applause as an actor of high calibre. Full points for trying out a raw, edgy character with Haseena Parker but it ended up more like an ambitious experiment gone awry than one that was laudable. Incidentally, Aashiqui 3 has been announced and no prizes for guessing who will be taking on from where Shraddha left off. So who has the audience Raazi and who is more likely to face their naarazi? The verdict is clearly out on that one.