Hyped today, gone tomorrow Why is life for a newcomer tough today?

Deepa Gahlot

Two years ago, Hrithik Roshan was the new Indian demigod.

The media was overflowing with reports of the Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai star being the craze of the nation. The same adoring, worshipful fans don't even go to see the first show of his latest film, Vikram Bhatt's Aap Mujhe Achche Lagne Lage, starring his KNPH heroine Amisha Patel.

Today's trend of overnight success automatically leads to overnight failure. It is not that Hrithik has lost his entire fan following, it is just that like fans of yore, today's lot are not so loyal. Quite often hype about a star is so overdone that fans are either fed up with the star before they see him/her, or soon after. Very few live up to such lofty expectations.

The latest hypefest is for Vivek Oberoi [who debuted in Ram Gopal Varma's Company]. Unless the young chap has his head firmly on his shoulders, it is likely to be turned by all the he-is-the-next-big-thing trumpet-blowing. A lot of putative superstars have come and gone, swept in and out in a gust of media attention. Satya had done the same for Manoj Bajpai. Today he isn't even in the running for the top slot that he was aiming at.

Earlier, most actors made the ascent gradually. Amitabh Bachchan didn't become a phenomenon overnight. An actor could get away with a few wrong choices. After all, how many get it right the first time? Today, there is no margin for error --- an actor either makes it big right away by delivering a superhit, or hangs around the fringes forever as a has-been.

The industry is full of such 'comets' who rose and fell with eye-blinking speed. Earlier, failures and one-film-wonders could slip away unnoticed and nurse their failure in peace. Occasionally someone would wonder, "Whatever happened to..." and forget all about it a minute later.

Now the fall hurts more because the actor has had his/her face splashed all over the media, given hundreds of interviews making claims of how many top banners and producers have been chasing them with tempting offers and bags of money. The flashy car and designer clothes, the romances and breakups have all been recorded in painful detail for the celebrity-crazy public to lap up. People are willing to pay atrocious sums to have them cut ribbons and grace events.

Suddenly, because one or two films flop, nobody cares! The very things that got them fawning media and public attention --- attendance at parties, being seen at all the hotspots, wearing trendy clothes --- now seem like pathetic look-at-me cries. Failure is as glaringly spotlighted as success.

Making a debut with a big banner is no guarantee of lasting fame. Vivek Mushran entered the industry with a Subhash Ghai film [Saudagar] --- you can't get bigger than that --- but disappeared soon after, while his costar Manisha Koirala made it.

Sanjay Kapoor had the backing of big brother Boney and the entire Kapoor network. Still he couldn't make it. Poor Jugal Hansraj, one of the lucky ones to get a second chance with a big banner [Aditya Chopra's Mohabbatein], is still struggling, despite having the looks and the talent on par with any young actor in the industry today.

The girls don't have it easier. Pooja Batra went to town over her one decent role in Viraasat (and of course a broken romance with Akshay Kumar). But as far as her career was concerned, it was no go.

A few months ago some papers had reported how she threw a tantrum at a Hyderabad event because she wasn't being given star treatment (and someone supposedly asked her who she was). It must be tough to be a "promising new face" one day and have people look through her the next.

At least the girls have something to do, they become item dancers. They are needed to provide sexy numbers in every film. And those producers who can't afford a Shilpa Shetty or Raveena Tandon opt for Kashmira Shah, Pooja Batra, Suman Ranganathan, Nagma or Mayuri Kango to wear skimpy clothes and twirl around the dance floor.

Fortunately, for the once-were-stars types, the celebrity cult is so deep-rooted now that there is no dearth of party invitations. Boutique or pub owners with limited budgets and huge appetites for publicity actually pay even minor recognisable faces to 'grace' their establishments. There must be an alternative career out there for one-film wonders and failed stars.

Hrithik Roshan was sensible enough not to take the excessive adulation too seriously and even said that he would actually be left alone to do good work once the hype died down.

Some stars have known to have suffered breakdowns or gone into hiding when their films flopped. Fame is so fickle --- it can destroy even as it builds.

Earlier column

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