Kareena, heroine number one
After all that hullabaloo over pregnancy clauses and breach of contract, it now appears that Aishwarya Rai's impending motherhood is a miraculous stroke of luck for filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar. He might be reshooting his film following a forced delay and hiatus, but the new actress aboard the film could not be better cast ' even if she's charging a bomb. In fact, that dramatically large payday merely strengthens her case for being the best woman for the job.
Not just does Kareena Kapoor become India's highest paid actress with a paycheck substantially larger than her peers for the upcoming Heroine, but she has negotiated her way into a significant profit-sharing deal with UTV. This makes her the first Indian actress to do so ' only the Khan triumvirate and, occasionally, Akshay Kumar, it is heard ' ask for a cut of the proceeds. Reportedly being paid Rs 6.4 crore straight-up plus profits, means Bebo will be pocketing quite a phenomenal chunk of change, even if the film only does moderately well.
Clear the throne, seat-warmer, Kapoor's back where she belongs.
Or, at least, where she believes she belongs: which really is more than half the battle won. Kareena sauntered into Bollywood as if she was meant to take over, a natural successor to a legacy her illustrious khandaan left her. Wrapped in a self-contained perpection of entitlement might not be the healthiest or sanest approach to life, but ' if and only if ' you have shoulders big enough to support a delusion that large, you indeed believe in your own magic and, abracadabra, you're it.
Over the years, Kareena has indeed honed herself as an actress, but that's not at all uncommon: in an industry tragically starved of fresh on-screen talent, most youngsters learn on the job. What Kareena brought to the mix was extreme confidence, albeit perhaps coming from misguidedly premature conviction of being the best in the biz even without knowing the biz. That cocksure superstar swagger, mostly seen in the men of the megastar species, coupled with her often-ethereal looks, made for a woman positively committed to glamour. And the thicker she poured it on, the better she worked it.
She's a star in the same way as, say, Salman Khan: constantly larger than life, hits and flops holding little sway on the public perception or star value, and someone who owns the room and is visibly proud of doing so. Her screen presence is extraordinary, and while Sallu's given up even pretending to try at acting, she's a very capable performer indeed. It's just that her strengths as an actress ' spontaneity, candour, vulnerability, expressiveness ' all often get overshadowed by the way she blossoms under the spotlight. I'd suspect she doesn't mind at all, so long as the hoardings look gorgeous enough. And, naturally, large enough.
Fitting, then, that Khan plays Bodyguard to her next week. And even more appropriate that Bhandarkar, who titles movies with an awe-inspiring lack of ingenuity ' labelling them in a word or so to indicate just what facet of the obvious stereotype he will next exploit ' has Kareena as his Heroine.
Source: Bangalore Mirror
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