Does the average audience care about acting skills?

The way Bollywood is structured and the way its requirements are, I really think packaging is more important than having excellent acting skills. Stardom here belongs to people who have that elusive, non-definable screen presence or aura on screen. Let's look at SRK, Salman, Hrithik, Akshay and Aamir -- all of them except Salman are good actors, but not the best actors out there. People love them for different reasons, and these are intangible most of the time. This makes Bollywood volatile and unpredictable, as opposed to Hollywood which functions on more stringent standards and acting being one of them.

Do you think the average audience cares about acting skills or they are happy with whichever actors/actresses present them with the most wholesome entertainment?

Hollywood functions on stringent acting ? Kabse ? How many of these “best films” are films most of middle America never heard of 😆

No but that’s not only specific to BW . Even in HW, the most popular and highest earning actors are ppl like Dwayne Johnson, Vin Diesel etc

If you want to see acting just watch zee threater. It has amazing plays with amazing strong stories. Bollywood and hollywood does not holds candle before threater.

No. People I've seen around me don't give a damn about nuances and subtleties associated with acting. They just watch what's happening in the story.

As for the industry, they only care about sex appeal, looks and of course, connections.

The academy awards break new records every year for lower and lower tv ratings. Average people never heard of the nominated films 😆

They wanted to institute a best popular film there 🤣

I think it was Abishek who said in Koffee with Karan who said that he wished newcomers would pay as much attention to building up their acting skills as building up their six-packs. That says it all. In Bollywood if you have a good body , are charismatic and have a good screen-presence you can get by with mediocre acting skills. That has always been the way. That said, men are held to much higher standards regarding acting skills than the women. Probably because they are supposed to carry a film on their shoulders. They are allowed to be average looking(or not fair) so long as they satisfy all the other criteria. However actresses are held to different standards. These days they aren't even expected to be raving beauties. Pretty is enough so long as you are fair and has a good body. Actual acting skills are considered bonus for both men and women.

Originally posted by: mintyblue

People love them for different reasons, and these are intangible most of the time. This makes Bollywood volatile and unpredictable, as opposed to Hollywood which functions on more stringent standards and acting being one of them.

Do you think the average audience cares about acting skills or they are happy with whichever actors/actresses present them with the most wholesome entertainment?

The aforementioned Dwayne and Diesel aren't good actors - mediocre is a stretch - though Dwayne does comedy OK. Salman's better than both (when he bothers). In terms of acting they're not even Schwarzenegger and Stallone. So much for Hollywood or U.S. (or World audiences) being more stringent.

More critically well regarded super stars Harrison Ford, Tom Cruise, Will Smith, Brad Pitt - all good actors but not better actors than the current top Indian actors except maybe Salman.

It's rare to have a superstar be a great actor and even then they also have truck loads of star quality (which is rarer than great acting skills) and do mass appealing movies. Consider RDJ or Depp who did decades of critically acclaimed non mass appealing movies before becoming superstars in their 40s. Their acting talent though is what finally made them break out superstars when added to the more mass content and was much appreciated by the audience.

Disregarding who one considers a great actor, there are more good and very good actors who are stars than bad actors so acting talent is appreciated - it's just that acting talent alone is not enough to be star.