Super shortage;1 movie superstar,Hrithik

Super shortage

Bollywood's missing heroes

V. Gangadhar

With apologies to Agatha Christie's all-time great mystery thriller, And Then There Were None:

Six super duper stars dominated Bollywood,

One shot a black buck and then there were five,

Five super duper stars dominated Bollywood

One played with an AK-56 and then there were four

Four super duper stars dominated Bollywood,

One became too muscular and then there were three...

This is the plight of the Rs 5,000-crore Hindi movie industry whose fortunes depend on a handful of superstars. Let them sneeze, and the industry shakes. Today, the future of two of the superstars, Sanjay Dutt and Salman Khan, are clouded. Of course, Salman is out on bail in the black buck shooting case, but if the bail is cancelled and the judgment at the higher court goes against him, his career as a top hero would be jeopardised. He faces two more trials, one for the shooting of a 'chinkara' deer and the other for a hit-and-run case where he allegedly ran over a man sleeping on the pavement. If judgments in these cases went against him, Salman's career would effectively be over.

Sanjay Dutt also is out on bail now but he could not report for shooting because his hair had to be cut short before his jail term began. His future is uncertain though the Supreme Court can rule in his favour in the AK-56 case and release him on probation. But Bollywood, which has invested heavily on these stars, cannot live with this uncertainty. Sanjay, after the spectacular successes of the Munnabhai series, is now one of the hottest properties in film industry.

The curse of our 75-year-old Hindi film industry is that all along it has depended on the fortunes of a handful of top male stars. From the 1950s to the 1960s it was the era of Raj Kapoor, Dilip Kumar and Dev Anand. Then came Rajendra Kumar, Dharmendra, Rajesh Khanna and, later, Amitabh Bachchan. Today, besides the three Khans — Shah Rukh, Aamir and Salman, we have Sanjay, Hrithik Roshan and, by fits and starts, Sunny Deol and Saif Ali Khan. Ajay Devgan may be a good actor but not in the top draw; Abhishek Bachchan, despite some media backing, will not make it to the top. And with two of the six facing an uncertain future, Bollywood is shaky.

Of course, not all producers depend on superstars. Mahesh Bhatt and Subhash Ghai have shown they can make do with fresh blood and new faces. But the tried and trusted producers who aim at super box-office hits depend on the top six. They plan big, spend big money and rope in the big stars. The top three Khans and Sanjay Dutt have been around for nearly 20 years, but there are no new superstars on the horizon.

The making of a superstar is not so easy these days. Formerly only movie stars qualified for this title. But today, they are challenged by TV stars, Indian idols, sports stars, item number stars, quiz show stalwarts and so on. During the past seven years, there has been just one movie superstar, Hrithik Roshan. How long do we have to wait for another one? No one knows.

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/life/2007/09/28/stories/ 2007092850030200.htm

shahrukh is not going anywhere for a long time so bollywood won't be without this superstar. we don't need anyother superstar either except for srk. 😳

ranbir and sonam r here. they r the next super stars 😉

anyways more than super stars we need good actors and i think we have plenty. we shouldn't worry abt super stars we need to worry abt super directors, super screenplay writers AND super story writers. a movie runs on its stor & direction...actors are just part of it.

Srk will always b our superstar .....so 4 get abt these other wanna b actors.....n i think 4 young generation.....Sonam n Ranver r gr8!!