Originally posted by: MoonOrchid
I love Nawaz and Irrfan, too. (Maybe I should have mentioned all, just thought of the girls first).
I simply do not get why all of them aren't more... 'embraced', if you wish, as STARS... or have more popularity. Even Rajkumar Rao, after winning a National Award, is still not seen as big league.
I cannot fathom why - is it because their movies aren'y huge blockbusters, and maybe the Indian audience tends to declare stars those that DO give huge hits?
But then, you have star kids without a movie in a kitty that are much more mediatised...
So why is there this disparity?
Irrfan, Nawaz, Radhika, Bhumi, Rajkumar and all the arthouse actors, who are praised by critics and the niche audience. They all lack one thing, which stops them from gaining popularity among the mass audience, and that is "Star Quality".
Now this star quality can be anything. Like for Irrfan Khan, he's my favorite actor. Apart from being a great actor, he has screen presence and charisma, but he doesn't have good looks, and his acting style is subtle which is appreciated more in Hollywood than Bollywood. He's not quintessential Bollywood hero who can do action or dance. He's a theatre actor.
Nawaz is an actor who has screen presence, charisma, acting skills which is appreciated by Indian audience(he puts alot of energy in his acting). He could've been a Superstar, ONLY if he had good or atleast average looks.
Rajkumar too is a great actor, but he lacks screen presence and charisma. He's also more of a theatre actor.
Coming to Bhumi and Radhika, Bhumi is just not glamourous or atleast beautiful to become popular as a mainstream actress. Though like Irrfan, she also has screen presence and charisma. But tharki audience wants good looking size-zero actresses on screen, even if they can't mouth Hindi dialogues properly and have no personality.
Radhika is the best actress in Bollywood right now imo. She's much better than others, when it just comes to acting. But she also lacks screen presence and charisma, not beautiful enough.
To become a popular actor among the mass audience, a Bollywood actor needs to have screen presence, charisma, need to have decent looks, atleast know how to act even if you are below average, know how to do action, dance.
Arthouse actors always lack something among these qualities, and that's why never become popular. Although they are always appreciated because they do their job perfectly, which is doing great acting, which are "actors" actually supposed to do.
Anupamaa
Naagin 7
3