In a vintage episode of Siskel & Ebert, Roger Ebert, and Richard Roeper were arguing about the caliber of a Hollywood celebrity. “You like her because she is a bad actress?” quips Richard. Ebert quips back – “No Richard, I like her because she is a star! And unlike you, I think that she has that quality to make you look at her for over 2 ½ hours.”
Nazriya Nazeem, a pretty girl with a pair of beautiful, bambi-esque eyes proved to be a hit in south India till she ceased to exist! Her keys to success shall be attributed to good looks and clever choices of characters that were only a mere extension of herself!
Now let me give you a tweet-sized profile of Roger Ebert – Columnist with The Suntimes, Celebrity. Film critic who championed Independent Cinema. A winner of the much coveted Pulitzer Prize too. But as you could see in most of his reviews – his genius made him vulnerable to women’s beauty. And thereby, at times he lost objectivity!
In another one of their famous banter, Ebert recommended “Into The Blue” because he thought it was a case of studying the anatomy of star Jessica Alba. “She looks pretty and that’s thumbs up!” was the iconic Ebert screen rant! Whereas, his colleague Roeper panned the film for exactly the same reason “Yeah Roger you could live with that! But she can’t act, could she?” The funny thing is you could understand where Roeper is coming from. And you feel Ebert too, because, truth be told we all do have that blind spot for women, don’t we?
Think about how many stars survived in film industry just because he/she had natural “good-looks.” The answer might be too many! I tend to think Aishwarya Rai is a model first and then an actor. Same with Katrina Kaif, Jacqueline Fernandez, Hansika Motwani, Nayanthara, Samantha, Kavya Madhavan, Kajal Aggarwal and the rest. But there has been many actors in the industry who ticked both the boxes of being a terrific actor cum solid performer, and “good looks.” We can’t keep that out of the equation, can we? Unless, of course, its Iranian cinema we are talking about not the cinema from India. Or the cinema from Timbuktu.
Now, I know a story. One of my friends from Mouthshut told me this. Once in the summer of late 1990’s, a famous Bollywood director told a famous actor to remove makeups so that they all could shoot an intensely emotional scene. To the surprise of the entire crew including the director; the actor said she wasn’t wearing one! The movie is Shool. The director? Ram Gopal Varma. The actor? Well, you guessed it right! It’s Raveena Tandon. (Courtesy: Earnestaster)
Suffice to say for an actor to become successful in films most predominantly, she should look good. You might be Meryl Streep in terms of your acting skills but still, you can’t get in there if you don’t look pleasing to the eye. “Look good, act ok and perform incredibly.” Those are the three golden rules of getting hired in B-Town or any other industry for that matter, in India! If your repertoire is filled with nimble feet, music (any kind) and a good diction in vernacular then, well, that increases your chances by a notch! Is it just that? Not quite. “An inherent quality to remain endearing is another vital aspect.”
No matter who you are or what role you perform, you should still have to look ditto girl-next-door. People who do initially and then learn the craft of acting gradually, remain there for an eternity.Examples are there in plenty – Kareena Kapoor, Deepika Padukone, Kangana Ranaut, Aishwarya Rai, Priyanka Chopra, Vidya Balan. For people of a certain vintage even Karishma Kapoor, Shri Devi, Sushmita Sen and Madhuri Dixit would do. More recently people like Nirmat Kaur, Alia Bhatt, and Huma Quereshi as well. I like Kaur’s smile which is infectious! And Quereshi too, who has a gorgeous sex-appeal! But what baffled me was divas like Shraddha Kapoor and Amrita Rao, literally disappeared from the scene for a while despite looking pretty, and performing pretty well. Is it all down to pure luck, then? Don’t think so.
Did we ever wonder why men with good looks don’t earn the same degree of success, as their women counterparts? There have been people who got into the coffer but has there been anyone who stayed there? I guess the answer is NO! It’s one of the cinema’s great mysteries. (Maybe that explains why some of the men in Bollywood doesn’t marry the women!)
If true beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder, then I would rather say make your eyes attractive. Bambiesque like an Ingrid Bergman, or even a Nazriya Nazeem. Nazriya perform superbly. Through films such as Om Shanti Oshana, Bangalore Days, Raja Rani and Mad Dad; she has proved that she is a natural. In the case of men. Well, then you just need to be an actor. Period. Or else someone might be discussing Housefull N’th sequel in the Opera House Mumbai, next month or next year or maybe even the next decade. In other words? No need of acting skills ham it up!
sreejithmullappilli 