Is Bollywood Breeding A Generation Of Stuntmen Not Actors?

A decade and a half ago when he had not quite acquired the full-blown, trademark, girth and size of his legendary predecessors, Rishi Kapoor had quietly confided to me that he only wished that the new kids, along with their craze for bodybuilding, there was a bit of acting skills too. Randhir echoed similar sentiments, "We seem to be breeding a generation of stuntmen rather than actors. Soon there will be little acting talent left and more testesterone babas floating around."

Coming to think of it, the Kapoor brothers are not really talking through their hat. No longer the exclusive terrain of Dara Singh or even Garam Dharam.

Suneil Shetty and Akshay Kumar seemed to have kicked off a trend in the early nineties, that exploded along the way. Today be it the hot and topless Salman, John, Ajay, Emraan, Hrithik, even SRK and Aamir - along with the whole bunch of newbies like Ranveer, Ayushman, Siddharth and Varun - beefed up muscles and toned tummies seem to score higher on the visibility radar than acting.

Male bodies celebrating machogiri in Bollywood however has always come with the territory with big-built Shammi Kapoor, Dharmendra, Vinod Khanna and Amitabh Bachchan doing their usual action scenes with the required amount of drama to satisfy a formula-driven, happy-ending-specific audience-base, not yet obsessed with the eight-pack. If that didn't happen earlier, it was largely because both the manufacturers and consumers of the Bollywood fantasy were more into romance, drama, songs, emotions and conflicts. Also, disrobing - in a time that clearly appears to appear like another lifetime. - was an activity and preoccupation that was totally connected with the seductive and luscious vamps and sometimes, the sexy heroine.

Bolly-trackers point towards Salman Khan's shirtless flash in Maine Pyar Kiya - echoing Dharam in Phool aur Patthar of an earlier era? - as the trigger. Soon it was to be his trademark calling card to the extent that today, Salman's fans wait breathlessly for that ooh-la-la moment when the red-hot hunk will rip off his shirt. On cue, others leaped into this space. SRK's celebrated 6-pack 'in Om Shanti Om' chewed miles of publicity before, during and after the dard-e-disco gyrations and body-flash. And who can forget Aamir's vicious tough-guy looks in 'Ghajini'?

John, Akki, Ajay, Emran, Hrithik and most wanting to grab the limelight on cue muscled in. As the hot-shot director of 'Ek Tha Tiger', Kabir Khan, recently stated in a TV interview, "when I ask aspirants how they are preparing for their roles and what's the agenda, most invariably reply is, "kyoon, Gym jaata hoon regularly, Sir."

What happened? Why aren't the greats like Dilip Kumar and Raj Kapoor not considered acting models any more and why is the magic of emoting and histrionics being hijacked by rippling muscles?

Social Scientist Ashish Nandy believes, It's a sociological backlash. The Female Gaze - so far kept under tight wraps by social conditioning - has cut loose and found new freedom through education, jobs, financial independence but most importantly a more liberated life-style and mindset in a new-age India. The result, an enthusiastic exercising of their long-overdue right to drool and enjoy the male body as an object of desire.

The yesteryear's baggage of guilt, shame, embarrassment and shyness - even sin - has been breezily replaced by a healthy and normal hormonal rush, everytime Chulbul Pandey or Rowdy Rathore do their deadly heroic acts. Basically, Nandy suggests, this constituency is super-cool because media-exposure and new-age perceptions of morality have got them to hit the right zone and their ooh-lallaa's have jumped out from the mothballed tin trunks and quiet recesses of heart and mind to register a nice, earthy, superloud ... wow.

Director Tarun Mansukhani (who was responsible for that deadly expose of John Abraham in 'Dostana' a few years ago), believes that cinema is a visual medium and everything and everyone should be presented in an active manner for people to see, enjoy and admire. "It only, thus, makes sense to make my heroes look as sexy as heroines. I wanted the men to appear as cool, hunky guys who could be put on heterosexual and homosexual pedestals, so that both girls and boys could scream and whistle at them with excitement."

Columnist Shobhaa De is up next, "The Female Gaze has gained prominence. I love the idea of actors being objectified ... finally. Eye-candy thrills were a bit too one-sided in the past. The shirtless dudes have restored the balance. Its the equivalent of the famous wet-sari routine."

Karan Johar, who introduced those two hunks, Sid and Varun, in his latest Student of the Year agrees. He sees movies as a fabulous platform for style and substance and reckons that with fashion playing such a huge part in stylish new-age, liberated, affluent India.

Mumbai-based assistant film director Sneha disagrees, "While school and college girls may salivate over great male bodies, they are totally replaceable because they are gym-manufactured, with newer models deleting yesterday's favourites. So today's John can well give way to tomorrow's Bob, Tom, Pat or Bill. However, an Irrfan, Rahul, Kay Kay, Paresh, Manoj, Nawaz ... or the greatest Naseer, are totally unique, irreplaceable and stay with you forever."

Ad Veteran Esha Guha joins the debate with her take. She believes that it's the Salman-factor that has triggered this movement and the purple patch that he is enjoying - 'Ready', 'Dabangg', 'Bodyguard', 'Ek Tha Tiger' - has inspired the kids to blindly ape him. "Its just a fad, craze, the flavour of the day and will disappear the day Salman has a flop. Its herd-mentality on an over-drive.

Sure, its a gym-driven time we live in and fitness is great for one and all, but this glorification and commodification that B-town champions through its male stars clearly seems to send out the wrong signals. Like Bimbos have a brief shelf-life, Himbos too, after a few flashes, will be swiftly shown the door. All body and no soul has obvious limitations in showbiz.

So, at the end of the day, while Sly and Arnie have got an entire generation - stars included - to build muscles and look like hunks, the other requirements of a truly striking performance, seem to be overlooked: understand, assimilate, interpret, claim ownership of the role to make it your own, invest it with layers before emoting it out in a fashion that connects in entertaining and enriching fashion . Sure, a great body is a visual delight but where cinematic narrative and solid story-telling is involved and effective, convincing role-playing is the key, the ramp-show, or akhara-flash may not quite be what B-town's screen stardom is looking for.

Besides, never forget that the hunk who is said to have started it all - Salman Khan - way beyond his deadly physique, has a killer star-presence and terrific charisma ... attributes, impossible to define but easy to recognise.

So buddy, body is cool, but live a life beyond it as well.