TALENTED STAR Am I the only one who finds it a tad unsettling when an eight-year-old does pelvic thrusts to “Baara maheene mein baara tareekon se tujh ko pyaar jataaoonga re"? At eight, my only goal in life was to con my parents into buying me a packet of Uncle Chipps.
Today, thanks to the internet and the television industry, we have breakout stars like Akshat Singh who – forgive me for sounding like a corporate brochure – danced his way into India’s hearts. For those living under a rock or with Hathway internet connections, Akshat is a third standard student and a television producer’s dream come true.
He’s overweight, which makes for an easy emotional connect with aunties across the country who want to pull his cheeks. He’s extremely young, which means he can’t be accused of furthering agendas or cynicism. Finally, what’s really special is that he can dance like a million bucks even though Salman Khan is perhaps not the best idol for anyone, let alone a child.
Not surprisingly, Akshat’s video on India’s Got Talent caught the attention of many, including Ellen DeGeneres who flew him all the way to the United States to feature him on her show. His most recent exploit has him dancing to impress a girl in a Japanese “curry-flavoured” chips’ commercial.
While it’s fantastic to see Akshat’s success, this is also the point where I start to get a little worried. We’ve always been a society that has flaunted children’s talent. As kids we’ve either been at the receiving end or forced to watch someone ask his or her kid to “sing a song” or “do a dance for Sharma uncle”.
Thanks to sites like Youtube, those seemingly innocuous personal moments are now publicly available, to millions. Accidentally uploaded videos like “Charlie bit my finger” can turn into a brand that a family can exploit without the baby even realizing what’s happening. Intimate moments can be turned into a spectacle.
Till now, Akshat’s story is best defined by the title of the video first uploaded by his family on Youtube: “Amazing Happy Fat Dancing Indian Kid”. It’s impossible to tell for sure, but the truth about his video being shared lies somewhere between “Wow he’s a great dancer” and “Look at that fat kid jiggle”. One of these monikers will eventually push the other out, but it’s safe to say we’ve all helped the evolution of Akshat the kid who enjoys dancing to Akshat the performer.
Finding a middle ground between these two points is something that even experienced actors, comedians and artists have trouble finding and I can’t imagine how it must be for someone so impressionable. There are incessant examples of child stars being unable to process their fame and when they turn into a cultural side note. Dana Plato of Different Strokes and Jerry Supiran from Small Wonder come immediately to mind.
In a country so obsessed with fame and looking for their next new fix, one hopes the Akshats of the world have it in them to stay rooted. Anurag Kashyap said something in an interview I did with him that’s stuck in my head: fans are always the first ones to turn on you. They want you to be a certain way and if you try to break out of that frame of expectations, you get criticized for trying something new.
If you do the same thing again and again, you get criticized for being repetitive. It’s what happened with the likes of Russell Peters who is now accused of doing “the same old cultural jokes” and it will eventually happen to Akshat. Accolades will eventually give way to criticism and scrutiny, and it won’t be all hugs and kisses. What I’m waiting to see is how the corporate machine working on Akshat’s behalf chugs on, knowing that there’s a limited window within which to maximize on his fame.
Will it go down the route of pushing him towards reality shows, being a participant on Roadies or will he be encouraged to perform at weddings and inaugurate malls, before he’s shelved by the public into the “Where have I seen that guy before” category? For now though, I’m just going to enjoy watching him dance. Hopefully, he’s still enjoying it too.
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