The Superheroes Phenomenon

If you thought this post was about the superhero movies then read on because its not. This post is about the reel and real, larger than life, 'Super' heroes in hindi cinema.

Heroes who achieve 'super stardom' are worshiped in India and I mean literally. Some even have their own temples and idols. While it does not take much for some of these actors (if you can call them that) to reach out to people in order to make their films work there are some who ought to be lecturers in business schools to demonstrate how to market a product, a job that they do day in and day out, market themselves.

These superstars have been around in every generation in the Indian cinema. The ones in the current generation, with phenomenal star power (as we call it in Bollywood), that come to mind instantly are Rajnikanth, the three khans, Salman, Shahrukh and Aamir, and until very recently Akshay Kumar. Of all the above, as per me, only Aamir is the one who has proved time and again that he has solid acting skills to back up his stardom. I am not saying the others cant act, but according to me their acting skills are not directly proportional to their popularity. Each one has their own fan base who might even fight among themselves to prove that one is greater than the other.

Once Aamir Khan so rightly said about Salman in a game show, "I am only an actor but Salman is a superstar". Salman Khan probably has the craziest loyalists around in the country. It does not matter that only some years back the guy was involved in a hit and run. But if you leave his non filmy life out, even then it does not explain his stardom. Sure, he has the looks. But what is it about him that makes his films, as shitty as they are, break BO records after BO records. One might answer in one word, promotions. But that can be counter argued with the example of his last release, Bodyguard, where he was not even able to promote his film due to illness.

These guys owe their fame to all the loyalists that they have around the country. They some how connect with the public which I have still not been able to decode. The following is a real life incident which I have experienced. I was out to watch a Sallu movie around 7-8 years back. People were queued up outside waiting for the gates to open. One smart ass guy said out loud, 'Salman Khan just cant act'. Moments later, he was slapped across his face by a fan. I should have been alarmed but it was hilarious that the fan took it so personally upon himself to redeem his hero.

Not surprisingly enough, these movies, which may be fun to watch sometimes, rake in hard core money. The loser in this case are the creative small time actors/ directors who make a gem of a movie but lose the Friday battle with a Salman or a Shahrukh who may have shelled out a mediocre film at best. In the recent past many such movies have lost out which is sad. People have not even heard about movies like I am Kalam or Shaitan or Soundtrack but every one knows about Ready or Bodyguard.

The one thing to learn from these guys is how to market yourself. Recently SRK spent money like water to promote his magnum opus Ra.One. To give him his due, it did have state of the art CGI and he did a great effort in bringing hollywood style technology to Indian cinema. Ra One was marketted heavily and that helped create enormous excitement to watch the movie. Although this can have an adverse effect, like raising expectations, but thats a risk for a normal actor/ producer, not for SRK. Aamir is another superstar who is brilliant at marketting his films. He has these ingenious different ways of marketting the movies which hit the right spot of creating awareness and excitement. This atleast kicks off the film strongly which might help even if it is a mediocre film. This is something which other filmmakers should definitely learn.

Finally, as spiderman's uncle used to say, "With great power comes greater responsibility", these superstars should use their powers responsibly. They should realize that they can generate massive mass hysteria among their fans. They should avoid misuse of people's trusts. Maybe even help small time film makers by promoting their films (something which Salman already does). But more than ever they should not promote their bad habits publicly which their fans will try to emulate. As far as I am concerned I am still trying to find answers to this mystery of mass popularity.