Mapping Bollywood’s future

Bollywood’s young guns gathered for a talk at the ongoing MAMI film festival. In a freewheeling session, they discussed everything from envious launch pads to grappling with the pressure to perform

This is possibly the first time that the young Bollywood brigade turned up as a bunch at an event that is neither an award function, nor a film’s success party. The young and shining stars including Alia Bhatt, Arjun Kapoor, Parineeti Chopra, Kriti Sanon, Aditya Roy Kapoor and Ayushmann Khurrana gathered for a talk at the ongoing Jio MAMI 17th Mumbai Film Festival. Topic of discussion — Bollywood: The next five years. Hosting the session were noted film critics Anupama Chopra and Rajeev Masand. The considerable newcomers have set sail for a journey to reign the film industry in the years to come. Can they feel the pressure yet Arjun Kapoor certainly thinks so. “Most of us here on stage have been accidental professionals. When I started, the idea was solely to perform well. Now of course the pressure is building since people have started talking about it. But we are still very new to the industry and we are yet to explore ourselves as actors.” Alia, his 2 States co-star seems to have come to terms with her stardom though and feels that the pressure acts as a catalyst for her to perform better. “Pressure brings a lot of joy, stress and happiness,” agrees Alia. Parineeti for that matter, takes it positively too. “It’s a privileged position to be in. Things are going to get much worse, but I’m glad with the way things are now.”

The conversation was peppered with jokes and wisecracks. Routinely, Anupama and Rajeev had to chaperone the session and bring them back to the point. After considerable meandering, the actors were asked about their debut films. In hindsight, all the actors seemed to be all praises for the choices they had made. Alia says, “I was quite fortunate that I got a film like Student of The Year because there I got to ‘perform’. Of course I was aware of the fact that some people must have had said ‘here’s another pretty face’ and all that. But then Highway came my way.” Of all the people in the fray, Ayushmann had a rather unconventional start with Vicky Donor. The actor says that he had liked the film at the script level itself. “I was waiting for the right film. When I was offered the role I immediately liked the idea, though it sounded a bit weird. But I liked that the nuances of the characters — especially near the end was what I liked the most. Immediately I knew that this would be a special film.”

Kriti Sanon adds, “I was very happy about Heropanti, because it was a film where I could come out as a pure package with dance, glamour and performance. In the future I would like to do more films that I (as an audience) would like to watch.”

The actors admit that getting typecast in a certain role is a constant threat in the industry. However, the univocal response was that they are trying to break the mould constantly. “Initially I had no idea about typecast. I just went on signing the films that were coming my way, without putting much thought and planning. After a point, things started to get repetitive — similar characters kept coming to me. But now I sign films differently and fortunately enough I got a film like Hasee Toh Phasee,” said Parineeti.

While everyone spoke about films they have done or would like to do, a candid Aditya Roy Kapoor admitted that he doesn’t have many films in hand, before mockingly looking for his bottle — a joke referring to his alcoholic character from his debut (as lead) Aashiqui2.

Drawing parallels between a film set and cricket pitch Ayushmann concluded, “The situation is more like cricket. We are in the middle of the innings, and we have to be there for a while longer.”

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