Anushka Sharma– Salman heroine with ‘proper’ role
When producer Aditya Chopra, Anushka’s mentor, in her own words, asked her to get on-board the Salman Khan-starrer Sultan, the first thing that crossed her mind was, what’ll she get to do in it? The fact that they should think along these lines, rather than lap up what’s bound to be a solid commercial success, already says a lot about female A-listers.
But Anushka trusted Aditya, heard director Ali Abbas Zafar narrate Sultan’s script, and could tell that if she put in enough, there was enough in her role to make it memorable, alongside Salman’s. She trained herself in professional wrestling to fit the part. Why’s that a big deal?
Hardcore star-system in Bollywood, as it were, started roughly about six-and-half decades ago. Salman alone has been an active super-star for 25 years plus. If you discount Amitabh Bachchan’s long peak in the ’70s/ early ’80s, no other actor, especially over the past decade or so, has managed to corner such huge audiences by his presence alone — regardless of a film’s content.
Salman shows up on screen. Audiences show up in theatres. Hardly a surprise then, that if you were to look back at some of his hits, you’ll hardly remember anybody else. Can you instantly recall the female lead of Kick, Jai Ho, Ready, Bodyguard? Or what the thoroughly replaceable Jacqueline, Daisy, Asin or Kareena were doing in those films? Katrina, to be fair, had a relatively significant role in Ek Tha Tiger, also produced by Aditya Chopra.
But here was Salman, Bollywood’s last male bastion — actually prepping for a part (wow!), sharing ample screen time with the heroine (no way!). Sure signs of an immeasurable change. Also, Karan Johar’s Ae Dil Hai Mushkil was as much, if not more, Anushka’s film, as it was Ranbir Kapoor’s. Rounded total of her two movies’ box-office collections come to around R420 crore. Surely a fair part can be attributed to her.
