Aditya - outdated thread. - Page 10

Track-II Heroes
Vinay Pathak: Bheja Fry, Khosla ka Ghosla

Deepak Dobriyal: Omkara

Rajat Kapur: Mixed Doubles, Bheja Fry

Kay Kay: Hazaron Khwaishen Aisi, Life in a Metro

Aditya Srivastava: Black Friday, Satya

Abhay Deol: Honeymoon Travels, Socha Na Tha

Prroshant Narayanan: Chhal, Waisa bhi Hota Hai Part ll

Ranvir Shorey: Bheja Fry, Khosla ka Ghosla
***

A plump, short and quirky income-tax officer with a penchant for Hindi film songs and a way of turning the world around him upside down, Bharat Bhushan is hardly the kind of character who'd cast a Harry Potter spell on the box-office. But India's favourite idiot of the moment has been drawing house-full shows, and the actor behind the role, Vinay Pathak, is still trying to come to terms with delivering the biggest sleeper hit of this year, the oddly-titled Bheja Fry, directed by Sagar Bellary. "The reaction is overwhelming," he says. "We could never have imagined it while making the film." In much the same way, the intense, powerful Irfan Khan didn't just essay an amazingly nuanced act as the gentle, introvert Bengali professor trying to put down roots in alien America, but The Namesake has also emerged as the highest grossing Indian-English film in the country, earning Irfan the title of 'Alternate Khan'.

Irfan and Vinay might be poles apart but they share a few things. They do not have the brawn of a Salman or the chocolatey good looks of Hrithik. You won't see them romancing the heroine, bursting into song 'n dance, or single-handedly fighting an army of villains. More actors than textbook heroes, they are cast in the mould of artistes like Balraj Sahni, Naseeruddin Shah, Manoj Bajpai, Pankaj Kapur and Om Puri, recognised more for their acting skills than for their glamour. And they aren't the only ones on the Bollywood horizon'actors like Ranvir Shorey, Deepak Dobriyal, Prroshant Narayanan, Aditya Srivastava, Abhay Deol, Rajat Kapur, Shiny Ahuja, Vijay Raaz, Atul Kulkarni, Shreyas Talpade are all bringing fresh vitality, vigour and also money and success to the alternate, small film movement in the country. Irfan and Kay Kay could well be called the big daddies of the lot, the former having already moved on to a bigger, international platform, with Namesake followed by Michael Winterbottom's film on Daniel Pearl, A Mighty Heart.

One reason why this creative crop is flourishing is because the space for small films is getting better defined in Bollywood. Not only are multiplexes offering a definite avenue of release, the films themselves'once experimental, often pretentious exercises'are establishing a better connect with the audience without necessarily compromising on their independent spirit.

"Opportunities for us are increasing," says Aditya Srivastava, seen recently as Badshah Khan, Tiger Memon's henchman on the run in Anurag Kashyap's Black Friday. "It's the best time we have had in 20 years. The days of B-grade Bollywood are over. Now it's either superstars like the Khans or the alternate stars," says actor-filmmaker Rajat Kapur.

Abhay Deol: Clinching roles: Socha Na Tha, Ahista Ahista, Ek Chaalis Ki Last Local Coming soon: Manorama 6 Feet Under, Meridien
Sunny and Bobby Deol's cousin Abhay should have ideally opened big with a dramatic action film, but he decided to make his debut with a sweet and simple romantic comedy, Socha Na Tha, directed by Imtiaz Ali.

His subsequent efforts, be it Shivam Nair's Ahista Ahista or Reema Kagti's Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd, have been as offbeat. "I try to do films with great scripts but which are also entertaining, something audiences can relate to," he says.

Abhay is already being dubbed the new-age Amol Palekar. Much like him, the others too don't aspire to be larger than life, only real and compelling. "I'd be fooling myself to expect to be an SRK. My strength is to get under the skin of the character, make it real," says Vinay. "The traditional notion of heroism does not work any more. It's cool to be yourself, even if you're plump, with pimples on your face. We've all been losers at some point in time, when someone else has walked away with our ambitions, the bike, the chick or the money. Our characters embody that ordinariness."

Ranvir Shorey: Clinching roles: Khosla Ka Ghosla, Pyaar Ke Side Effects, Traffic Signal, Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd, Bheja Fry, Mixed Doubles. Coming soon: Mithya, I Am 24
Most of these actors come with a background in theatre and television and have an instinctive understanding of the film medium too, though for some acting happened by accident rather than choice. Abhay literally grew up on film sets; he'd have joined acting sooner rather than later. "I denied the pull for a long while. But then I couldn't see myself doing anything else," says he. Ranvir Shorey worked behind the camera as a producer and director at Channel V till the bosses decided to push him in front of the camera. "It took a while to get comfortable and even longer to explore more avenues as an actor," he says.

Vinay, hailing originally from Bhojpur in Bihar, studied in Ranchi and Allahabad before leaving for New York for an MBA. But theatre's pull proved stronger, and he chucked the management degree for a course in theatre. He and Ranvir have won recognition as TV's funniest comic duo, as Channel V veejays and on The Great Indian Comedy Show. Another management graduate, Kay Kay, left a coveted manager's job to join Mumbai's theatre circuit, and did a celebrated role as Gandhi's son Harilal in Feroz Khan's Mahatma Versus Gandhi. He also did TV (Pradhan Mantri) and films like Saeed Mirza's Naseem and Mahesh Mathai's Bhopal Express. Recognition came with Sudhir Mishra's Hazaron Khwaishen Aisi, and Ram Gopal Varma's Sarkar. This year, both his films, Honeymoon Travels and Life in a Metro, have pulled in the crowds.

Life took a different turn for Rajat Kapur as well who studied direction at FTII, assisted Kumar Shahani and Mani Kaul, and eventually got famous for his role as Preity's young uncle in Farhan Akhtar's Dil Chahta Hai, and a paedophile uncle in Mira Nair's Monsoon Wedding. He is now combining acting with direction, having made movies like Mixed Doubles and Raghu Romeo. "Acting happened because I was struggling for money as a filmmaker."

Prroshant Narayanan: Clinching roles: Chhal, Waisa Bhi Hota Hai Part II, Shadows of Time. Coming soon: Mr Singh/Mrs Mehta, Bombil and Beatrice, Via Darjeeling

Money wasn't the issue for Prroshant; he had done innumerable TV serials before getting noticed for his mercurial, unpredictable energy in Hansal Mehta's Chhal and Shashanka Ghosh's Waisa Bhi Hota Hai Part II. "The idea is not to go looking for work even if the money is great. I know the work will come to me. My choice of role is determined by the script'whether I get Rs 2 for it or Rs 5," he says.

Aditya Srivastava did a six-year stint at Delhi's Sri Ram Centre for Performing Arts before coming to Mumbai in 1995.