Picky business

A-list actors have always been choosy. If you think Hrithik and Aamir are doing less films, you should know that Dilip Kumar and Raj Kapoor paved the way

WHILE channel surfing towards destination IPL, I caught the promos of Rakesh Roshan's new Hrithik starrer, Kites. Amidst the vehicle pile-ups and Barbara Mori close-ups, a thought struck meu00a0-- 'Long time no see, Hrithik'. I calculated and realised that it had been over two years since I last saw Hrithik in a full-fledged role (his cameo in Luck By Chance is just a statistic). His last film as a hero, Jodhaa Akbar, released in February 2008. Kites is slated for May 2010.

Talk about turning fastidiousness into fine art! Hrithik's absence from the screen is obviously not because of lack of offers -- after all, his last three films have all been hits. Interestingly, as I delved further into Hrithik's career, I found that in the last six years (2004-2009), he has appeared in only four filmsu00a0-- Lakshya, Krishh, Dhoom 2 and Jodhaa Akbar! All big budget ventures, and two blockbusters. But the score doesn't even average out to one film a year. Hrithik recently completed a decade in films, but in this span, beginning with Kaho Na Pyar Hai in 2000, the choosy star has done only 14 films in all.

Perhaps I am more amazed because I entered film journalism in the 1980s when the scenario was starkly different from this post-millennial numerical austerity.

Those 70s stars

Ironically, in a single year, 1989, to be precise, Govinda had 14 films thronging the theatres, albeit largely inane ventures. But think about itu00a0-- he did as many films in one year as Hrithik has done in his entire career! Overall, Govinda has done some 125 films. To be fair to Govinda, he was not the only prolific star guilty of overvaluing his fertility. Believe it or not, in 1989, eighties A-lister Sunny Deol had seven releases (including Tridev and Chalbaaz), Anil Kapoor had 8 releases (including Ram Lakhan, Eeshwar and Parinda) while Jackie Shroff had 9 releases (including Ram Lakhan, Tridev, Parinda).

I don't single out Govinda, Sunny, Anil, Jackie and the ilk for blame; they were only doing in the 1980s what their predecessors like Dharmendra, Jeetenda and Mithun had done earlier. Right from the 1970s, when multistarrers ruled the success of stars Shashi Kapoor, Rekha, Neetu Singh et al was gauged by the number of films they had in their bag. Sometimes, the score of assignments ranged from 20 to 40!

Climate Of Change

But within two decades, there has been a sea change in the way success is perceived and the number of times in a year a cleverly-strategised star deems it fit to show up on the big screen.

While Hrithik is decidedly an extreme case, his painstaking pickiness is a relevant comment on the way film stars handle their careers. Today, rare is the star who has more than half-a-dozen assignments on hand. In varying degrees, 'Less is more' is the current currency of a film industry.

Nobody epitomises it better than Aamir Khan. Just last week, directors Kunal Kapoor and Indra Kumar were lamenting that Aamir does very few films. Indra Kumar had even bragged, "Mansoor and I are the only ones who have done three films with Aamir; I don't think he will ever do three films with anyone again."
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Aamiru00a0-- Starting A Revolution

Aamir struck out in the mid-'90s and dared to swim against the tide. After doing numerous films (good, bad and indifferent) in the initial stages of his career and establishing himself financially, he cut down his workload drastically. Hits such as Rangeela had made the bedrock for this strategy. For the next three years, he had just one release a yearu00a0-- Raja Hindustani ('96), Ishq ('97) and Ghulam ('98).

And after hitting a peak with Lagaan and Dil Chahta Hai in 2001, Aamir did the unthinkableu00a0-- he disappeared. After a yawning gap of four years, his next film, Mangal Pandey ('05) fired blanks at the box-office, but Aamir stuck to his guns and continued to be selective. Subsequently, he has had five consecutive successesu00a0-- Rang De Basanti, Fanaa ('06), Taare Zameen Par ('07), Ghajini ('08), 3 Idiots ('09) in the last four years.

Shah Rukh, who has earned the epithet of King Khan, may not have been as selective but he is not as prolific as Salman Khan either. In the last two-three years, his releases have dwindled to one film a year: Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi ('08), Billu ('09) and My Name Is Khan ('10).
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The Original

But the Khan who brought choosiness into vogue was from another generation. He was Yusuf Khan, better known as Dilip Kumar. The doyen of the Hindi film industry had the world at his feet after the epic hit, Mughal-e-Azam in 1960. He followed it up with blockbuster Ganga Jamuna in 1961. However, a 39-year-old Dilip suddenly pressed the brakes and was next seen onscreen only three years later with the unremarkable Leader in 1964 (incidentally, it was directed by Rani Mukerjee's father Ram Mukherjee).

Dilip had always been rather choosy. In the fifties he worked in 21 films from 1950 to 1959, but appeared in only 8 films between 1960 and 1969 -- three films with Vyjayanthimala (Ganga Jamuna, Leader, Sanghursh), three with Waheeda Rehman (Dil Diya Dard Liya, Ram Aur Shyam, Aadmi) and leftovers from the 1950s with Meena Kumari (Kohinoor) and Madhubala (Mughal-e-Azam).

Because Dilip Kumar did such few films, it was a big deal for a heroine to be paired opposite him. Besides Saira Banu (he worked with her after she became his wife), Dilip ignored the 1960s brigade including Asha Parekh, Sadhana, Mala Sinha and Nanda. Sadhana did have an unfortunate slip-between-the-cup-and-the-lip encounter with Dilip Kumar: she was signed for Sanghursh but dropped unceremoniously when she developed a thyroid problem.

The Days Of The Raj

Raj Kapoor was not so finicky about his heroinesu00a0-- he even worked with the ravishingly pretty, hazel-eyed newbie Rajshree in the '60s. But he did get finicky about his films. He went through phasesu00a0-- between 1954 and 1957 he had only four releases. Most significantly, afteru00a0 his megablockbuster colour extravaganza Sangam ('64) achieved a remarkable confluence of artistic recognition and commercial success, Raj had no release for the next two years; and even then it was the black-and-white, delayed Teesri Kasam (1966).

The only films Raj Kapoor began as a hero after Sangam were Around The World (1967) and Sapnon Ka Saudagar (1968), besides his semi-autobiographical Mera Naam Joker (1970). None broke the bank, including the last-named magnum opus, which had half-a-dozen top stars and two intervals, but found few repeat viewers. The overselectiveness in the 1960s or the age factor did not really work for Raj, or for Dilip. The latter's career also sputtered and he ended up doing only four films in the 1970s.
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Manoju00a0-- The Unsung Pioneer

The world knows that Manoj Kumar admired Dilip Kumar as an actor, and even imitated his ponderous style of dialogue delivery. In fact, Manoj borrowed his screen name from the Dilip Kumar-Kamini Kaushal starrer, Shaheed, in which Dilip was called Manoj. In later years, Manoj was inspired by Dilip's approach of working.
After turning director, Manoj pared his acting assignments but significantly, the hits flowed ceaselessly. His best phase was from 1974 to 1976, when he had one release each year, and each one was a massive hitu00a0-- Roti Kapda Aur Makaan (1974), Sanyasi (1975) and Dus Numbri (1976). Each of these films found a prominent place among the biggest hits of their respective years of release.

And yet, like an unsolved mystery, when he should have been making hay while the sun shone, Manoj Kumar chose to play hard to get. He had no new film releases for the next five years!

Finally, in 1981, Kranti, a multistarrer featuring him alongside Dilip Kumar, Shashi Kapoor, Shatrughan Sinha and lucky mascot Hema Malini had the audience crowding the theatres once again to see a Manoj Kumar film. In the interim, only the long-struck film Amaanat, with the long-retired Sadhana as his heroine, came and left in 1978 even before the paint on the posters had dried up. But Kranti's smashing success indicated that the audience could be willing to wait out long absences.

After Kranti, though, Manoj lost the plot. When he reappeared six years later with Kalyug Ka Ramayan (1987) and Clerk (1989), the audience had clearly moved on.
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Striking A Balance

Pioneers like Dilip, Raj and Manoj have paved the way for a new system. Thirty years later, being choosy has paid off for Aamir; it's working for Hrithik and it's an idea that seems to have seduced Shah Rukh.u00a0

I would like to sign off with a telling comment from Manoj Kumar about doing few films. He had guffawed, "Dogs litter, lions give birth to (fewer) cubs."