Five men and their 'flop' stories

The cut-throat world of showbiz and stigma of failure have made these actors tread different paths

A certified flop can spell doomsday for an actor's career. A few have managed to survive such fatal odds while others have either had to reinvent their strategies or fade out with a whimper. Alas, that's one of the heart-rending givens of Bollywood stardom. Let's just hope that the 31-year-old Aditya Roy Kapur doesn't vanish into oblivion after the no-shows of such humdingers as Daawat-e-Ishq, Fitoor and last month's OK Jaanu, the Hindi language remake of Mani Ratnam's Tamil hit O Kadhal Kanmani.
The film is directed by Shaad Ali, who had refashioned Ratnam's Alaipayuthey into the successful Saathiya, featuring Vivek Oberoi and Rani Mukerji. His second jab at a Ratnam-style rom-sob shocked the trade by its extremely poor show at the cash counters. Aditya's co-star, Shraddha Kapoor, has also totted up yet another flop this year after the misconceived and turgidly paced Rock On 2.
Both Aditya and Shraddha had become a pair with a likeable screen presence, thanks to Aashiqui 2. Chances are that Shraddha may be able to regain her market equity since she has a couple of commercially viable projects in hand: Half Girlfriend adapted from popular writer Chetan Bhagat's bestseller, and Haseena: The Queen of Mumbai, a biopic that showcases her as a steely-strong personality of the underworld. However, Aditya doesn't seem to have anything significant on his plate presently. Whether he can rise from the proverbial ashes is the big question.

Alas, it's the same story for Abhishek Bachchan, too. At the age of 40, from reported accounts, he has only one film in the pipeline: Lefty, to be steered by dancer-choreographer-director Prabhu Deva. Sixteen years have elapsed since his debut in Refugee. His track record indicates a low average of successes and far too many duds, which has prevented Bachchan Jr from ever making it to the A-list. A pity that.
Abhishek does have a flair for comic timing as evidenced in Dostana, and can segue into the high dramatic mode effectively - as he did in Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna, Yuva and Guru. If a role assigned to him has any substance and if he trusts the director implicitly, there is little doubt he can deliver the goods. However, on being saddled with unconvincing and overwrought parts, as in All Is Well, he is clearly ill at ease. Reportedly, Abhishek doesn't seem to have that killer instinct of taking up offers which could have done wonders for his career. In fact, it's lored that he was to be in the original cast of the widely-lauded Lagaan and Dil Chahta Hai. Did he nix those projects or did the producers redesign them? We will never know for sure.

In a business where it's either boom or bust for actors as well as directors, the perception of which film will work and which will not is of the essence. Take the 41-year-old Akshaye Khanna's all-too-premature, self-willed withdrawal from the scene. An outstanding actor but far too moody for anyone's comfort, he became inaccessible for as many as four years, only to make a comeback of sorts in the chaotic action flick Dishoom, which was certainly not worthy of his stature. Of late, talk circulated that he would be enacting the role of the late Sunil Dutt in Rajkumar Hirani's biopic on the life and times of Sanjay Dutt. Apparently, the director and the actor mutually agreed that it would be a case of miscasting. Paresh Rawal has been pencilled in instead.

Neither luck nor the right opportunities came by the way of Fardeen Khan, who was last seen in the utterly forgettable Dulha Mil Gaya six years ago. Although he could have resuscitated his career - a remake of his father Feroz Khan's Qurbani was, in fact, on the cards - the 42-year-old actor has decided to quit the Bollywood scene.

Evidently, then, disenchantment with the partisan ways of show business - accompanied by the stigma of flops - can prove to be a career wrap-up. Only a rare few have possessed that stamina of survival. The 46-year-old Saif Ali Khan is a case in point. Never mind a row of disappointments like Bullet Raja, Humshakals, Happy Ending and Phantom, he could well reconnect with the audience with Vishal Bhardwaj's intensely publicised war drama Rangoon.
The point is to stay steady and unfazed, a dilemma which confronts Aditya Roy Kapur after OK Jaanu. After all, there's that classic syndrome of the survival of the fittest in the Bollywood jungle.
wknd@khaleejtimes.com