TIMELINE
As The Credits Roll...
Over the years: 10 starrevelations for the pop-up album; the age of the item number; when we playedpaparazzi; the tech wizards; where the worm bit the apple...
1995: Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jaayenge, Rangeela, Bombay, Karan Arjun, Akele Hum Akele Tum, Coolie No. 1, Raja
1996: Raja Hindustani, Ghatak, Agnisakshi, Bandit Queen, Khamoshi
1997: Border, Dil To Pagal Hai, Pardes, Viraasat, Chachi 420, Mrityudand
1998: Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Bade Miyan Chote Miyan, Satya, Ghulam, Dil Se, Zakhm, Jeans
1999: Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, Taal, Sarfarosh, Hum Saath Saath Hain, Vaastav, Earth
2000: Kaho Na Pyaar Hai, Mohabbatein, Mission Kashmir, Refugee, Astitva
2001: Gadar, Lagaan, Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, Dil Chahta Hai, Chandni Bar, Mujhe Kuch Kehna Hai
2002: Devdas, Kaante, Company, Ek Chhoti Si Love Story, Let's Talk
2003: Koi Mil Gaya, Kal Ho Na Ho, Munnabhai MBBS, Bhoot, Tere Naam, Jism
2004: Veer Zaara, Main Hoon Na, Hum Tum, Murder, Swades, Dev, Khamosh Pani (from Pakistani filmmaker Sabiha Sumar), Maqbool
2005: Black, Page 3, My Brother Nikhil
Advertisement
10 Star Revelations For The Pop-Up Album
Dinesh Raheja, co-author of the 100 Luminaries Of Hindi Cinema (’96) andIndian Cinema: The Bollywood Saga (’04),gives his take on who mattered in the last decade.
Hrithik Roshan
He sauntered in breezier-than-the-Caribbean-winds in Kaho Na Pyar Hai (2000), unleashing a tornado among Gen-Xers in search of a new poster boy. The Adonis’ next few films, however, fumbled and he was dissed as a one-film fluke. Recalcitrant fans came back though after Koi Mil Gaya, where he exhibited a unique ability to celebrate the nerd within.
Aishwarya Rai
You forget her forays into plastic when she zaps you with something pulsatingly real. Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam (1999), Devdas (2002) and Chokher Bali (2003) come to mind. In a male-dominated industry, the 30-plus star has dared to alienate the ruling Khans without capsizing her chances. And now even Hollywood’s come calling.
Mallika Sherawat
Advertisement
With Murder, Mallika lent across-the-board popularity to what had always been a fringe genre: the skin flick. At best an adequate actress, Mallika has even foreign superstars like Jackie Chan knocking on her door now. Hyped up for her 17 kisses inKhwaish, she still wears her attitude with as much elan as her kerchief-sized, itsy-bitsy bikinis.
Konkona Sen Sharma
Recently, an ad filmmaker told me, "I want to make a Konkona Sen Sharma type of film. One that marries art and commerce." Aparna Sen’s daughter may have strayed into films by accident but she’s stayed on to emerge as one of the thinking viewer’s best bets. And it happened with fine performances in Mr & Mrs Iyer and later in Page 3.
Paresh Rawal
He played assorted villains and characters for more than a decade till he discovered his funny bone. Today, when the paying public reads "and Paresh Rawal" in the screen credits, their faces light up. Ever since Paresh played the doltish, dhoti-clad Baburao in Hera Pheri (2000), he’s taken over the comedy court for himself. Paresh’s loopy rapport with the audience has been reaffirmed with successes likeAwaara Pagal Deewana (2002) and Hungama (2003). It’s a reinvention of the comedian as star attraction.
Boman Irani
The man whose shop once peddled crunchy wafers now gives fundas to popcorn chompers.A product of English theatre, Boman began with the experimental Let’s Talk but his hilarious turn as a principles-challenged principal in Munnabhai MBBS, brought him to Bollywood centrestage. Fortysomething Boman is now a Hindi film staple.
Shankar, Ehsaan, Loy
Advertisement
It’s now Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy’s time. With Dil Chahta Hai (2001), the trio created a funky, upbeat score with the title number going on to become a ringtone classic. In their chartbusting Mahi ve number from Kal Ho Na Ho, robust bhangra beats were inlaid with the plaintive strains of Chanda mere chanda. A perfect fusion of old world melody and modern beats.
Aditya Chopra
Sure, he wrote and directed the 1995 blockbuster Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge but it’s more his uncanny eye for channelising talent (Kunal Kohli, Sanjay Gadhvi, Pritam) and box office weather vanes that has got him on the list. Piloting three hits as a producer lastyear—Hum Tum, Dhoom and Veer Zaara—Aditya knows how to create box-office dhoom.
Ram Gopal Varma
Advertisement
Like Alfred Hitchcock, Ram Gopal Varma also treats actors like cattle. And gets away with it. He has taken on the star system by bankrolling films with lesser-known faces. His production house (The Factory!) has proved a seed bed for talent and has revived the studio age. Five ‘different’ films last year and more coming in ’05: Sarkar, D, Galti Se, James.
Sanjay Leela Bhansali
Like his characters, Bhansali, despite all odds, connects. What Bollywood loves even more is that even as he creatively challenges himself each time he also exhibits an ability to make a Rs 50-crore film a paying proposition. From Khamoshi to Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam to Devdas to Black, Bhansali has also gone where few others have dared to tread as far as themes are concerned.
Advertisement
The Age Of The Item Number
It wasn’t yet an ‘item number’ in 1995. But it was there in the mesmerising form of Sonali Bendre gyrating to Humma Humma (Bombay). Then Malaika Arora wiggled with SRK atop a train in Chaiyyan Chaiyyan (Dil Se). And a hit formula was formalised. Take a foot-tapping number, get a hot babe to do a special appearance and, presto, the sexiest pick-up call of the decade.
Rain Grind Isha Koppikar’s Khallas routine in the gangster flick Company
The blue dance Malaika Arora does a Mahi ve number on the pole in Kaante
Love-sick Mumait Khan asks terminal patient Jimmy Shergill to Dekh le in Munnabhai MBBS
When We PlayedPaparazzi
The Ghatan Girls (February 1996)
Maharashtrian women take over from Southie sirens in Bollywood as Urmila Matondkar, Shilpa Shirodhkar, Sonali Bendre, Ashwini Bhave, Varsha Usgaonkar wow the screen. Mamata Kulkarni shows how sex sells, while Madhuri Dixit is mostly just brilliant.
Bipasha Basu (March 2002)
A gorgeous brown-skinned girl from middle-class Calcutta eschews something called "the right path" for a career in modelling, whichquickly morphs into films. She’s now the belle de jour. Might this woman of today’s fantasies get more than her 15 minutes of fame?
Advertisement
Actors for a thinking audience (April 2002)
Unconventional roles, personae and looks—with some very serious acting chops—push four talented young men into the limelight. Kay Kay, Irrfan Khan, Vijay Raaz and Atul Kulkarni could one day be ready to take over the weighty mantle of ‘meaningful acting’ from Naseeruddin Shah or Om Puri.
Rajnikanth (August 2002)
A Rajni film is always news.Baba, coming after a 3-year gap, and labeled his comeback film, is a mega-event. Tamil magazines spin 40 cover stories off this over five months. Is all the fuss a precursor to Rajni’s political avatar?
A.R. Rahman (December 2002)
Advertisement
When an iconic maker of musicals called Andrew Lloyd Webber says you’re so good you should write an opera, and you sell more than Madonna or Britney Spears, you can be excused for putting your feet up. Not Rahman. The seemingly inexhaustible tune factory in his head just goes on and on and on.
Ajay Devgan (September 2003)
From fists of fury and doing the splits on bikes to nuanced, meaningful communication that resonates with audiences looking for depth in their characters. In the years since Phool Aur Kaante, Ajay Devgan evolves from a stuntman with an acting bug to arguably India’s most compelling hero —or baddie.
Karan Johar (December 2003)
Advertisement
When you’ve made Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, two of Indian cinema’s biggest ever successes, you’ve clearly got some sort of magic touch. Especially when Kal Ho Naa Ho is storming the charts too. Karan Joharesque filmmaking may seem a trite recipe, but audiences love it to bits.
Soumitra Chatterjee (February 2004)
The government awards the great Bengali actor and Satyajit Ray films mainstay with a Padma Bhushan—well after the film-loving French and Italians have honoured him, and several decades after some of his finest work. The price you pay for not working in Hindi? Perhaps.
Shankar, Ehsaan, Loy (May 2004)
Advertisement
Ad jingles, rock, jazz, Carnatic classical—and disco—come together in a strange but compelling brew. Shankar Mahadevan, Ehsaan Noorani and Loy Mendonca create a whole new sound that’s fresh, innovative and global, yet still recognisably Indian andfilmi.
The Tech Wizards
While the decade saw the South’s star production line wind down, it also brought a northward shift.Today Ram Gopal Varma is hardly identified as South Indian anymore, but there’s much more to the change, with top-drawer cinematographers like Ravi K. Chandran and Santosh Sivan and set designers like Thota Tharani doing world-class work.
Ravi K. Chandran: Cinematographer (Black, DCH, Yuva, Koi Mil Gaya)
Advertisement
Santosh Sivan: From cameraman for Roja et al to directing Asoka, The Terrorist etc
Where The Worm BitThe Apple