Who Needs Stars From The West?

The rampant hiring of stars and even singers from the West won’t contribute to the character of Hindi cinema. The industry needs to understand it and deliver accordingly.

Nathan Jones will be here soon. Nathan, who? He is a former champion wrestler who has been acting in films, seven feet tall and packed with muscles, who recently played a supporting role in Mad Max: Fury Road. Jones’ acquisition might be a good one for producer Ekta Kapoor, who has cast him in her forthcoming film A Flying Jatt. The film stars Jackie Shroff’s son Tiger, the owner of fab abs, great looks and hardly any acting skills. The first two are helpful; the last is not.

Since Tiger is no Shah Rukh Khan or Hrithik Roshan, and Kapoor is not known to produce big budget films, her strategy of hiring Jones can be understood with ease. Even if Tiger bombs in the central role, Jones’ menacing looks should make the audiences gravitate to the theatres. He will get a meaty role. Hectic promotional support will enhance his chances of making quick money. This is less bad than appearing in walk-in parts in successes or failures, or the rare big role in a turkey, but not a fulfilling explanation for his presence.

Recent years have shown that no filmmaker takes chances by making another Shalimar (1978), a Dharmendra-Zeenat Aman film about a man who invites master criminals to his island. The challenge: they have to steal a ruby, which is well-protected inside a room 24 hours a day. If they fail, they die.

The film starred Sir Rex Harrison, best known for his portrayal of Professor Henry Higgins in the 1964 version of My Fair Lady. Besides, it had John Saxon (seen in the Bruce Lee starrer Enter The Dragon) and Sylvia Miles (Midnight Cowboy and Fairwell, My Lovely). A very expensive film for its times, Shalimar tanked. R.D. Burman’s catchy music failed to play the saviour. Perhaps, the presence of Hollywood stars didn’t work.

In an age of sky-high budgets, the Indian film industry can afford to hire stars from the West. The modern-day viewer won’t see them as misfits either. Our producers won’t be able to pay a Brad Pitt or a Julia Roberts for major roles, since their reported fee exceeds the budget of the average Indian film in any major language. But they can pay decent enough fees to B-listers, and get them to act. That is happening, and it must be said, without much success.

Among Hindi film stars, only Aamir Khan has made two correct cinematic choices. Since Lagaan: Once Upon A Time in India was a period film on India under colonial rule, British actors were required to act in important roles. Two among the chosen ones, neither of them remotely reputed, stood out with their performances. One was Paul Blackthorne in the character of a commanding officer, who extracts “lagaan” (taxes) from the poor villagers. The other was Rachel Shelley as the officer’s sister, who eventually falls in love with a villager played by Aamir.

In Rang De Basanti, which had an ensemble cast, Aamir’s was one of the few significant roles. Another one was played by the young British actress Alice Patten, who was seen as Sue, a documentary filmmaker. Sue’s choice of a bunch of students to play a group of revolutionaries proves to be a life-changing experience for them. Patten did not disappoint in a film with several fine performances. Not surprising, since hers was a well-written role.

That sounds good, or at least promising, until we look at the other side. Sir Ben Kingsley, best known to Indian viewers for his portrayal of Mahatma Gandhi, was completely wasted in an overambitious film named Teen Patti that went haywire. Seen in an extended special appearance alongside Amitabh Bachchan in the central role, Sir Ben, as a magician-turned-mathematician, was made to speak in a language that seesawed between the ambiguous and the incomprehensible. The film was a disaster, and an embarrassment to his stature in the Indian mind.

Ambition brought about the downfall of Barbara Mori, a Mexican actress, in Kites. Mori played a street-smart hustler opposite Hrithik Roshan, and their charm and chemistry lit up the screen. But, when a film’s dialogue has so much Spanish and English, expecting it to click with the Indian audiences is expecting too much. When Kites capsized, few were surprised.

In the biographical film Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, the brief presence of Australian actress Rebecca Breeds, whose character the legendary runner gets attracted to, was necessary. But pray, why did a veteran like Sylvester Stallone have to show up and bash up goons in the Akshay Kumar-Kareena Kapoor-Khan starrer Kambakhht Ishq? It was a pointless appearance, hugely hyped, terribly disappointing. Kambakhht Ishq didn’t stop at Stallone. It also had the gorgeous Denise Richards in a fleeting appearance and applied the brake just when the audiences might have been expecting more of her. Brandon Routh appeared and vanished in what was the third cameo. It was a silly film alright. By getting these stars for a holiday with the Indian cast, it appeared infinitely sillier.

Sarah Thompson, an American B-lister, had to be content with the minor role of the girlfriend of Ranbir Kapoor’s character in Prakash Jha’s Rajneeti. She is killed by an explosion in the political drama of the kind we have come to expect from Jha. A smart tactic, since Jha would have known that a minor actress from abroad shouldn’t have too much screen time in a story of political intrigue and revenge in India. The bigger question, however, is: did the film need her at all?

Akshay Kumar films have seen the maximum number of entries from the West. Namastey London had Tiffany Mulheron, another player in the small league, who played the girlfriend of the expressionless hunk Upen Patel. Clive Standen, not a big actor either, played the fiancé of Katrina Kaif in the farcical comedy.

The entry of the stars from the West doesn’t limit itself to films alone. Australian singer Kylie Minogue turned up for the item number “Chiggy Wiggy” in the multi-starrer, which also featured Kumar, titled Blue. The film bombed. The song did well. Snoop Dogg sang and also did a cameo for the music video of the title song of Singh is Kinng. This film was a success, and so was the song. But today, few except a bunch of urban youngsters remember either of the numbers.

Akon made his musical presence felt in RA.One, a flop when seen in the context of the phenomenal money-making potential of its lead actor Shah Rukh Khan. Admittedly a success story for a while, Akon’s song has practically disappeared from our mindspace. In recent years, the Hindi film industry has been guilty of signing quite a few Westerners for the heck of it. Some singers have walked into that space as well. Some might say that speed at which stars and singers are being hired has been rather slow. Should Jones draw audiences in the Tiger Shroff film, this speed can pick up overnight.

If a film needs an item number or actors in roles that can be performed by our local actors, it is important to try that first. The business must make profits. Who said our local stars cannot make the producers laugh their way to the bank? Certainly, not our history of cinema, which includes that of film music.