Ahead of Fighter, unboxing the Hrithik Roshan dilemma: Audience wants him to be a superstar, he wants to be an actor

No actor in the last 30 years of the Hindi film industry has made a debut with a blockbuster. Kaho Na Pyaar Hai in 2000 was the birth of a star, at a time when another one was ruling– Shah Rukh Khan. When the Hrithik Roshan wave hit Bollywood shore, it washed people away. This was the post Govinda audience, which saw a smooth dancing sensation in Hrithik, the post Salman Khan-gym era crowd, which quickly made Hrithik the poster boy for aspirational body, the still-charmed romantics of Shah Rukh, who were looking lovingly at the possibility of a new heartthrob. Hrithik Roshan had arrived, but with a baggage that the audience wasn’t necessarily prepared to accept.

It is unimaginable today to think that a mega successful launch of an actor as a romantic hero would be followed by two films where he would play–wait for it– a brainwashed terrorist. Hrithik’s sweeping U-turn with Fiza and Mission Kashmir in the same year as his debut was a shocker. These were more, as the trade puts it, acting projects and not star vehicles. If 2000 was the birth of a superstar, it was also the origins of what can be called ‘the Hrithik Roshan dilemma’, which the actor continues to battle even now as he gears up for his latest Fighter.

Hrithik has always tried to swim against the tide, looking for parts which challenge the performer in him even if it means sacrificing the superstar in him. It hasn’t always worked though. In the first decade of his career, for example, his big money spinners came with films like Koi Mil Gaya, Krrish, Dhoom 2, the last two being larger than life action spectacles which justified the superstar tag. This was before he witnessed the most damaging phase, thankfully short lived between 2002-2003, when he tried to adapt to the over-the-top tempo of films like Main Prem Ki Diwani Hoon, Aap Mujhe Achche Lagne Lage, Mujhse Dosti Karoge and failed.

The image of a misfit actor wrongly cast in such films changed slowly with his humbler outing in Lakshay and Jodhaa Akbar–both celebrated movies which aged well. It was a good decade for superstar Hrithik Roshan, even if everything was to change in the next ten years.

Post 2010, Hrithik’s choices became wider, sharper and even eclectic. He teamed up with new energies and some old collaborations. The result was spectacularly mixed. The ambitious Kites featuring Hrithik in all his glory was coupled with Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Guzaarish, where he was a paralyzed magician. Both didn’t fare well.

The coming-of-age energy in Zoya Akhtar’s Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara was matched with the raw angst of Agneepath and the superhero epic-ness of Krrish 3. All three delivered. His transition to Hollywood-like action with Bang Bang and then going back in time with Ashutosh Gowariker’s Mohenjo Daro weren’t memorable fares. If he stated steadily peaking again with Kaabil, Super 30 and War–his biggest hit to date–he also then dipped gravely with Vikram Vedha, a failure of gigantic proportion which no one saw coming. Every time Hrithik stepped in a film world that accommodated his larger-than-life aura, the result was euphoric. Every time he attempted to step out, the audience stayed away.

His actioner War, for example, featured him as RAW agent Kabir. It is a performance Hrithik loves to talk about and has mentioned in countless interviews how it was hard for him to play this larger-than-life man, someone who is not in real life. Yet, from an audience point of view, the role won’t be slotted as something he self admittedly worked hard for. The memory of War will always be how he looked, how he walked, how he was styled. Similarly, when he tried to turn the table and play a grungy UP don in Vikram Vedha, the audience appreciated his act but didn’t turn up in huge numbers. They couldn’t find Hrithik Roshan, the familiar face of their childhood which they search in movie after movie.

In a lot of ways, Hrithik Roshan has been following what can be dubbed for easy understanding the Aamir Khan model of working. This isn’t a comparison of their careers or a suggestion that Hrithik has been trying to ape the trajectory of someone a decade senior to him, yet, in its philosophical essence, it is a very similar intent. Which is to say that these two stars derive heavily from their films, more than anything else orbiting around them.

Salman Khan is the star riding on unshakable raw macho aura while Shah Rukh powers through with charm, sharp business acumen and philosophies of life which have now populated Instagram reels. Both have an undisputed personal connect which is distinct from Aamir Khan, who is considered to be a thinking actor crafting movies, not interested in anything, definitely not ‘stardom’. This model–and by extension, the image–depends heavily on the outcome of the movies. The more the movies soar, the greater the myth building of perfection.

But Hrithik Roshan, who the media dubs the next best after Khans, is expected to have all their qualities. What Aamir benefits from his movies-only approach is that the audience never expects him to be a superstar in his movies, they just want him to be a character, unlike Hrithik, who is expected to always be a star because of his extraordinary hero looks. He isn’t as larger than life as the myth around his beauty is, which the audience hopes will always be presented–or celebrated– on screen in a heroic manner.

There is already a set base of 90s ‘kids’ who saw the rise of Hrithik, then the generation after who were enamored by his personal films. The nostalgia of Hrithik the star has been in a constant battle with the relevance of Hrithik the actor. He has tried to bridge the gap between his star outings and acting projects, but the successful attempts haven’t been consistent enough. As he now gears up for Fighter, a true-blue action spectacle which on paper should comfortably adjust the superstar aura of Hrithik, it would be interesting to read how the audience remembers the film. When Hrithik talks about how he trained hard and gave his all to be a fighter pilot, do they still look up in the sky and exclaim, ‘Oh, Greek god of Bollywood!’