Bollywood 2016: Supporting actors who became the driving force behind blockbusters

2016 gave us happy hits like Neerja, Kapoor & Sons, Pink and Dangal. All these films sailed through tough box office faceoffs by holding on to its supporting actors. Without them, these flicks wouldn’t have managed to stay put through the two-and-a-half hours of movietime.

Here, we list down and rewind all those supporting actors who preferred to take a backseat but still spurred these films towards winning big at the box office.

Shabana Azmi – Neerja

Shabana Azmi plays the mother of Sonam Kapoor in superhit biopic Neerja, based on the life of slain airhostess Neerja Bhanot.

She is a veteran but the way she still pushes her own limits with each film is amazing. Azmi tries to act normal waiting for Neerja to return from her duty, and all this while silently facing a turmoil within, as her airhostess daughter fights the hijackers on her plane. She can be any mother, for she cares like any mother. There is panic in her patience, bouts of emotions in those little words. Azmi breaking down, seeing the corpse of her Laado as the camera refuses to leave her face, left us heartbroken. And she did this without uttering a single word! A character beautifully done by Shabana Azmi.

Ratna Pathak Shah – Kapoor & Sons

Ratna Pathak Shah plays a woman caught in the tussle between her sons played by Sidharth Malhotra and Fawad Khan, and her husband in Kapoor & Sons.

A helpless mother caught amid the complicated lives of four men of her house, each one with an extreme degree of impulse, Shah repeated what she does the best – giving us a slice of life from an Indian household. Earlier when she played a royal mother in Khoobsurat, she was poised. Cut to Kapoor & Sons and not an inch of her distracted us that she was just enacting a middle class Indian mother. She tries to be happy, cries alone and fights against the decisions taken by her sons and husband. Yet, she is the connecting thread of the family. Shah was so effortlessly wonderful that she reminded everyone of their own mothers.

Rajkummar Rao – Aligarh

Hansal Mehta directed film Aligarh was inspired from true events about a professor who was sacked due to his sexual orientation.

Manoj Bajpayee might be the sufferer here but if it wasn’t for Rao’s entry, he wouldn’t have smiled a little more. Rao not just brought solace into his mundane victimized life but was also the driving force behind his fight. Rao’s selfie moments, boat rides and stubborn demands like someone who really cares were immensely touching. The actor even left the audience in tears when he found that the battle has failed despite his friend winning it! A performance worth applause.

Kirti Kulhari – Pink

Kirti Kulhari was also a part of Shaitan, and played Taapsee Pannu’s caught in a case of attempted murder. It was one of the most critically acclaimed films of 2016.

She was one among the three girls and could’ve easily been forgotten like any other supporting name under the shadow of a brilliant plot and a name like Amitabh Bachchan. But Kirti did not. She portrayed maturity at most places, giving a tough fight within a cast that was loaded with great talent. Her breaking down scene in the witness box in the climax changed the way we looked at her before. It took a film like Pink to bring out the best in Kirti, who has been around for some time, but not got her share of accolades. Now, she will!

Sakshi Tanwar – Dangal

Sakshi Tanwar said she landed a role in Aamir Khan’s Dangal completely by luck.

The wrestling biopic might belong to the Phogat girls and their father, but if it wasn’t for their mother’s support, they wouldn’t have achieved what they did in real life. And doing complete justice to her part was television’s popular actor Sakshi Tanwar who chose to play a mother of four girls. She was not a victim of a feudal society, for she questioned her husband’s unjust actions if she wasn’t convinced. She did not fear her girls breaking stereotypes, never paid heed to the society, and she also had an upper hand in what would be cooked in her kitchen!

Also read | Best of 2016: Sonam Kapoor to Alia Bhatt, female actors who owned the year

From attire to diction and mannerisms, Sakshi went completely de-glam to get into the skin of her character. Her strong television experience definitely came handy while delivering a strong performance, even if it was a supporting one.

Rishi Kapoor – Kapoor & Sons

Kapoor & Sons was a story about two estranged brothers who return to their dysfunctional family after their grandfather suffers a cardiac arrest.

He is like an old wine getting better with every film. Who would believe that it was Rishi Kapoor behind all that prosthetics who watched adult films and was madly in love with Mandakini. Rishi had the best punches in the film. He was the healing touch in an otherwise friction loaded plot. He smoked secretly, even practised of posing as a dead man. He was the ray of hope in his dysfunctional family. One of the most unusual characters Rishi Kapoor has ever played, and how stupendously he did that.

Tabu – Fitoor

Fitoor was based on Charles Dickens’ novel Great Expectations and had Tabu playing the character of Begum Hazrat Jaan.

What if the film was one of the biggest box office disasters this year, but Tabu was like poetry in motion on the beautiful canvas of Fitoor in the backdrop of a picturesque Kashmir. A seductress, an ageing beauty who knew how to play mind games. Tabu did something that we’ve never seen her do before. There were times when the angelic face of Katrina Kaif and the chiselled body of Aditya Roy Kapur fell flat in front of the piercing eyes of Tabu. It was her yet another brilliant performance after Haider. Thank you, Tabu!

Richa Chadha – Sarbjit

Richa Chadha’s portrayal of Sukhpreet Kaur, wife of Indian prisoner Sarbjit Singh, was appreciated by everyone.

If you manage to find a place in between two already titular characters played by Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Randeep Hooda, you are here to stay. Richa, as the mellowed down wife of prisoner Sarbjit Singh, was soft, constrained and had to stay behind Aish aka Dalbir, but the amazing artist that she is, she refused to be forgotten. With little dialogues, Richa emoted from behind Aish. But she still gave a strong fight to maintain her position in the film. And she managed to do that to a large extent.

Aparshakti Khurrana – Dangal

Aparshakti is the brother of actor Ayushmann Khurrana and is already a famous RJ apart from hosting several television shows.

This is an honorary mention to Aparshakti for giving the much needed comic relief in Dangal. He was the voice of the film in every way, as he resonated with the audience reaction. Though he might have appeared in the film in person quite late, but by then he had already become an integral part of our thought process. Even if he was not fighting in the akhadas, he gave a good support to the onscreen Phogats in achieving their goal (gold). Dangal gave a great opportunity to Aparshakti and he made the most out of it, and with that sweet mischievous smile.