Shahid Kapoor, Varun Dhawan, Sidharth Malhotra: Actors who dared and nailed Version 2.0

What’s more surprising is how Varun would have arrived onto the decision to don such a hat at a nascent stage of his career. It might be the success of his contemporary and good friend Sidharth Malhotra’s attempt at this genre with the 2014 release ‘Ek Villain’ and succeeding at it quite convincingly. Shahid Kapoor’s ‘Haider’ started a bit late.

Investing in a movie like ‘Badlapur’ was surely a risk and it paid off quite well. Varun Dhawan has been getting praises from all quarters. People, including Varun’s friends from the industry have been taking to Twitter to laud him.

Talking of Shahid Kapoor, he is one of the few actors who actually attempted a dark character at an early stage of career. His second movie ‘Fida’ (2004) with director Ken Ghosh who also directed his debut ‘Ishq Vishk’ was dark and edgy, something actors would not choose to do for a second venture in Bollywood. The movie bombed at the Box Offcie but Shahid was appreciated. He next tried a serious role in John Matthew Matthan’s ‘Shikhar’ (2005) which again failed to do him any good. Then through a serious of some bad choices topped by worse movies, Vishal Bharadwaj finally saw the potential in the talented actor.

The career renovation that started with Imtiaz Ali’s ‘Jab We Met’ (2007) was taken to conclusion by Vishal Bharadwaj’s ‘Kaminey’ (2009). But then, with the emergence of new stars on the block, Shahid began losing it again. Vishal Bharadwaj was at the rescue again. With ‘Haider’ not only did the Indian Cinema get a new angry young man, but also Shahid got a new lease of life. And no points for guessing, it was the dark and edgy character of the emotionally messed up Hamlet that did all this.

Sidharth Malhotra also did a similar thing in the thriller love story ‘Ek Villain’ (2014). The ‘Student Of The Year’ actor got his share of praises for the rough and tough avatar. The movie went on to amass more than Rs 100 cr at the Box Office, a rare feat for a movie devoid of any stars. Another actor who did a deviation from the goody and funny roles was Riteish Deshmukh, who played the villain in ‘Ek Villain’. And he bagged most of the awards for negative role this season.

A lot of the credit goes to the audiences’ tastes that are constantly evolving. There was a time when Aamir Khan had refused YRF’s ‘Darr’ and ‘Baazigar’ out of the fear of getting typecast. Come 2013, the superstar played the hi-fi thief in ‘Dhoom: 3’ and outshone all.

Shah Rukh Khan, who eventually played baddie in ‘Darr’ and ‘Baazigar’ did get typecast for a while, until he did a Raj in the much acclaimed cult love story ‘Dilwale Dulhania Le Jaayenge’. His ‘different’ roles in movies like ‘Swades’ (2004) and ‘Chak De India’ (2007) were appreciated by critics and audiences alike.

And why only actors? Kajol in ‘Gupt’ (1997) and Priyanka Chopra in ‘Aitraaz’ (2004) overshadowed the protagonists of the movie.

Last year too, Alia Bhatt’s Veera in ‘Highway’, Priyanka Chopra’s MC Mary Kom in ‘Mary Kom’ and Rani Mukerji’s Shivani in ‘Mardaani’ were a far cry from the damsel-in-distress roles, the actresses have been taking up recently. And audiences did love every bit of what they saw on screen.

Change is the only constant and if anyone practises this to the tee, it’s the young brigade of Bollywood. With Ranbir Kapoor, Ranveer Singh, Arjun Kapoor and Aditya Roy Kapur too taking a step in this direction, and actresses getting meat in their roles, the lines between the Indian Cinema and that of the world are blurring. It’s time, this happened. Hope Varun Dhawan and Shahid Kapoor give all the much needed motivation.

And we wait in wonder and awe. Thanks Varun and Shahid!