Bollywood’s Muscle Academy

The bad boys on the big screen,however,don’t have only Abraham to fear. In yet another remake — Rohit Shetty’s version of Singam — Ajay Devgn too,will don the cop’s hat and do what he does best,bash up baddies. After his last few attempts at comedy failed,Akshay Kumar will also mark his return to action with Rohit Dhawan’s Desi Boyz and Aamir Khan,the latest baddie of the Dhoom franchise,will go back to his Ghajini ways. And Salman Khan,the one who started off the recent macho hero trend with Wanted and Dabangg,will continue to perform slick action in Anees Bazmee’s Ready and My Love Story,Atul Agnihotri’s remake of the Malayalam movie Bodyguard. In the latter,Salman will play the ruthless bodyguard to Kareena Kapoor.

This fight of good versus evil,however,isn’t new in Bollywood. After Rajesh Khanna’s reign where romance took the centre stage in Hindi films,the trio of Amitabh Bachchan,Dharmendra and Vinod Khanna brought the action hero image to the forefront. Bachchan’s angry young man image and Dharmendra’s famous punches,combined with guttural dialogues,had the audiences whistling in the aisles. Sunny Deol,Jackie Shroff and Sanjay Dutt then took over the mantle. But in the late ’90s,they had to make way for Aditya Chopra and Karan Johar’s mushy romances shot in international locales. Intermittently,however,Kumar,Devgn and Salman kept returning to action amidst the comedies,romance and alternative cinema.

The success of Wanted and Dabangg can be credited for bringing the trend back this year. Director Abhinav Kashyap comments,“I wanted Chulbul Pandey to borrow from the films of the ’70s,something I grew up on and thoroughly enjoyed. What we call single screen films today,are the ones that sell the most. Everybody loves a hero.” Dabangg’s Rs 250 crore earnings drive home his point.

Shetty,who is making his first action film after five comedies and a drama with Devgn,explains his decision: films with macho heroes claim the biggest opening. “Audiences expect paisa vasool entertainment and that is what the audience in the interiors wants,” says Shetty,whose main prerogative is to reach out to the whole country. “After a string of comedies,I was hoping to do something different. But I was clear about making it a commercial film. With Ajay’s action hero image already established,I decided to play on it.”

Shah believes that it is about being true to the image one has created for oneself,“Action Replayy and Tees Maar Khan had the biggest opening in Bollywood,because everyone expected Akshay to be the larger-than-life hero. They were disappointed because they didn’t get what they set out to watch,” feels Shah.

To break the monotony,however,filmmakers will be lending different flavours to their action heroes. “My hero will not be a stylised one like Chulbul Pandey. He won’t be mouthing punchlines,but his soul will be macho,” says Shah. Shetty has reserved a chunk of his budget for the slick action sequences,whereas Agnihotri has modelled Salman’s character to be a James Bond-like suave hero with wit and punchlines,the way only Salman can mouth.

The actors also consider action as an excuse to push their limits physically and take a break from the mentally challenging roles. “Wanted succeeded because our country lacks heroes,” Salman had said after his blockbuster release in 2009. Hrithik Roshan,who faced a dismal 2010,says,“With Kites,I wanted to narrate a story of a loser,but I forgot that India needs heroes,” he says and hopes his next two Krissh 2 and Agneepath remake will have him back as the suave,muscled hero which his audiences have always applauded him for.