4 min readUpdated: Mar 7, 2014 12:52 PM IST
Lisa Haydon and Kangana Ranaut at the screening of Queen
Anyone who has seen recent photos of actor Kangana Ranaut and model co-star Lisa Haydon at the screening of their film Queen, would imagine them to be the best buds in town. Smiles, bear hugs and warm embraces — all the signs scream of a new friendship on the block.
Shortly before there was Huma Qureshi-Kalki Koechlin bonding at a series of events and the dostana between newbies Arjun Kapoor and Ranveer Singh. A few seasons ago it was bonhomie between Priyanka Chopra (PC) and Deepika Padukone (Dippy) that was making headlines with both extending solidarity to each other. Dippy made it a point to be present when Chopra’s father Dr Ashok Chopra passed away last year. PC had attended the Race 2 premiere at Deepika’s behest despite her father being ill.
Fact is that every season, with ebbing dynamics, a new friend circle comes into existence. Koffee with Karan is good for a quick update on the friend list, both his (Karan Johar) in particular and stars in general. The early guests on the show — Salman Khan and Aamir Khan gave us an inkling of new ties, cemented over recent years. While Johar is something of a friendship veteran, sharing cinema credits with the old and new of Bollywood — Aditya Chopra, Anurag Kashyap, Ekta Kapoor, Shah Rukh Khan, Siddharth Roy Kapur and Sajid Nadiadwalla, among others, his brand of camaraderie is now making its way across camps.
From an industry that was resistant to the idea of forging new alliances, B-town has certainly warmed up to the idea of new friendships, resulting in unexpected collaborations. John Abraham has found collaborators in Shoojit Sircar and actor Ayushmann Khurana.
Director Imtiaz Ali, is best friends with Ranbir Kapoor who is also great pals with Ayaan Mukerji, Anurag Basu and Anurag Kashyap. And the roll-call goes on. Usually what follows is a strong show of support from all concerned on occasions big and small. This involves flattering tweets and faithfully turning up for premieres, success parties and more.
When such exuberant friendship is on display, the obvious follow up question most often is, “How long will it last?”
Given the ephemeral nature of present day friendships within Bollywood, they have always been a matter of great interest and speculation, perhaps almost as much as filmi romances. For a while now, creative collaboration has been the bedrock of friendships in filmdom — Dev Anand-Guru Dutt, Kishore Kumar-RD Burman, Lata Mangeshkar-Raj Kapoor and Karan Johar-Shah Rukh Khan, among several others. However, the quick change in fortunes sometimes brings in its wake, a switch of pals, a common occurrence in workplace friendships. But the fact that some associations have been exceptionally steadfast despite the odds — Waheeda Rahman-Asha Parekh and Sadhana, Anupam Kher-Satish Kaushik-Anil Kapoor, Jeetendra-Rakesh Roshan and Rishi Kapoor, Karan Johar-Kajol, Abhishek Bachchan-Goldie Behl, Farhan Akhtar-Ritesh Sidhwani—suggest that there are several exceptions too.
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The industry’s transition from a close-knit community to a cut-throat industry has not helped matters. On several occasions, when professional gains assume paramount importance, personal ties take a backseat.
Directors for instance, are often accused of passing up their actor friends who supported them in their early films for the more successful stars. And then there are issues such as copyrights, payments and so on. Add to that the practical difficulty of staying in touch through hectic travel and shoot schedules. Actor-director Farhan Akhtar admitted during an edition of Express Adda that staying connected with friends was exceptionally hard if you were not constantly working on the same films.
Quite evidently, in Bollywood, friends that work together, stay together.
Lisa Haydon and Kangana Ranaut at the screening of Queen