The power we cannot list

So what does Tom Cruise do to land ahead of others in a list of Hollywood8217;s most powerful? There is, I am told, a method to the list madness. The rules are clear. You have got to make good money, land plum roles or maybe not, occupy mansions and mindspace, win many awards or a place in other lists, and while at it, look like a million bucks.

Closer home, the requirement is not radically different. Those who rule the roost are predictable though the emphasis increasingly is on the capital generated. Do you have the muscle to make a lot of money for yourself as well as for others? And last but not least, what8217;s your body of work?

So here8217;s the problem 8212; is anything that almost completely overlooks creativity in favour of commerce, good for setting the standards in a field that is as much art as business? Would Satyajit Ray, if he were around, figure in any of these lists? After all, his well crafted films, though widely feted, certainly would not earn the producer huge profits.

In a recent Bollywood power list, among the notable names that I found missing were those of actors Aamir Khan, Shabana Azmi and Tabu and filmmaker Meera Nair. Khan, after his initial years in the industry, was the one to start the trend of doing a movie a year in order to help him focus his energies on a single project at a time. He was also among the first actors who early on in his career took on a negative role in Raakh. The template set by him now finds ardent followers in the film industry that once scoffed at his decision. In addition to his star power 8212; his name in the credits can get people thronging to the cinema halls 8212; there are always huge expectations of any project that he8217;s involved with. Also, he is perhaps among the few stars who have grown into an actor who experiments with movies ahead of their time 8212; Taare Zameen Par being only the latest example.

Part of the problem is that widely held prejudices of the industry are further perpetuated by power lists. In an industry that thinks of its women as mere accessories, the absence of actors such as Shabana or Tabu is not surprising. Both have traversed commercial and niche cinema with equal aplomb, dabbled in regional as well as world cinema and created their own space in Bollywood. Whether it is Tabu in The Namesake and Cheeni Kum or Shabana in Honeymoon Travels and Loins of Punjab, they have reinvented their unconventional appeal to suit the times and the industry they work in. How many pretty newbies could claim to do that?

Mira Nair is another glaring example of all the good that can be ignored when achievement is interpreted strictly in terms of capital gains. Fortunately, there are a few happy exceptions like Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Kajol, Farah Khan and Madhuri Dixit who have made it by dint of bending a few rules and then following some. Khan has shaken the jinx off women directors by making a commercially successful film while Rai Bachchan has proved that with devastating good looks and some business acumen, you can survive well in the male dominated bastion of Bollywood pretty much on your own terms. Both Kajol and Madhuri have been instrumental in shaking the long-held belief that actresses once married are finished in showbiz.

But unfortunately, these exceptions are few and far between. Lists do not factor in young mavericks like Manish Jha or Rajat Kapoor 8212; braving all odds to earn realistic cinema its rightful place under the Indian sun. Or others who spearhead change. The trouble with power lists is that they firmly follow the formula.

The writer is editor, 8216;Screen8217;