From fleeing home to stealing bikes: How Bollywood aspirants do weird things to break into the studios of dreams
In Fan, Gaurav could actually meet his idol, but not everybody is so lucky in real life.
As we saw in SRK-starrer Fan, tenacious Bollywood fans can do strange things.
But as legends go, stranger things can be done by aspirants who want to be part of the industry — no matter how small that part is.
In Fan, Gaurav could actually meet his idol, but not everybody is so lucky in real life.
Many aspirational stories actually end up like Main Madhuri Dixit Banna Chahti Hoon (2003), with the dawning of a bitter realisation that a lot of people have set out with the same dream of turning into Madhuri Dixit one fine morning.
Those who are lucky among them may get a lifetime membership to the club of Mumbai’s struggling actors.
Others make headlines — in stranger ways.
According to a report, two people were arrested from Delhi on charges of stealing high-end bikes. At least 10 auto-theft and snatching cases were registered against them. What sets the duo apart from just run of the mill petty thieves might be their dream to become Bollywood stuntmen.
A few days ago, there were reports of six minor girls fleeing their homes in Nashik to meet Shah Rukh Khan in Mumbai.
A Bhopal girl was arrested while she was scaling the wall of Salman Khan’s house in Mumbai.
Four teenagers from Meerut left their homes and went to Chandigarh to make it to the audition of a singing reality show. It was easy to locate them, as before absconding, they sought permission from their parents, which they didn’t get.
Such interesting stories are abounding.
Not all of them harbour a desire to become a star. Some just want to have a glimpse of their idols. But what links all of these aspirants is the undiminished fascination for Bollywood.
Some stories are darker.
In 2015, a 17-year-old girl and a boy abducted and killed a 13-year-old neighbour to participate in a dance reality show. They were told that they would require a huge amount of money to take part in a reality show. And they did not even think twice before hatching a filmi plan of kidnapping their neighbour to extort money from his parents. When the plan was not proceeding accordingly, the duo killed the 13-year-old boy.
All for getting one chance to appear on television.
When SRK’s daughter Suhana Khan, who is still far from debuting, got featured on the cover of a fashion magazine recently, a struggling actor took to Twitter and shared her harrowing experience of daring to dream of a career in the industry, without having any familial foothold. She enumerated the reasons for which any struggling actor in place of Suhana would have been rejected by the magazine.
I am a struggling TV actor and I'll tell you why people and other fellow struggling actors including me are annoyed because Suhana Khan is on the Vogue India cover. But before that, let me tell you my credibility. I have worked in a few episodics, 3 digital ads and a DD1 show.
— Bhumika Chheda (@IamBhumikaC) August 1, 2018
Imagine going everyday for a new test and getting rejected over and over again due to XYZ reasons. And trust me, the reason isn't talent ALL THE TIME. It varies.
— Bhumika Chheda (@IamBhumikaC) August 1, 2018
Is Bollywood still such a dreamy place?
From bagging a role to bagging an award, the industry now is teeming with allegations of nepotism, casting couch, favouritism, etc. And in an age of social media, there is no close-guarded secret of the industry as insiders who have been able to make it despite being outsiders represent the dissenting voice.
But still, Bollywood manages to sell dreams. Not in reality, but through those mesmerising rags-to-riches stories on celluloid.