New Delhi: The sepia posters of ‘Rockstar’ Ranbir Kapoor are trying hard to convince the movie buffs that Ranbir is the Indian version of western rock icons.
Remember the songs and stage ambience of ‘The final countdown’ or ‘Sun of a gun’ which went on to establish the performers associated with these songs as someone more than the celebrities. The songs and aura surrounding the artists created icons out of the normal people.
Similar is the effort of the public relation team of ‘Rockstar’ which is projecting Ranbir as an effortless juggler who can change the atmosphere with the help of his sheer presence.
However, the fight to be the quintessential Indian youth icon is not limited to Ranbir only. There are other strong contenders too.
The first name is of Imran Khan. It seems that Imran is slowly coming out of the shadow of his patron Aamir Khan. The success of ‘Delhi Belly’ has helped Imran in emerging as an independent actor.
Imran is conscious about his youth image too. Remember the way he presented his case via 24 hour media to bring down the age of legal drinking. Imran knows that older actors have reached a stage where they can be the screen kings but they can’t actually be the representatives of Indian youths.
Imran’s public interest litigations could have made him endear to good earning youngsters who find drinking as a luxury in life but overall it will not help him in carving a new image because the traditional Indian society does not care much about the lowest legal age of drinking, it has worse troubles to take care of.
Cola commercial have always worked as one of the parameters of who rules the youth debate. Despite the eternal presence of Khans and Kumars, the companies have started focussing on the new breed.
Here again Ranbir and Imran are the forerunners.
Then there is Farhan Akhtar who tried to bring musical and carefree young generation to the forefront via ‘Rock On’ and ‘Dil Chahta Hai’. His youth has a life devoid of money issues or employment issues. The only real problem his characters have is relationship crisis. Stylish and suave lifestyle flaunted through the national media can make Farhan a desirable person for certain sections but it’s highly unexpected that Farhan will emerge as the new youth icon, simply due to the fact that most of the youths still belong to such a community which is deprived of designer sun glasses and sun baths in Goa.
Katrina Kaif and Shahid Kapoor are among those young actors who have a good number of die hard fan followers but they are almost invisible on other public platforms. They have never been seen presenting their independent view points on social or cultural issues. So, it’s unlikely that they will be treated as anything apart from style icons in the public domain.
Deepika and Sonam are largely viewed as ladies with subtle sense of contemporary style. Sonam in particular is praised from time to time for her profound knowledge about fashion trends but she also has not shown any understanding of Indian social system in any of the public debates.
Older actors especially Aamir and Shah Rukh over the years have cultivated an image for themselves in the public sphere which demonstrates them as people with a basic sense of social modus operandi.
Amitabh Bachchan, Raj Babbar, Shatraghan Sinha, Vinod Khanna and Rajesh Khanna were more closer to the general public in their times and that’s one reason behind their success in electoral politics.
They might not have the kind of fan following some new actors have but they had a direct interaction with the common mass as they did not enjoy the assistance of social networking sites and PR personals.
An older generation of Raj Kapoor, Guru Dutt and Bimal Roy produced brilliant socially relevant films but they did not have any concept of youth icons then, neither the cinema was so powerful and rich medium which could create icons out of ordinary characters.
So, the fight of being the next youth icon from Bollywood is among some actors who look juvenile when it comes to expressing ideas about socio-political situations but are exceptional in their awareness about international style scenario.
But, only that person will emerge as winner who will show social concerns in his or her films and on public stages. Till then, no poster is going to help whether it is in sepia or in any other colour.
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