When in 1994, Bruce Willis - who was one of the highest paid actors in Hollywood - decided to do "Pulp Fiction", it came as a surprise to many. Pulp Fiction was rather atypical of Bruce Willis' films. Willis was a "Die Hard" and "Last Boy Scout" kinda action flick hero. "Pulp Fiction" was a revolutionary film that was nominated by the AMPAS for the "Best Picture".
Bruce Willis had taken a gamble to act in an low budget, story based film to overturn his recent miserable run at the BO (box office, not body odor). And it paid off big time. Willis was once more the top dog.
This started off a similar trend amongst most Hollywood action heroes. Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt and Johnny Depp all took the same route, with varying degrees of success. Pitt is acclaimed to be one of the finest actors of his generation, along with Johnny Depp. But Tom Cruise, who had earlier delivered powerhouse performances in films like "Rain Man" and "The Color of Money" fell to making pretty boy action flicks like Mission Impossible, etc.
Now it seems to me that our very own Bollywood stars have finally caught on with this trend. The biggies of the industry are now stepping out of their respective formulae and trying out new types of films.
Again, there is a varying response and success. Akshay Kumar tried to be a scientist/ farmer in his flick "JOKER" instead of beating up a 100 guys at once and became, ironically, the clown of the town. It is better, apparently, if Akshay beats up 100 people at once.
Ranbir Kapoor, arguably the Bruce Willis of Bollywood, has been doing this for sometime. One look at his filmography tells the whole story. One so called "art" or "alternative" flick followed by a formula. "Art" flick "Saawariya" was followed up by entertainer "Bachna Ae Haseeno". Then came "Wake Up Sid" which was again followed up by an entertainer, "Ajab Prem ki Ghazab Kahani". Check out the rest for yourself.
His latest flick "Barfi" is probably another of those alternate flicks. His co-star in "Barfi", Priyanka Chopra is the female Bruce Willis. She has done low budget and "story driven" films like "Fashion" and "7 Khoon Maaf" and "Kaminey" mixed with big budget flicks like "Don", "Krish" and "Agneepath", etc.
I think it is certain that most other big names will follow this path. One can only hope that something good comes out of Bollywood through this "watershed" trend.
Bruce Willis had taken a gamble to act in an low budget, story based film to overturn his recent miserable run at the BO (box office, not body odor). And it paid off big time. Willis was once more the top dog.
This started off a similar trend amongst most Hollywood action heroes. Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt and Johnny Depp all took the same route, with varying degrees of success. Pitt is acclaimed to be one of the finest actors of his generation, along with Johnny Depp. But Tom Cruise, who had earlier delivered powerhouse performances in films like "Rain Man" and "The Color of Money" fell to making pretty boy action flicks like Mission Impossible, etc.
Now it seems to me that our very own Bollywood stars have finally caught on with this trend. The biggies of the industry are now stepping out of their respective formulae and trying out new types of films.
Again, there is a varying response and success. Akshay Kumar tried to be a scientist/ farmer in his flick "JOKER" instead of beating up a 100 guys at once and became, ironically, the clown of the town. It is better, apparently, if Akshay beats up 100 people at once.
Ranbir Kapoor, arguably the Bruce Willis of Bollywood, has been doing this for sometime. One look at his filmography tells the whole story. One so called "art" or "alternative" flick followed by a formula. "Art" flick "Saawariya" was followed up by entertainer "Bachna Ae Haseeno". Then came "Wake Up Sid" which was again followed up by an entertainer, "Ajab Prem ki Ghazab Kahani". Check out the rest for yourself.
His latest flick "Barfi" is probably another of those alternate flicks. His co-star in "Barfi", Priyanka Chopra is the female Bruce Willis. She has done low budget and "story driven" films like "Fashion" and "7 Khoon Maaf" and "Kaminey" mixed with big budget flicks like "Don", "Krish" and "Agneepath", etc.
I think it is certain that most other big names will follow this path. One can only hope that something good comes out of Bollywood through this "watershed" trend.
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