But what is a star? What is a superstar?
One of my seniors at NSD, a well-spoken intellectual guy, happened to become the chief assistant director in a film starring Rajinikanth. During a chat on the sets, Rajinikanth asked him, ‘Do you believe in God?’ My friend said, ‘No, I don’t. I am an atheist.’ But he proceeded to ask Rajinikanth, ‘Sir, do you believe in God?’
The superstar replied, ‘Yes, I believe in God.’
‘Why?’ asked my friend.
‘Because of the kind of person I am. A person with my kind of looks or the lack of them, could become a superstar. This means there is definitely a God.’
Rajinikanth is a legend and, like him, I too don’t possess the typical looks of a star. But I don’t quite agree with him. My belief is different. After all, what is a superstar? Somebody whom thousands of people love madly. Even if she or he commits blunders, they love the superstar unconditionally. That’s what happens with millions of people. But if you are a superstar and somebody like Nawaz is watching you, he might learn nothing from you: no skill or detailing or any other kind of knowledge. The superstar’s profession is not of an actor’s, but of a superstar’s. Because a guy obsessed with knowledge and craft watching your movie expects some detail of acting. Dude, do that please. Superstardom may also be a coincidence. To be a superstar, skill or craft is not a prerequisite, only image is. That image can be of anybody—a sportsperson, a model, even a party girl, really, anything at all.
It is wonderful that people like superstars so much. People love watching them. But I don’t want to be a superstar. I don’t want people to watch me. I want people to watch my craft. If they watch a Nawaz film, I want them to focus on the craft. How did he do this role?
If people like a certain image, it becomes rather easy to build upon that. Also, market forces tend to pigeonhole you into that, so it’s a pretty comfortable route to follow. For instance, take Gangs of Wasseypur again. I was appreciated in it. But what if I continued to play similar kinds of roles, maintaining a similar attitude? (I did get offered a string of similar roles.) Then I could have become a superstar very quickly. I could have played that kind of a gangster over and over again and of course, it would have been a piece of cake having done it so many times already.
Ever so often, this is how a star is born and lives on. Superstars play their image—the same image that is so beloved to the masses. They keep repeating it in film after film and people love it and them more and more. But then if the viewer happens to be a cranky guy like me, he will begin to doubt the superstar. I will get suspicious. And if I were to become the superstar through this route, then I would get suspicious of the viewers. Why are you as an audience not demanding more out of me? As superstars, people forget the nuances and the fine detailing of the character. An actor’s job is simply this: to create different personas out of one person, and different ways to portray them. Say, I am doing a romantic role and the girls love me in this role. This does not mean I should do only romantic roles to please them. I should do different roles, including different shades of romantic roles. But, of course, then people won’t like me. We are creatures of habit. There are enough trials in life as it is. We don’t want to change even our perspectives and so this change might threaten our stardom.
But I must not just work for my fans. Only superstars work for their fans so that the fan following grows. It’s easier. Fans will love you. But someone like me will not love you because I want a new you in every film. I will only like you when I can see you have studied. For instance, take Al Pacino. I don’t like him at all. But I loved him in Godfather, in Scarface. He was amazing! But then, like stars, he repeated himself. In the eyes of a viewer like me, you have then become lazy, you don’t want to work on your craft or reinvent yourself. Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Marlon Brando—all stars. At one point, even Brando fell into the star trap and began to repeat himself. Therefore, someone like Leonardo DiCaprio is brilliant in my eyes. He takes such big risks with every film. He constantly reinvents himself, he shows a new part of himself. So in my eyes, he is extremely talented and a very big actor. Actors should skilfully experiment rather than create or fall into this trap of an image—that is the whole fucking game, do not get caught in this game. Don’t let the image happen. Break the fucking image with every film.
At least, that is my intention for myself. I don’t want to be a star ever, just an actor who reinvents himself constantly, like DiCaprio. But yes, superstars have their charm and our country is obsessed with them. There are many advantages of working with them too, unlike with typical actors. One advantage, for instance, is that you know their dialogue delivery technique. This makes it easier to build the scene.
Also, the industry has changed so much. Earlier, actors shooting together might not even look at each other while they sat waiting for their shot. There was a completely unnecessary cold war of egos in that silence. Luckily, those days are getting over. Today, stars respect actors and actually collaborate
