Bollywood Blitzkrieg: Relative success in Bollywood 
By Subhash K. Jha, December 4, 2006 - 08:26 IST
Stop right here. You'll never come across a success story like this again. This is the amazing story of Ravi
Kishan. A small-time Bollywood actor, best-remembered as one Sridevi's lieutenant's in Army and as the benign
purohit hopelessly devoted to Bhoomika Chawla in Tere Naam. In real life it's becoming increasingly hard
for Ravi Kishan to remain devoted to his simple sweet rustic wife.
His popularity in Bihar and UP where Bhojpuri films have a predominant market is dhoti-phaad. The dhoti has
never been sexier for the ladies. Bashful seemingly dutiful middleclass housewives in UP and Bihar sneak out of
their homes to view the latest Ravi Kishan masterpiece and sneakily lust after him and fantasize about him.
Out of the 17 Bhojpuri films he has done in four years 16 have been super-hits. Many leading ladies from Mumbai are
keenly desirous of working with him. But it's Nagma who's wangled the privilege of being Ravi's constant heroine.
They're known as the Dharmendra and Hema Malini of Bhojpuri cinema.
Today Ravi Kishan is as popular in the cow belt as the Khans of Bollywood . His presence on the reality show
Bigg Boss is so intimidating that he has willy-nilly become the leader of the group locked away for thirteen
weeks in that house.
Audiences go crazy every time Ravi Kishan thrusts his dhoti-clad pelvis at Nagma. Apparently the pair
shares more than just a professional friendship in real life . Ravi's fans in the Bhojpuri region want him to marry his
favourite co-star.
Ravi isn't kissing and telling. "The female attention is very flattering, and the temptation for a hardcore rustic boy from
Jaunpur in UP to break the laxman-rekha is irresistible. How can someone who has seen the rock-bottom not be
swayed by the hysterical attention he suddenly commands?" Ravi Kishan is honest enough to admit.
This is a success story that would be tough, if not impossible to equal . How long would Ravi Kishan success streak
last? Or will the euphoria die down once the Bhojpuri boom is over?
Going over-board is a national past-time. We do it all the time and to everyone who matters. Vivek Oberoi was
the toast of the nation after Company. Today his bread is more battered than buttered. I remember how quickly he
was promoted into the can-do-no-wrong category. Today nothing Vivek does seems to go right.
Shabana Azmi is right when she says, "In this country you need to be just a little better than mediocre to be
considered extraordinary." Look at what they're doing to that poor Siddharth from Rang De Basanti. Admittedly he
makes a strong impact in his author-backed role. But has anyone noticed? Siddharth makes such a strong impact
BECAUSE it's an author-backed role. Also, because he's the only one of the cast no one in Hindi cinema has seen
before. It's like the adorable unearthly creature in ET or Jadu in Koi…Mil Gaya . It would be impossible for
them to make a similar impact outside the opportunity provided by the film that popularized them.
Siddharth, of course has quickly begun to believe in the myth of his overnight superstardom. He's been
giving dozens of interviews about how choosy he is about his assignments. How meticulous of him.
He reminds me of two overnight sensations named Kumar Gaurav and Vijay Arora. One was
supposed to take the nation by storm (and he did, after the release of his first film Love Story). The other was
touted as "another Rajesh Khanna" in the early 1970s. Little did Arora's publicists know “another" of anyone never
works
Gaurav and Vijay didn't have the options open to out-of-luck Hindi-film actors: television or regional cinema. They just
vanished. Unlike Shekhar Suman or Archana Puransingh who re-invented themselves on the booming
home medium as TV stars, Ravi Kishan has actually re-invented a whole regional market to accommodate his
aspirations.
This has never happened before. It probably will never happen again. Let’s give the devil his due before the bubble
bursts. God knows, we de-mystify our icons faster than we put them on their polished pedestals.
"Look at what they did to Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar. They first made them into gods. And
then they began to demolish the deities piece by piece—for no fault of theirs," says Madhavan who has so far only
seen the upside in his career. "But I'm scared of the downside. It has happened in everyone's career, except
perhaps Lata Mangeshkar."
Ah! But isn’t India’s jewel in the croon going through the downside of immortality right now? Headlines like "Lata
Mangeshkar or The Fly-over?" aren't very flattering to the lady who has been for 50 years the voice of the nation.
Admit it. We're a people driven by extremes. We derive pleasure in persecuting questioning and ridiculing the very
deity whom we cannot do without . Like it or not, we love to pull down those very super-icons whom we worship all our
lives.
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Bollywood Blitzkrieg: A whole lot of Fan-fare?
