From Barfi to Shamshera: Can Ranbir Kapoor transform from an actor to the hero Bollywood needs

Ranbir Kapoor has portrayed a number of versatile characters in his acting career spanning 15 years but never played the macho young man– a quintessential character for Bollywood superstars. His upcoming film Shamshera has all the elements of a classic Bollywood hit– a handsome but rugged hero who can fight 10 goons at once, get a double role, a simple love story, and a villain who is as ruthless as they come. However, will Ranbir be able to deliver a box office hit and find the superstardom he craves by taking this risky step in his career? Also Read| Ranbir Kapoor says his childhood dream to be a hero is incomplete: ‘Kisi ne na taali maari, na seeti’

The Hindi film industry has changed in a lot of ways since Amitabh Bachchan immortalised the archetype ‘angry young man’ with his films like Zanjeer (1973), Deewar (1975), Don (1978) among several others. Anil Kapoor, Sanjay Dutt, Jackie Shroff also emulated the angry young man in their movies, and established a macho image with their films. Ajay Devgn impressed the audience with his intense eyes, but things gradually changed in the 90s. Aamir Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, and Salman Khan– the new superstars, did play the cliched Hindi hero, but each got known for different kinds of films, most of them in the romantic genre. All of them played unconventional and critically-acclaimed roles from time to time, but still retained the titles of larger-than-life Hindi film heroes.

In today’s era, with content from all over the world available at the audience’s deposition, the fight for fame has got tougher. There is an opportunity for everyone to shine with the emergence of the OTT platforms, while the concept of Bollywood superstars is slowly fading away. Many are of the opinion that the three Khans are the last in the industry to be called superstars, and with good reason, as no Bollywood actor has been able to claim the title since then. While the critically-acclaimed actors, previously popular as character actors, are being showered with love, the mainstream Hindi heroes- especially those coming from a filmy family, are prone to criticism.

Ranbir, in his case, managed to find critical acclaim for his acting even while being in the mainstream. For every classic romantic hero he played, the actor had off-beat roles waiting in his pipeline. Ranbir has played lead roles in 18 films since his debut in the 2007 film Saawariya, but the kind of unconventional roles he picked up was unusual for someone wanting to become a superstar. From the 2009 films Wake Up Sid and Rocket Singh to the 2012 film Barfi and the 2015 film Tamasha, Ranbir established himself as a critically-acclaimed actor. He never came to the verge of losing his status as a mainstream actor even as his 2013 film Besharam and 2015 films like Roy and Bombay Velvet failed miserably at the box office.

However, Ranbir has made it clear that he wants to be a superstar now. Shamshera has many firsts for Ranbir– his first double role, his first action film, his first role in a hero-villain format, and his first larger-than-life character. As he prepared for the release of Shamshera, Ranbir made no secret of the fact that he wants to change his career graph with the Karan Malhotra directorial. In a promotional video for the film, Ranbir recalled that he wanted to be a hero like Amitabh Bachchan or Shah Rukh Khan, and misses getting cheers like them from the audience. He confessed, “Growing up, Hindi film heroes had become the heroes of my life. But strangely enough, when I became an actor, I wasn’t choosing the kind of films my heroes would choose. So I may have satisfied the actor in me. But when I look back at the 12-year-old Hindi film-obsessed Ranbir, I feel like uska sapna abhi bhi adhoora hai (his dream is still incomplete).”

Ranbir’s father– the late actor Rishi Kapoor, also wanted his son to play the Hindi film hero and had famously said in his memoir Khullam Khulla that he doesn’t understand the kind of roles he takes on. On several occasions in recent days, Ranbir said that he now understands what his father was trying to say when he told him his unconventional roles are not going to make him a ‘national hero.’ Ranbir has made it clear that he plans to follow Rishi’s advice by doing commercial films, and hopes to become the quintessential Hindi film hero. This had also been the advice of Sanjay Dutt, the villain in Ranbir’s next film, who repeatedly expressed his displeasure with Ranbir’s script choices.

However, becoming a hero is not that easy, especially in today’s times where ‘content is king.’ There’s an added risk as no one has been able to decode the formula of what works for the audience. Bollywood actors shifted to unconventional character roles to provide new content to their fans, but South Indian cinema has gained international recognition and major box office collections with its typical hero-heavy entertainers. Ranbir, who has already been away from the screen for over four years, might be making a huge mistake by changing his the direction of his filmography in one swift motion.

The interesting thing is that Ranbir is aware of the risk, and still wants to take this step to achieve his dream of becoming a hero. In a recent interview with Pinkvilla, the actor said, “To be a quintessential Hindi film hero is the hardest genre. To be part of a good film is easy–those are one genre films. But to be a part of a quintessential Hindi film which is multi-genre is very hard. So it takes a lot of hard work and heaps of luck. 10 years back I didn’t have the conviction or confidence to do a film of this nature.”

Ranbir has proven his talent, but he definitely needs heaps of luck and a number of miracles apart from hard work to become a hero in these times. Less than two months after Shamshera on July 22, the actor will mark the release of his much-awaited film Brahmastra– his first film with his wife Alia Bhatt. 2022 is a crucial year in Ranbir’s career, and he might just make it with the two mass entertainers.