Once again, glamour is not the sole yardstick for the success of an actress in Bollywood
BHUMI Pednekar is the new toast of B-town with three consecutive hits under her belt in quick succession. The 28-year-old Mumbaikar, who swept all prominent awards for a debutante with Dum Laga Ke Haisha two years ago, has not looked back since, having sauntered into the big league with her next two releases, Toilet: Ek Prem Katha and Shubh Mangal Saavdhan, last year.
Bhumi’s success signals the ascendancy of the proverbial ‘everywoman’ in Hindi cinema—a growing tribe of young actresses who seem to have come out of nowhere to dominate the filmdom in recent times. In an industry fixated with its own definitions of beauty and sex appeal, they are unlikely stars possesing oodles of talent, if not the traffic-stopping looks of a glamorous diva. But they have risen above the ordinary, in the face of the beauty bias, with an asset that increasingly matters these days: acting prowess.
Bhumi, who played a plump housewife in her maiden movie and followed it up with the girl-next-door roles in her next ventures, is among a bevy of young actresses who are now straddling commercial and parallel cinema with equal flair and flamboyance, caring little for the age-old perception about the traditional image of mainstream heroines, the ones with drop-dead gorgeous looks. Actresses like Bhumi, Radhika Apte, Kalki Koechlin, Richa Chadda and Huma Qureshi—all beautiful in their own way—are underlining the fact that a high glamour quotient isn’t the only attribute required by an actress to sparkle in the tinsel town marquee.
This story is from the January 29, 2018 edition of Outlook.
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This story is from the January 29, 2018 edition of Outlook.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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