Beneath The Gloss

Under the layers of fluid makeup and glitz, are actors as flawless and indestructible as they seem on the silver screen? SUMITA CHAKRABORTY scratches the glossy veneer to delve into the real truth behind Bollywood’s stars reel ‘larger than life’ image.

- Sumita Chakraborty

Lights, Camera. Action… And the 70 mm silver screen dazzlingly lights up the celluloid planet making everything on it larger than life. Ethereal, surreal, perfect… the glitzy show reel painstakingly captures to perfection Bollywood’s most beautiful superstars in their complete magnificent glory.

No wonder, when the Shehenshah of the film industry Amitabh Bachchan kick-boxed 10 villains simultaneously like he was swatting flies, the audience lapped it up unquestioningly. After all, the original Don Amitabh Bachchan cannot be vanquished, right?

…Or when the Baadshah of Bollywood, Shah Rukh Khan romantically raised his arms in his signature pose to the ‘senorita of the moment’ in his umpteen number of films, the audience whistled and cheered him on. After all, he is the eternal king of romance.

Furthermore, when the Padmaavat heroine par excellence Deepika Padukone did a Ghoomar looking amazingly beautiful, her fans gasped, “Oh she’s such a natural beauty.”

Likewise, poetry is forever waxed about Katrina Kaif’s ethereal beauty or Anushka Sharma’s lissom figure. Even the teenyboppers’ superstar Varun Dhawan or the Michael Jackson of India, Tiger Shroff are heralded as pinup boys.

Put high on pedestals, worshipped as idols and heralded as Gods and Goddesses. Indeed, they are ‘a thing of beauty, a joy forever’… Flawless, perfect and indestructible…