Tiger Shroff The Man Of Action

The actor opens up about the changing ideas of stardom, evolution of the action hero, and the rise of the new man in Bollywood

- Ananya Ghosh

An action hero wearing baby pink? That’s Tiger Shroff prowling the streets of Glasgow. His Instagram reel, captioned ‘showing up in true action hero colors’ is followed by a post of him at his gym showing off his ripped body sporting grey tracks. His masculinity is equally at ease in both; his machismo is unfettered by the conventional ideas associated with the ‘manly man’ and is definitely beyond the gender politics of colours.

The country got its youngest action superstar in 2014 with Tiger making his debut as Bablu Singh in Heropanti. A remake of the Telugu film Parugu, Heropanti saw him dance and fight his way into the hearts of the audience while picking up a few 'Best Debut' awards along the way. He followed it up with Baaghi and his jaw-dropping action impressed again. Both Heropanti with two and Baaghi with three spiritual sequels would go on to become franchise films. After firmly establishing himself as a Bollywood action hero, he turned superhero in A Flying Jatt to capture the hearts of his younger audience, which he will go on to rule. Next came his Michael Jackson act as he turned dance guru to Nawazuddin Siddiqui in Munna Michael. He then caught the fancy of two of Bollywood’s biggest production houses, Dharma Productions and YRF and the results were Student Of The Year 2 and War. While the first did average at the box office, War, which saw him team up with his childhood hero and role model, Hrithik Roshan, went on to become the highest-grossing Indian film of 2019.