Tiger Tiger, Burning Bronze

Tiger Shroff breaks the Box Office as a ‘dance­action’ star

- Giridhar Jha

SOMEONE keeping a tab on mainstream Hindi cinema in the early nineties may recall how Subhash Ghai, Bollywood’s erst while showman and hitmaker, had ‘signed’ actor Jackie Shroff’s then toddler son for one of his future ventures. At that time, he is learnt to have famously announced that in the years to come, he would launch Tiger Shroff as the leading man just the way he had introduced his father in Hero (1983). Given Ghai’s standing at the time, the announcement was almost like stardom insurance for Jackie’s kid.

With time though, Ghai lost his Midas touch. By the time Tiger came of age, Ghai was well past his prime. But a younger filmmaker stepped in. It was Sajid Nadiadwala who launched Tiger five years back with Heropanti.

Still, going by the phenomenal success of Tiger’s recent film, which saw the 28-year-old actor emerge as a box-office powerhouse, Ghai can be credited for being clairvoyant enough to foresee a bright future for Jackie’s son long before he finally faced the arc-lights.

Today, Tiger is being hailed as India’s answer to Tony Jaa (the Thai action star) by none other than Akshay Kumar. Other big stars such as Hrithik Roshan are already singing hosannas to the young actor’s prowess. All this has come about in the wake of Tiger’s fifth film— Baaghi 2—a sequel to his 2016 hit Baaghi.