The Hindu Business Line : Bollywood star wars

Indians are born, natural “groupers” . Groups are mentioned in the days of the Ramayana and Mahabharata. The Mughals and the British would not have ruled India but for the existence of local groups that sided with them. In the post-Independence era, every single political party was riddled with groupism. Cricket, the national pastime, was not spared. We had Vijay Merchant groups, Vijay Hazare groups, Kapil Dev groups, Sunil Gavaskar groups and, more recently, Sachin Tendulkar and Saurav Ganguly groups.

The Hindi film industry, the nation’s most influential and powerful entertainment sector, has always been driven by groupism from the days of Dilip Kumar, Raj Kapoor and Dev Anand to the current generation of top stars. The groups generally worked hard to protect the interests of an individual and dent the popularity of his rivals. However, Bollywood groupism of the earlier days was never vicious and operated on ‘live and let live’ basis.

No holds barred?

Today, it is a no-holds-barred groupism. On the production side, the Yashraj group, the top dog in the profession, is pitted against those affiliated to director Ram Gopal Varma and other smaller units. There are loud complaints that the Yashraj group is monopolising the stars and using its powerful distribution arm to control the exhibition trade as well. The smaller producers complain they cannot get the theatres of their choice to release their films as they are all booked in advance for the Yashraj films.

The average movie buff, however, is not interested in the war between producers. The greater interest is in the group wars among the stars which dominate the celebrity media. Today, there are two major star-led groups — one led by Amitabh Bachchan and his family and the other by the industry’s number-one star, Shah Rukh Khan. Though the groups were in existence for several months, the leaders had denied it, each paying lip service to the greatness of the other.

But today, the façade has worn off. According to Bollywood watchers, the Bachchan group consists of filmmakers — Ram Gopal Varma, Rohan Sippy, Apoorva Lakhia, Goldie Behl, Shaad Ali — and the most recent entry in the form of Bachchan bahu Aishwarya Rai. The SRK group has more glamour with Farah Khan, Salman Khan, Saif Ali Khan and Rani Mukherjee.

In the crossfire...

Caught in the middle are filmmakers like Karan Johar who cannot think of a film without Shah Rukh, but he remains a Bachchan devotee. Likewise, the Yashraj stalwarts need both groups for their blockbusters. The present rivalry began essentially as a popularity contest between Bachchan and Shah Rukh, with the latter edging out the superstar for plum roles.

It turned bitter after Shah Rukh bagged lucrative ad campaigns which would have otherwise gone the Bachchan way. Then came the Kaun Banega Crorepati episode where Shah Rukh once again successfully replaced Bachchan in the popular qu iz-show.

Shah Rukh is an extrovert, always ready to crack jokes but some of these laugh-raising comments on Bachchan friends, particularly the rotund Samajwadi leader Amar Singh, annoyed the Bachchan clan.

The fact that Abhishek Bachchan trailed the Khans in popularity was one more reason for the cold vibes between the two groups. While Shah Rukh was supposed to be sympathetic to the Congress and openly admired its leader Sonia Gandhi, the Bachchan clan were drumbeaters for former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh and Amar Singh; and what with Jaya Bachchan making charges against Sonia Gandhi on every issue, the divide was bound to widen.

Finally came the “wedding of the century” between Abhishek and Aishwarya for which the top Bollywood stars were not invited, an act which was seen as a snub. When Aishwarya, already alienated from many Bollywood biggies, entered the Bachchan camp, there was further polarisation.

Thanks to this groupism, Bollywood may see the end of multi-superstar films like Mohabbatein and Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna. Producers and directors like Karan Johar and those in the Yashraj films will now be forced t o choose between the two superstars, and the odds are they would opt for Shah Rukh.

Some of the existing productions are already feeling the impact of the ‘Cold War’. B.R. Film’s Bhootnath is delayed because director Ravi Chopra could not get Shah Rukh and Amitabh Bachchan to shoot together. Top s tar Hrithik Roshan recently signed a Rs 35-crore deal for three films with Adlabs where he had been given the option to pick and choose his heroines. It is doubtful if he would consider Aishwarya Rai, following the fallout over their earlier film Dhoom 2 where Hrithik outshone co-star Abhishek.

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