Hrithik Roshan: Past, Present and Future

Bollywood superstar Hrithik Roshan is the biggest star the industry has produced in the current century. No other actor who made his debut after Hrithik, has gone on to establish his fanbase across the country.

In this article, we analyse the past, present and future of a superstar, who has the potential to make it to the very top in the industry, but his decision to do one film in 1.5 – 2 years could be holding him back from achieving greatness. 

PAST

16 years ago, a newcomer took the entire Hindi Film Industry by storm and was immediately tagged as a overnight ‘Superstar’. He literally had the female half of the nation in a swoon and captivated the other half equally as well. The euphoria that gripped the entire country was known as ‘Hrithik Mania’.

Expert Movie Pundits predicted doom for Rakesh Roshan’s ‘Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai’ as the movie’s release (14th Jan 2000) was going to be sandwiched between the much-awaited films featuring the Mega Khans – ‘Mela’ (7th Jan 2000) and ‘Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani’ (21st Jan 2000). Roshans stuck to their release date and the rest, as they say, is history.

‘Kaho Na Pyaar Hai’ featuring a newcomer trounced the competition and the hysteria witnessed is unmatched till date. A perfect scenario to showcase the magnitude of mega-stardom that Hrithik achieved in 2000 is to compare the opening of the Diwali releases – ‘Mohabbatein’ and ‘Mission Kashmir’. The presence of Hrithik (a supporting role that was rewritten at the last moment to do justice to his stardom) was enough to get a better initial for the Sanjay Dutt starrer against the mega combo of Aditya Chopra and Shah Rukh Khan – who were returning together after the all-time classic DDLJ. Yes, the opening of Mission Kashmir was about 40% higher than a big film like Mohabbatein back in 2000.

What followed after the tremendous high were half-baked films, but Hrithik made his presence felt in films like Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham and later delivered one of his career-best performances in Koi Mil Gaya.

Hrithik reached the peak of his career in the year 2006. He featured in two sequels that catapulted him into a different league altogether. ‘Krrish’ and ‘Dhoom 2’ easily surpassed the likes of ‘Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna’, ‘Don’, ‘Rang De Basanti’, ‘Fanaa’, ‘Jaan-E-Mann’ and rose to become the top openers of the year. ‘Dhoom 2’ created history and went on to become the highest grosser of the year. ‘Dhoom’ is the biggest franchise in Bollywood today mainly because of the unprecedented success of its second instalment.

PRESENT

A decade has gone by and the scenario is very different today. Hrithik’s experiments with films like ‘Kites’ and ‘Guzaarish’, didn’t work at the ticket window. The industry has witnessed multiple changes with regards to marketing and promotion of the movies. The success mantra is to have a trailer that makes a big impact, followed by a perfect release period. Roshan’s contemporaries (seniors as well as juniors) have raised their standards quite significantly. Also, Hrithik has been unfortunate with the release dates of his last few movies. ‘Bang Bang’ had to clash with ‘Haider’ and now his ambitious project ‘MohenjoDaro’ is pitted against ‘Rustom’. There might be a possibility of his next ‘Kaabil’ clashing with the already postponed ‘Raees’.

The universal record breaking opening of ‘Agneepath’ or ‘Bang Bang’ is a testimony to the fact that Hrithik has a huge following in every nook and corner of the country. The admirers have been eagerly awaiting for that perfect project which can reaffirm the box office standing of their favourite superstar. ‘Shhuddhi’ was being touted as one and understandably the fans were left dejected hearing Hrithik’s decision of not doing the film. Then there were firm reports that acclaimed director Kabir Khan is starting his next with Hrithik, but the wait for that movie has to be much longer as Kabir is now engaged with Salman’s Tubelight. The recent reports of Aamir Khan replacing Hrithik in Yash Raj Films’s ‘Thug’, are not at all encouraging for the fans too.

The big question in the present is – is Hrithik risking his career and standing in the industry by doing one film in two years? Is he losing out on big films? More importantly, is he working with the right directors?

FUTURE

Without an iota of doubt, all Hrithik fans want to see him more often on the silver screen. He just had 4 releases in the last five years (2012 to 2016) – ‘Agneepath’, ‘Krrish 3’, ‘Bang Bang’ and ‘Mohenjodaro’.

Aamir Khan is another superstar who works at the same pace but his script selection has been exceptional. Also, when you’re having movies like ‘Dhoom 3’ (biggest franchise) or ‘PK’ (biggest director) in your kitty, the box-office result is a foregone conclusion. During 2005-2006, Aamir had 3 releases (‘Mangal Pandey’, ‘Rang De Basanti’ & ‘Fanaa’) in a span of 9 months. In 1999-2000, Aamir had 4 releases (‘Sarfarosh’, ‘Mann’,’1947 Earth’ & ‘Mela’) within 8 months. Salman Khan has slowed down after attaining super stardom with ‘Dabangg’. From ‘Wanted’ (Sep 2009) to ‘Dabangg’ (Sep 2010), he had 5 releases in one year including ‘London Dreams’, ‘Main Aur Mrs Khanna’ and ‘Veer’. Even Shah Rukh Khan has now shifted to the top gear and his upcoming list includes ‘Dear Zindagi’, ‘Raees’, Imtiaz Ali and Anand Rai’s next with ‘Fan’ and ‘Dilwale’ just gone by.

As the industry and fans await an outstanding performance from him in ‘Mohenjo Daro’, we sincerely hope he does more films and doesn’t waste the following that he has earned over the years.

Article by Abhishek Sharma (tweets @abhu_sharma)