The Young Brigade of Bollywood: Who is the next superstar?

There are two groups of competition in Bollywood. The first group consists of established stars like Aamir Khan, Shahrukh Khan, Salman Khan, Akshay Kumar, Ajay Devgan and Hrithik Roshan. With years of hard work, success, failures and blockbusters behind them, these stars have firmly established themselves as bankable stars in every nook and corner of the country.

The second group is the younger brigade. The main players are Ranbir Kapoor, Ranveer Singh, Shahid Kapoor, Sidharth Malhotra, Varun Dhawan, Sushant Singh Rajput and Arjun Kapoor. Much like the established stars, there is tremendous competition between the younger stars too.

The big question is, which of these stars can go on to replace the established stars in the industry and who amongst them has the potential to make it big in the future.

Our analysis:

Ranbir Kapoor

What works: His acting talent is his biggest strength, followed by his fan-following among the urban youth. The fact that some of the best directors in the industry like Rajkumar Hirani, Karan Johar and Imtiaz Ali are keen on casting him in their films, will also be a huge confidence booster for the actor.

What doesn’t work: His choice of films has let him down in the last couple of years. He has attempted to do films belonging to different genres and some of them with limited appeal, something that has resulted in loss of some amount of his equity among his fans. Also, his appeal towards the masses is limited.

Future prediction: He may be facing flak for the kind of films that he has chosen, but as cliched as it might sound ‘form is temporary, but class is permanent’. His future films like Tamasha, Ae Dil Hai Mushkil and Sanjay Dutt biopic seems promising enough to take him back to the big league.

Chances of Ranbir Kapoor making it to the big league: 9 on 10.

Ranveer Singh

What works: A talented actor who can cut across the mass audience as well as appeal to the multiplex audience. Ranveer has also played a range of different characters on screen and has built a loyal fanbase for himself. With the right attitude and choice of films, he has the potential to make it to the big league.

What doesn’t work: His energy and over-enthusiasm can get irritating at times. His fashion sense is one of the weirdest among the lot and his apparels express more than impress. In short, it’s his off-screen persona that has created negativity around him.

Future prediction: He has had his share of films that have gone wrong like ‘Kill Dil’, ‘Ladies vs Ricky Bahl’ and ’Lootera’. However, Ranveer has also been appreciated for his performances in almost all his films. The keenly-awaited ‘Dil Dhadakne Do’ has not been a huge commercial success, but Ranveer’s performance has been appreciated by most. His forthcoming ’Bajirao Mastani’ is one of the most anticipated movies of the year. Industry sources claim it’s his best performance to date.

Chances of Ranveer Singh making it to the big league: 8 on 10.

Shahid Kapoor

What works: A versatile actor, excellent screen-presence, a great dancer and one of the best looking actors in the industry – Shahid Kapoor has everything going for him, he is the perfect package to make it to the big league.

What doesn’t work:  He has always been considered the best bet to make it big, but for some reason, his films have under-performed at the box office. His choice of films has been extremely poor and some films that he rejected, have gone on to be major hits. His attitude and mood swings have also been questioned.

Future prediction: With ‘Haider’ winning him huge appreciation and with films like ‘Shandaar’ and ‘Udta Punjab’ in the pipeline, Shahid Kapoor is readying himself for bigger things in the industry. He just needs one big hit to turns things around for him. It also remains to be seen if marriage will prove to be lucky for the actor.

Chances of Shahid Kapoor making it to the big league: 8.5 on 10.

Varun Dhawan

What works: A versatile actor who reminds us of Govinda and Salman Khan. When it comes to the luck factor, his career could be compared to Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Everything that Varun has touched so far, has turned into box office gold.

What doesn’t work: His personality and screen presence isn’t the best when compared to his contemporaries like Sidharth Malhotra and Ranbir Kapoor. His dialogue delivery has been severely criticised and rightly so. When sharing the screen with better actors, Varun faces the risk of being overshadowed. Nawazuddin Siddiqui in Badlapur, for example.

Future prediction: The biggest test for Varun Dhawan will come when one of his films fails at the box office. But until then, he has one safe film in the form of Shah Rukh Khan’s Dilwale and then the massive challenge of living upto expectations in Karan Malhotra’s Shhuddhi, where he has replaced mega stars like Hrithik Roshan and Salman Khan. Plenty of potential to make it big in the industry and he can only improve as an actor from here.

Chances of Varun Dhawan making it to the big league: 8 on 10.

Sidharth Malhotra

What works: His personality and his presence is enough for his fans to drool over him. He also enjoys a huge fan following amongst his female audience and has the potential to be the ‘next angry young man’ on screen.

What doesn’t work: He has a long way to go both as an actor and in the dancing department.

Future prediction: He seems to understand what works for him in terms of characters that he plays on screen and hence his choice of films has been great so far. Brothers looks like another 100 crore+ grosser and will definitely help him create a fanbase amongst the masses.

Chances of Sidharth Malhotra making it to the big league: 7 on 10.

Arjun Kapoor

What works: Arjun Kapoor enjoys a decent following amongst the single screen audience.

What doesn’t work:  His personality is the weakest among the younger generation of actor. He has also failed to establish a fanbase for himself. His carefree and loud attitude at times works against him.

Future prediction:  He needs to be careful when it comes to career choices. Tevar, which was pitched as a 100 crore film, and sold for an exorbitant price, tanked without a trace at the box office.

Chances of Arjun Kapoor making it to the big league: 5 on 10.

Sushant Singh Rajput

What works: Talented actor and given his television background, he reminds us of Shahrukh Khan during his younger days. Like SRK, he has opted to do different films at the beginning of his career (Kai Po Che and Detective Byomkesh Bakshy).

What doesn’t work: Unlikely to hold universal appeal, especially at mass centres.

Future prediction: With the revenue from multiplex business increasing quite significantly each year, popularity in mass centres is no longer as important as it was a couple of decades ago. He has a few interesting films like MS Dhoni biopic, under a terrific director like Neeraj Pandey.

Chances of Sushant making it to the big league: 6 on 10.