Today in Bollywood, the glitter and glam of its stars often look like they are taking the talent of storytelling for a ride. It’s not only the box office that goes wild when a movie crosses the ₹500-crore mark the behind-the-scenes expenses also get insanely high.
After a blockbuster, celebrity hairstylist Aalim Hakim disclosed that a star’s whole entourage from stylists and trainers to nutritionists, increases their fees, just because the value of the star goes up. Image in this industry is no longer just about vanity; it’s a career investment.
The era we live in is that of camera phones and instant virality, and thus, one “bad” photo can become a trending topic much faster than a film’s trailer. Audiences are extremely brutal and unforgiving, and they pick apart everything from the star’s gym look to the pose on the red carpet. In such an environment, appearance cannot be regarded as a mere luxury, it is necessary for survival.
Not only are actors of today performing their roles on screen, but also they are performing their off-screen roles on Instagram, at airport arrivals, at brand shoots. A makeup artist, a hairstylist, or a trainer of a star is no longer just a service provider, but they have become the parts that make up a brand identity of a star and thus the relationship with the audience gets shaped before the entry into the theatre.
Even insiders are beginning to admit that the balance has tilted too far. Director Karan Johar himself confessed that while he’d like to pay writers more, reality dictates otherwise; most of a film’s budget goes to the faces on the posters, not the words in the script. Writers often remain underpaid and unacknowledged, while massive sums are spent on wardrobes, personal trainers, and glossy promotional shoots.
And yet, the irony is hard to miss, the very audiences who reward star power at the box office are also the first to complain about formulaic stories and recycled plots.
It’s a comfortable position to be in to put the blame on stars for assenting to aesthetics over art; are they however, the real culprits, or just outcomes of a system that incentivizes visibility rather than depth?
If the success at the box office is gauged not only in crores but also in followers, filters, and fashion headlines, being perfectly looking is just another obligation that comes with the job.
What if the actual trouble was not that stories ceased to matter to Bollywood, but that the business of beauty has gotten so intertwined with the business of cinema that they can hardly be separated now?
Eventually, where does that put the writers, the masterminds behind the stories that make stars, well, stars?
If the art of storytelling is continuously being subordinated to stardom, the Bollywood industry is jeopardizing the very essence that made it enchanting in the first place.
