Mumbai: Sanjay Leela Bhansali introduced the youngest Kapoor from Hindi Cinema’s first family to Bollywood with his visually captivating painting on celluloid – 'Saawariya' in 2007. Ranbir Kapoor, son of Neetu-Rishi Kapoor and grandson of the legendary Late Raj Kapoor, succeeded in striking a chord with the audiences even as his debut film failed to get the numbers at the Box Office.
Interestingly, the film had special appearances by Salman Khan and Rani Mukerji, besides debutante Sonam Kapoor but Ranbir’s aura and charm couldn’t get overshadowed.
He had it in him to carry forward the legacy established by his great grandfather – Prithviraj Kapoor. Thus, he delivered a superhit in the form of ‘Bachna Ae Haseeno’, which saw him playing a Casanova. He was paired opposite three women in the film – Bipasha Basu (a much-established star), Minissha Lamba and Deepika Padukone.
For the uninitiated, RK had begun his association with the industry as an assistant director and had been a part of his home production ‘Aa Ab Laut Chalein’ and SLB’s ‘Black’.
Since he hails from a family that has contributed to the industry for decades, expectations from him are bound to be sky high.
The talented young man experimented with ‘Wake Up Sid’ and ‘Rocket Singh: Salesman of The Year’. These proved to be quite successful and helped Ranbir prove his versatility. He thus displayed his valour by take up unconventional roles much early in his career, a risk that paid off beautifully. ‘Wake Up Sid’ saw him sharing screen space with Konkona Sen Sharma and he romanced Shazahn Padamsee in 'Rocket Singh: Salesman of The Year’.
Rajkumar Santoshi’s rom-com ‘Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani’ was a commercially successful film and helped him make a mark at the Box Office again.
Soon, he bagged Prakash Jha’s ‘Ranjeenti’ a multi-starrer with huge names. Despite having names like Ajay Devgn, Nana Patekar, Manoj Bajpayee and Naseeruddin Shah on board the film, ‘Rajneeti’ helped Ranbir create a distinct impact on the audiences. This was his second film with Katrina, whom he had reportedly started dating.
Ranbir’s career graph saw a huge rise when Imtiaz Ali’s ‘Rockstar’, which turned out to be a youth sensation of sorts. His performance in the film was applauded and appreciated both by the critics and the audiences. He had thus emerged as a superstar in the making. The efforts taken by Ranbir were apparent and his dedication was visible. From sporting a number of hairstyles to pulling off a challenging role that required his character to evolve in the film, Ranbir took all what one must take to deliver a performance of a lifetime.
Ranbir bagged both the Filmfare Award for Best Actor and Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actor for ‘Rockstar’.
Thus, with Imtiaz’s ‘Rockstar’, Ranbir Kapoor proved he was here to play a very long innings.
Ranbir’s successful string continued with Anurag Basu’s ‘Barfi!’, a touching film that saw him essay a young mute man ditched by his love. RK’s innocent charm and childlike aura in the film touched a million hearts. His chemistry with Priyanka Chopra (who played Jhilmil, an autistic girl) and Ileana D’Cruz was much appreciated but what outshined everything else was his impeccable performance.
His next – ‘Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani’ – opposite his former ladylove Deepika Padukone – added another leaf to his cap. The youth-centric love story boosted RK’s career graph and helped him state success once again at the Box Office. As Bunny aka Kabir Thapar, Ranbir made hearts skip a beat.
The film was his first one with Deepika post their breakup, yet their chemistry rocked the silverscreen.
By then, Ranbir had three back-to-back super-hit films to his credit and expectations were mounting. Unfortunately, his tryst with BO success ended after he did ‘Besharam’. The film proved disastrous and questioned RK’s choice of films. A film like ‘Besharam’ was certainly not expected from Ranbir at a time he was doing exceptionally well for himself.
Moviegoers had pinned a lot of hope on - ‘Bombay Velvet’ and ‘Roy’ - films that were among the most anticipated films in 2015. Unfortunately for the makers of the films, ‘Bombay Velvet’ and ‘Roy’ proved to be duds at the Box Office despite good performances. The former had Anushka Sharma as the leading lady while the latter had Jacqueline Fernandez.
Thus RK registered three back to back flops – ‘Besharam’, ‘Roy’ and ‘Bombay Velvet’.
It would have certainly been a very difficult phase for Ranbir. Imtiaz Ali’s ‘Tamasha’ looked promising as there were many expectations because the ‘Rockstar’ actor-director duo had teamed up for the second time. Moreover, the film had Deepika Padukone on board. It was RK’s second film with Deepika post their breakup. The audiences expected the onscreen couple to recreate the ‘Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani’ magic again with ‘Tamasha’. But sadly, the film didn’t live up to the hype it created.
Now, Karan Johar’s ‘Ae Dil Hai Mushkil’ may help RK resurrect his career graph this Diwali. The film which also stars Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Anushka Sharma and Fawad Khan, is slated to clash with Ajay Devgn’s ‘Shivaay’.
It would be interesting to see if RK is able to give tough competition to Ajay at the Box Office. Besides being a big banner film (Dharma Productions), ‘Ae Dil Hai Mushkil’ will see him romance a much older Aishwarya on screen for the first time. Glimpses of his chemistry with the former Miss World that one could see in the teaser of the film have made his fans go gaga over him again. So, moviegoers are looking forward to the film’s release for sure.
Next year, RK has Anurag Basu’s ‘Jagga Jasoos’, a film which is way beyond its actual schedule for release. Nonetheless, the makers have announced the release of the film which also stars Katrina Kaif.
A lot has been speculated on the film’s delay owing to Kapoor’s breakup with Katrina. But the two have rubbished all rumours regarding the same. ‘Jagga Jasoos’ is an Anurag Basu film and hence expectations are bound to be higher.
Roundup
Ranbir has been in this industry as an actor for over nine years now. In this span of time, RK has experienced both ecstasy and agony as an artist. He is certainly going through a rough phase but it would be unfair to write him off.
