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Now that the trailer for “Kalki 2898AD” starring Prabhas, Amitabh Bachchan and Kamal Haasan has been released, here we take a look at seven Indian actors and their upcoming releases who will need quite a bit of success to maintain their stardom and retain their fanbase.
The unpredictable nature of stardom in the film industry both scares and excites artists who are constantly striving to prove themselves through their performances as well as commercial success. Bollywood is such a volatile industry that even after achieving multiple commercial successes, an actor who achieves “superstar” status has to prove himself. Yes, mainly his own, because the pressure on a male superstar is much greater than that on a female superstar.
Here we look at seven such actors and why their next projects need to be commercially successful to maintain their stardom…
1. Prabhas: After a successful career in the Telugu film industry with award-winning performances in films like Varsham, Chhatrapati, Darling, Mr Perfect and Mirchi, Prabhas rose to global fame overnight with his role as Mahendra Baahubali in the film Baahubali: The Beginning in 2015. The success of this film was followed by its sequel Baahubali 2: The Finale, which marked a historic milestone in Indian cinema.
While the first part of the film was the fourth highest grossing Indian film ever, the second part became the first Indian film to cross the Rs 1,000 crore mark in just 10 days of release. As Prabhas' fan base grew overnight, especially among Bollywood audiences, expectations of the star grew so high that he soon began to face an imbalance between expectations and reality.
Since then, his next two Hindi-Telugu films, Saaho and Radhe Shyam, failed to impress audiences and critics alike and barely raked in the expected box-office takings despite being big-budget films released worldwide.
With Prabhas struggling after two consecutive films failing at the box office, his film Adipurush was released last year, but the controversy surrounding that film and its disastrous performance at the box office completely tarnished Prabhas' stardom.
The average box office return of his previous film, Salaar: Part 1 – Ceasefire, has given him some breathing room, but now all eyes are on Kalki 2898 AD. The first looks of the film have generated excitement not just for its VFX, action and storyline, but also for its star-cast which includes two of Indian cinema's biggest stars, Amitabh Bachchan and Kamal Haasan, along with Deepika Padukone and of course Prabhas.
2. Ranveer Singh: Ranveer Singh's success was one of the most inspiring stories of a Bollywood outsider finding his place in the Hindi film industry when his film 'Band Baaja Barat' was released in 2010. This success story continued with several commercially successful films like 'Dil Dhadakne Do', 'Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-Leela', 'Bajirao Mastani' and 'Padmaavat'.
However, Ranveer began facing career difficulties after the massive success of the film “Gully Boy” in 2019. Though his multi-starrer “Sooryavanshi”, co-starring Ajay Devgn and Akshay Kumar, grossed an impressive Rs 2.94 crore at the box office amid the pandemic, most of his films since then have failed to impress critics and audiences.
His sports drama 83 received mixed reviews from critics but was a flop at the theatres. His next, Jayeshbhai Jordar, was a commercial flop, followed by Rohit Shetty's Circus. Both films were commercial flops, but only Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani lived up to the expectations of the audience, which was reflected in the box office collections.
Now, all eyes are on Rohit Shetty's next film, 'Singam Again', which will see him sharing the big screen with his favourite co-star and wife Deepika Padukone.
3. Akshay Kumar: National Award-winning Bollywood superstar Akshay Kumar, who started his career with 'Aaj' in 1987, has gone through various phases in his career, from 14 consecutive failures to delivering highly talked about films and becoming one of the producers' favourite actors. He has become one of the successful actors who have delivered blockbusters across all genres, be it comedy, action, social drama or family drama.
Akshay is known for his franchise films like “Khiladi”, “Hera Pheri” and “Housefull” and has since gone on to star in a number of films including “Singh Is Kiing”, “Ruston”, “Aitraaz”, “OMG: Oh My God!”, “Toilet: Ek Prem Katha”, “Dhadkan”, “Bhool Bhulaiyaa”, “Airlift” and “The State vs Jolly LL.B 2”.
However, in the last few years, the superstar has had some commercial flops with big to medium budget films like Bachchhan Paandey, Samrat Prithviraj, Rakshabandhan, Selfiee, Mission Raniganj and the recently released Bade Miyan Chote Miyan.
Right from critics to audiences, everyone now has absolutely no expectations from the superstar and media reports are saying that the actor's stardom has completely worn off and it is time for the actor to sit down and reflect.
Looking at his upcoming roles and film choices, one can only hope that the actor comes up with something in his next film that will give fans a solid reason to pay tribute to their favourite star.
Akshay is currently busy shooting for his upcoming film Sarfira with Radhika Madan. He will also be seen in Rohit Shetty's upcoming film Singham Again. He also plays the lead role in the action thriller Sky Force opposite Nimrat Kaur and Sara Ali Khan. The film will be a special one as it reunites Akshay with his Hera Pheri co-star Suniel Shetty.
Apart from these, he has several other projects in the pipeline, and it will be interesting to see how one of the most bankable actors returns to form and rake in box office revenue.
4. Varun Dhawan: Varun Dhawan's journey in Bollywood began with back-to-back successful films like 'Student of the Year' in 2012, followed by 'Main Tera Hero', 'Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania' and a balanced graph of critically acclaimed films and commercial blockbusters like 'Badlapur', 'ABCD 2', 'Badrinath Ki Dulhania', 'Judwaa 2', 'October' and 'Sui Dhaaga'.
However, as expectations rose with success, the film began going through tough times with a few films like Kalank and Street Dancer 3D performing at average or low levels at the box office, plus the pandemic hit.
Though his post-pandemic films “Jugjugg Jeeyo” and “Bhediya” have managed to impress a section of the audience, they have failed to match the success he achieved as one of the most bankable Bollywood stars of his time.
Varun's last film was Bawaal, which released on Amazon Prime, but it failed to live up to expectations from audiences and critics and instead created controversy.
Varun is currently gearing up for his most ambitious project, Baby John, a story written and produced by Jawaan hitmaker Atlee starring SRK. The film also stars Keerthy Suresh, Wamika Gabbi, Jackie Shroff and Rajpal Yadav. The first look of the film is quite intriguing.
The actor will be reuniting with his mentor Karan Johar in Dharma Productions' upcoming project “Sunny Sanskari Ki Tulsi Kumari,” which also stars Janhvi Kapoor, Sanya Malhotra, Rohit Saraf and Maniesh Paul. The film is scheduled to hit theatres on April 18, 2025.
For Varun, these two films are equally important in terms of reclaiming his stardom and the benchmark he has set for himself.
5. Arjun Kapoor: While his 2012 debut film, Ishaqzaade, was met with overwhelming support from audiences and critics alike, Arjun Kapoor soon faced a lot of criticism from a section of the audience as being too young.
Though he worked with renowned filmmakers and delivered a few average hits like “2 States”, “Ki & Ka”, “Half Girlfriend” and “Mubarakan”, many of his films failed to impress the audience. Films like “Namaste England”, “Panipat”, “Bhoot Police” and “Kuttey” were huge flops at the box office.
Though the partial success of Ek Villain Returns has been a relief, Arjun still needs a hit song to make a comeback.
The actor is playing one of the most prominent roles in the upcoming film 'Singam Again', directed by Rohit Shetty, who is known for the most successful series 'Singam'. The film will also introduce a new character called Lady Singham, played by Deepika Padukone.
6. Ayushmann Khurrana : Right from his debut in Bollywood, Ayushmann Khurrana has proven his talent as a new generation star in Bollywood with his unusual choices and content-driven films. His films include “Vicky Donor”, “Dum Laga Ke Haisha”, “Shubh Mangal Saavdhan”, “Andhadhun”, “Badhaai Ho”, “Article 15”, “Dream Girl”, “Bala” and “Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan” among others, which not only addressed social issues never before addressed in Indian cinema but also changed the perception of the Bollywood hero.
However, the critical and commercial decline of his films began post-pandemic with films like Anek, Dr G and Action Hero.
While the moderate success of Dream Girls 2 has come as a relief to Ayushmann, his fans are eagerly waiting for a film to see their favourite actor get back in the race.
7. Aditya Roy KapurWhatever the fate of the film, his good looks, strong screen presence and female fan following have always been Aditya Roy Kapur's strengths.
While his earlier films Aashiqui 2 and Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani were huge successes and Fitoor and Ok Jaanu received moderate reviews, post-pandemic Aditya has had a string of flops including Sadak 2, Ludo, Rashtra Kavach Om and Gumraah.
His only success was the Disney+ Hotstar web series The Night Manager.
The actor will next be seen in Anurag Basu's multi-starrer film “Metro In Dino”, which also stars Sara Ali Khan, Fatima Sana Shaikh, Konkona Sensharma, Ali Fazal, Pankaj Tripathi and Neena Gupta. The film is produced by Bhushan Kumar for T-Series Films.
Fans are hopeful that the film will give Aditya a spectacular comeback on the big screen.
