Consider the following actresses:
- Bipasha Basu
- Shraddha Kapoor
- Jacqueline Fernandez
- Nargis Fakri
- Sunny Leone
What do these women have in common ?
They all have “survived” bollywood without having a single movie where they can be accused of acting. They all have movies which can be dubbed commercially successful. They are gorgeous, achingly beautiful and have a wonderful screen presence. They all can be the perfect showpiece in a masala entertainer where the Hero need someone pretty beside him.
Ergo, one doesn’t need acting skills to survive in the industry. Hence proved.
Therefore one needn’t wonder why Katrina Kaif hasn’t perished yet despite of having no acting skills. The real question is why she has thrived in our industry. In fact not long ago, she was the reigning queen of bollywood. Here are the few reasons I can think of her incredible success in our industry:
- Her connection with Salman Khan: Before she met Salman Khan, she was just another girl trying her luck in bollywood. It is only after she met him, she was put on a path, by him. She gained access to bollywood royalty in terms of connections, projects and exposure. She put the disastrous debut in the movie Boom quickly behind her and was happy to be part of A-grade projects. She was able to make that paradigm shift in her career track because of Salman Khan. Here is a still from her first major A-grade project (Sarkar):
- She is insanely beautiful: Her mixed race ancestry gives the genetic advantage over a lot of other beautiful actresses. She simply stands out. She remained the most googled celebrity in India for a long time and almost became a benchmark of beauty in India. It’s not difficult enough to find a guy who would say “She thinks as if she is Katrina Kaif” after getting rejected by a girl. Speaks volume about her fan following in our country.Complete list of most searched Bollywood celebrities on Google - Local Press Co
- She is professional and hardworking: From the reports that you can hear about her, she works really hard. She has improved her dance considerably and have achieved some amount of fluency in Hindi as well. Despite of few off-kilter instances, she is widely perceived to be a woman focused on her career. It is a good reputation to have when crores of investment is riding on you.
After the initial break she received through Salman, her tremendous fan following and her professionalism helped her land multiple A-grade projects and were enough to make her the success she eventually became.
But, the age is catching up with her now, she has started her gradual downfall from the top. She is no longer the prettiest, there are younger actresses available to replace her at much less remuneration. The fact that her last few projects (Phantom, Fitoor and Bar Bar Dekho) have tanked on box office is not helping her either.
Such is the nature of this industry, not being young is not pretty, irrespective of how beautiful you are, because someone younger and prettier is there to replace you. You can either clutch on to your fame or gracefully take a final bow and walk off slowly from the stage.