Self-belief is crucial but most of us also need someone else to believe in us, especially when one is embarking on or stumbling into a new project or career. Of course, it is not that you don’t achieve your goal without an external force believing in you—both my debate group, Let’s Talk Over Chai, and my book,
101 Haiku, were initially met with mocking sneers or dismissed with a wave of the hand but I managed to turn them into a reality.
The idea for this column that talks about the magical power of someone believing in you was birthed by the unexpected success story of Kiara Advani, who made her debut with the forgettable Fugly in 2014. It took four long years before Karan Johar invested faith in this unproven talent and cast her in the central role in the segment he directed for the Netflix web show Lust Stories.
Spurred by the positive response to her performance, Karan rapidly repeated Kiara in a cameo in Kalank and his ambitious production Good News starring Akshay Kumar, Diljeet Dosanjh and Kareena Kapoor. With the unprecedented success of the Sandeep Vanga-directed Kabir Singh, Kiara has now moved to the elite list of successful heroines.
Clementine Wamariya’s quote, ‘All that I have achieved has been possible not only because of my own strength and perseverance ... but also through other people’s support and belief in me,’ holds true for so many people in the film industry. The craze for Salman Khan today is phenomenal and he is one of the highest paid actors but he could have been assigned to the list of also-rans after his nondescript role in his debut film Biwi Ho To Aisi.
Fortunately for him, Sooraj Barjatya had the foresight to see him as a diamond in the rough and polished his latent talent to present him anew in Maine Pyar Kiya. It was the first of the many blockbusters to follow.
Jackie Shroff did a blink-and-miss role as Shakti Kapoor’s henchman in Swami Dada and would have been consigned to anonymity had director Subhash Ghai not decided to cast him—and that too in a titular role—in Hero (1983). The film catapulted Shroff to instant stardom. Ghai reaped the benefits of re-discovering Jackie with further collaborations in Karma, Ram Lakhan and Khalnayak.
Madhuri Dixit’s career was languishing after her initial films such as Abodh, Awaara Baap and Swati. Filmmaker Subhash Ghai spotted her potential and decided to relaunch her in a grand manner. It was N Chandra’s Tezaab (1988) followed by Subhash Ghai’s Ram Lakhan (1989) that catapulted Madhuri to big-time success.
After variegated roles in Drohkaal, Bandit Queen, Dastak, Tamanna and a couple of TV serials, ‘Kalakaar’ and ‘Swabhimaan’, Manoj Bajpayee became an actor to reckon with when Ram Gopal Varma hand-picked him to play the author-backed role of the underworld don Bhiku Mhatre in Satya.
After the critical and mass appreciation for the film, Manoj grew wings. The lissome Zeenat Aman was once considered a good-looking model lacking the ‘dum’ required to make the grade as a top heroine. She had featured in two forgettable films Hungama and Hulchul before Dev Anand relied on his intuition and cast her in the pivotal role of Janice, the hippy gone astray, in Hare Rama Hare Krishna (1972).
The nation rocked to the song ‘Dum maro dum...’ and Zeenat became a sensation! Zeenat and Dev went on to do a half a dozen films together, none as memorable as HRHK, but it didn’t deter Zeenat from becoming a star.
From the recent crop of actors, those who benefitted from another’s belief in them are Parineeti Chopra and Aditya Roy Kapur. Parineeti was part of the marketing team of Yash Raj Films. But a three-film deal with Aditya Chopra, the VP of Yashraj Films, changed the course of her career dramatically. And from playing a supportive role in Ladies Vs Ricky Behl she was assigned the lead in Ishaqzaade which proved to be her breakthrough.
The Bhatt brothers, Mukesh and especially Mahesh, have been mentors to many talents including Rahul Roy and Anu Agarwal in the early ’90s. More recently, they plucked out Aditya Roy Kapur, who was playing second fiddle to other heroes like Ajay, Salman, Akshay, Hrithik in London Dreams, Action Replay and Guzaarish, and presented him as the hero in Aashiqui 2. The film’s success turned Aditya’s career around.
I would like to sign off with a small anecdote that speaks about the intrinsic power of believing. Years ago, after Mahesh Bhatt’s Arth was completed, it was lying unreleased in the cans. I saw the film in a preview show and dashed off a piece ‘Why no takers for Arth?’ in which I wrote a glowing review of the film.
The film was released soon thereafter. I am not sure if there was any connection between the article and the film finding a distributor but I am happy I wrote the piece in which I expressed my belief in Arth.
