SSR’S Death: Who Makes Or Breaks Celebs In Bollywood

Do a handul of people run Bollywood? Can a Karan Johar Or Aditya Chopra destroy a celeb’s career? Read our article to find out.

Thanks to the love we received in the previous article & the huge amount on discussions that took place in light of Sushant Singh Rajput’s death, we wanted to clear one misconception – whether 1-2 people can destroy a Bollywood celeb’s career.

The Power Of Dharma & YRF

Dharma & YRF are undoubtedly the biggest camps in Bollywood. At any given point in time, they have the most number of films under production. An actor being signed by Dharma or bagging a YRF contract, means that other filmmakers will make a beeline to sign that actor for their movies.

On the other hand, a bad reference from Karan Johar can also adversely impact a celeb’s career. YRF has an ongoing deal with Sony to release all their movies on Sony’s network of channels. Karan Johar on the other hand is a talk show host on Star. These two are the most powerful TV channels & even produce their own films. A celeb who is in the bad books of Karan Johar, Aditya Chopra will lose out on Fox Star Studios, Sony produced movies as well.

Dharma & YRF are also into film distribution. They may refuse to distribute movies of stars whom they don’t like.

Who Makes A Star?

Does landing a Dharma or YRF project guarantee success? Yes & No. Dharma & YRF know the business of filmmaking inside out. They know the pulse of the audiences. Their movies make millions. They have the best sets, best scripts, best production values etc. So the odds of their movies succeeding are way higher than other production houses.

But eventually, it is the audiences who make or break careers. It is the audiences who chose to watch Alia Bhatt’s Raazi, Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania, Badrinath Ki Dulhania, Dear Zindagi, Highway, etc & made her a big star. The same audiences rejected Kalank – which was a Dharma production starring industry insiders – Alia & Varun Dhawan. Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Irrfan Khan’s movies never gross 100cr+, because it is the audiences who don’t their movies in large numbers. It is the audiences who instead decided to watch Sanju, War, Gully Boy, Bharat etc – all these films had heroes who are star kids. You may call Kuch Kuch Hota Hai or Kabhie Khushi Kabhie Gham trash, but the fact is that they did blockbuster business – because it was watched by millions. The same audiences also prefer to watch Sanjay Dutt’s films despite his underworld connections & drug abuse, instead of supporting a Jimmy Shergill or Chandrachud Singh or an Arshad Warsi.

No One Can Stop A Star’s Rise

– Nepotism has existed since the time of Mahabharata. Nepotism existed when SRK, Akshay Kumar, Govinda, etc entered the industry in the late 80’s or early 90’s, it exists today & it will exist till the day Bollywood ceases to exist.

– It is the audience who makes or breaks a star. It is the audience who throng the cinemas & make the film a hit. The same audiences who don’t watch a particular movie & make it a flop. There is hard work involved in every movie. The audience is ruthless when it comes to loving/hating a movie or a celeb.

– Govinda was from a middle-class family from Virar. He could not speak English, nor could his wife. He has no godfather in the industry. He still was a top star throughout the 90’s despite not bagging a single YRF or Dharma film. He stopped getting movies because he was he became unprofessional & not because YRF or Dharma or someone else banned him. He thinks people ganged up against him, but that’s not true. All his latest films are big flops.

– Kartik Aaryan too was a star long before Dharma offered him movies. All of Kartik Aaryan’s hits have been with producers who are no way connected with Dharma or YRF. Dharma works with stars. The star’s religion, parentage, fluency in English doesn’t matter. If some blind items are to be believed then Karan Johar doesn’t like Kartik Aaryan either. But he will keep making movies with Kartik till the time his movies are hits.

– Aayushmann Khurana has starred in a string of hits. His debut film – Vicky Donor was neither produced by Dharma nor YRF. It was only after Vicky donor was a big hit, that YRF offered him a contract. He has since starred in a string of hits, none of which were produced by Dharma nor YRF.

– Akshay Kumar survived for the longest time without starring in a Dharma or YRF. After starring in Yeh Dillagi & making a guest appearance in Dil To Pagal Hai, he was not seen in a YRF film for the longest time, till Tashan. He too gave a string of hits in movies produced by other lesser-known producers. Kesari is probably his first association with Dharma films. Karan Johar signed Akshay Kumar because he is a star, despite being an outsider.

– John Abraham – an outsider too starred Dharma’s Dostana. He also starred in YRF
s New York. Both were hits. He was later not considered for Dharma nor YRF projects when his movies started to flop. His being an outsider had nothing to do with him not being considered for projects.

– Vivek Oberoi is not the only celeb whose career Salman has tried to destroy. Salman also tried to destroy Ranbir Kapoor, John Abraham, Shahid Kapoor, Arijit Singh etc. But apart from Vivek, all of the other stars still are part of the industry. Just like how Salman could not destroy the careers of these stars, Karan Johar or Yash Chopra too can’t destroy someone’s career. One should see the attitude that Arijit Singh threw at Salman Khan at an awards function. One can’t disrespect a celeb of Salman’s stature publicly & not expect blowback. Salman is no saint. Anybody in his position would have done the same to Arijit. Arijit still continues to get several songs every year.

– Salman has produced several films for Sooraj Pancholi, Aayush Sharma, Sohail Khan, Arbaaz Khan, Daisy Shah etc but none of them have been accepted by the audiences. All of them are considered to be flop actors.

– Shraddha Kapoor too broke her contract with YRF, to star in Aashiqui2. It has been years since the movie released. But Shraddha is still doing well.

– Nawazuddin Siddique was a building watchman in Delhi. He has made it on the basis of his sheer talent & hard work. He probably is not as intelligent as Sushant nor is he as polished, but Nawazuddin Siddique has made a space for himself in the industry. He continues to thrive despite not being seen in Dharma or YRF movies.

– SRK is the biggest example of an outside making it big. He made it by being shrewd enough to work on YRF projects for a pittance until he became a big name. He later continued to charge YRF a pittance as their association led to huge hits, which was mutually beneficial. He instead charged other producers his market rate. He also made his money by dancing at weddings. He was smart enough not to get on Aditya Chopra’s bad side. SRK -an outsider, was the one who had a huge role in making Karan Johar what he is today.

– Ajay Devgn locked horns with YRF right from his debut. He is a superstar despite never having worked with YRF & taking them head-on. He has won every box office clash with YRF. He has worked with Dharma only one movie project.

– So it beats us when people say XYZ was the one who destroyed someone’s career. The most powerful person in Bollywood at any given point of time, can affect a celeb’s career by 50% at the most. Nobody can stop a hard-working, talented celeb from achieving success.

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