Ranbir Kapoor, who’s been lying low and feeling low since his father took ill, must’ve been relieved that he didn’t have to exult over a trophy for his outstanding performance in Sanju, which was overshadowed by Ranveer Singh in Padmaavat. What lingers is that a bunch of new heroes and character artistes got their due in 2018. How many recall that the year began with Akshay’s face-saving bullying when he got Sanjay Leela Bhansali to address a press conference appreciating him for shifting his Padman to avoid a clash with Padmaavat? For that matter does anybody remember that Bhansali had to change his original title, Padmavati? He can’t be the new age Manoj Kumar forever.Īnd antics are so easily forgettable. But he too can keep breathing only by changing the content and milieu of his films. What got called out was not audience intolerance to ageing heroes, it was to aged subjects.Īkshay Kumar fared better, with Padman and Gold (the third is 2.O).
However strong the PR and trade machinery, even Rajinikanth was put on the mat with Kaala (flop) and 2.O (still huffing and puffing). Perhaps Salman too will show his acting chops in roles that go beyond shirtless action sequences.īut 2018 has not been an indictment of only the three Khans. So it’s not going to be a tough transition for these two. The much-lauded King of Romance has done some fine work even when he’s not spreading out his arms, in films like Chak De! and Dear Zindagi. He’s script-savvy enough to know that Lagaan was yesterday, Thugs of Hindostan is today. But he has to get rid of wanting two girls panting for him forever. It took him two years to accept the face in the mirror before he metamorphosed with films like Mohabbatein, which were commensurate with his age.Ĭan the three Khans do it? Aamir can, he did it in Dangal, in Taare Zameen Par. So are the three Khans finished? With all three having set up production houses and honing their business sense, they are going to be around longer, with one major change apparent for quite a while: finished are those halcyon days when fan-craze could carry each of them through the opening weekend and make bank balance bloat irrespective of the content.Īmitabh Bachchan went through this phase when he did a bunch of awful films like Lal Baadshah (1998). The year thus heralded the “old order giveth way” kind of scene.