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To be a soap king, or queen
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ROHINI MOHAN checks out those who turned up at the Zee TV talent hunt with stars in their eyes
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BOLLYWOOD STARS have all had different methods for getting where they are. But most will tell you that the secret is in finding an open door and squeezing in. In other words, grabbing every opportunity. Who knows which might be your big break? On the one hand, glitz-seasoned sons and daughters are making big, ephemeral waves, while another exhausted group doggedly climbs from the bottom-most rung of the cinematic ladder. Then, edging past all notions of notoriety and hurdles in show business, comes the talent hunt. It may not guarantee you instant stardom, but definitely provides everyone a chance to get there.
When every face on the big screen vaguely reminds you of an actor of the yesteryears, boredom with the old has made talent hunts the mantra of the day. This time, the one chanting it is Zee TV, as it searches for dude or gal who will get to act with Salman Khan, Preity Zinta and Sunny Deol. The auditions, which concluded late last night, saw aspiring actors vying for that coveted contract with Zee Telefilms. Earlier, this correspondent joined a jury comprising Vivek Deshpande and Satish Rajwade, eminent Marathi filmmakers and Ravi Rai, director of popular shows like Sailaab and Teacher, to sit through the auditions of 4,000 participants, judging on the basis of voice, performance, looks and personality.
Those who completed the audition breathed a sigh of relief and sat to wait for the 50 semi-finalists to be announced, speculating if there would be a South Indian among the final four from Bangalore. (The four, to be chosen by Vasundhara Das, Simone Singh and Kishore Namit Kapoor, weren't announced when this went to print.) Many participants hailed from Dharwad, Raichur and smaller towns and most were experienced in Kannada theatre. A city-bred 22-year-old even requested the judges if he could perform a few scenes of Dr. Rajkumar. He was instead asked to react to a situation when, he, a police inspector, was asked to arrest his own mother on charges of giving bribe! Half-way through stumbling through the heavy Hindi dialogues, the participant simply lapsed into English, with an outburst of "Why did you do it, mother?!!" The judges promised not to take language into account for choosing the finalists.
Said Satish Rajwade: "There will be no bias against non-Hindi speakers. The parameters do not include dialect or language skills. And this is the film medium... their voices can be dubbed, you know." As some participants seemed bogged down by nervousness, others like Sandhya Patnaik were confident about making it big in Bollywood. After a fantastic audition (where her tear-jerking performance made the judges ask if she had had acting lessons), she sat by her father, saying: "I think I will change my name to Khushi or Kashthi. It suits me."
On whether it was worth spending a whopping Rs.100 crore for the exercise, Sanjay Arora from Zee TV said: "A talent hunt is not new to Zee. Look at Sa Re Ga Ma, Antakshari, etc... all these are talent hunts too. But Cinestar ki Khoj provides us with a talent bank." He explained that from the 32 finalists from all over the nation, two would be given a chance to act in a commercial blockbuster, while the others would be cast in different shows on Zee TV. The finalists will be contractually obligated to work with the Zee group. "We will own those 32 people. That is a big responsibility, so we won't give them any stupid role," said Sanjay.
Photo: K. Murali Kumar
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