What makes a great actor?
This YouTube video by Cinema Beyond Entertainment brings you a melange of Bollywood and Hollywood acting. It’s very interesting to compare how a good actor acts and how most commercial actors carry themselves on the big screen. In the video, it shows you just how stars in Bollywood act and how good actors act. Unfortunately, there’s only Bollywood featured in the video and not the other Indian film industries.
Bottom line, when you finish watching it, the good Bollywood actors that the video is calling out for their great acting are actors who not only have a theater-background before they became a movie actor but have also lived life, like Om Puri, Naseeruddin Shah, Ratna Pathak, Irrfan Khan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Pankaj Tripathi and many more. Veteran theater actors live the scene instead of just delivering their lines.
None of the stars of today or those who are superstars are called out in the video for the great acting. Actors who have lived a sheltered life or star kids who have lived a comfortable life don’t have the same life experience as actors who are known for their great acting have had. Obviously, their struggle and life journeys are both different.
Take a look at Anatomy of a Great Actor:
After watching this video, who do you think can be called a great actor in Bollywood?
Compared to Hollywood, Bollywood has a different set of requirements when it comes to great actors. They should know how to act which is broken into emoting perfectly, dancing well, fighting, romancing, and so on. In Hollywood, they don’t really do romance and dance as Bollywood does.
There are so many actors who we enjoy watching in films. Of course, the actors who make an impression on you when you are kids appear didn’t once you grow up and watch their movies.
Like, we have always liked Govinda as kids. His movies were fun in every way. Now when we watch Govinda’s films, we are amazed at how natural he is at dancing and in comedy scenes. It’s like he is living these moments, compared to just doing a one, two-step as opposed to aerobics.
We have always enjoyed Irrfan’s acting in every film of his, especially the ones before he passed. He is Irrfan Khan in these films, he adds his personal touch to every character that he plays onscreen.
Rajkumar Rao has managed to play different characters in his career so far. He had supporting roles where he was noticed and it’s been a while now since he has been headlining his own films. He has no issues acting with other talented actors which is quite rare these days because actors are always worried their co-star will steal their scene. He’s a pleasure to watch onscreen, an actor who’s there in the moment.
There’s also Rasika Dugal who has been killing it on TV so far in both supporting and lead characters. Adil Hussain and Kay Kay Menon are both actors who have been around forever. Divyendu Sharma is really impressive if you have watched ‘Mirzapur 2’. Coincidentally, we saw ‘Batti Gul Meter Chalu’ just last week for the first time and then we watched him playing Munna in Mirzapur, what a difference!
Geetika Vidya who was in ‘Soni’ and ‘Thappad’ and Tillotama Shome who was the lead actress in ‘Is love enough?’ and has done several supporting parts in many films are both good at what they do. With the parts they have chosen to play, it shows that to them the character matters more and not if they are playing lead or second fiddle which is something most actors today bother themselves with.
Who else? Share your favorites below.