LN#26 : Don’t become an Actor, become a superstar.

The first thing that you have to do right now once you have decided to choose acting as your career is to make sure what you really want to become-

Do you want to become an actor or do you want to become a superstar?

Confused. Yes, you should be. Most actors I meet in Mumbai never accept that they want to become an actor, leave apart superstar. They are so embarrassed being called an actor, like it some sort of a curse word. I understand actors are usually looked with contempt because few of them would go to any lengths to get work and are mostly unemployed but being embarrassed is not the solution. There is also a prevalent belief among most people that actors are brainless. That is why most actors I have met in Mumbai unless they are in an audition, are afraid to identify themselves as an actor.

However, it is very necessary that you take pride in the profession that you desire to get into. Start calling yourself an actor right now. Get a business card printed and keep it in your purse all the time.

Again, coming back to the previous question.

If you want to be an actor, it’s good. If you want to be a superstar, better.

Say it loudly and never be embarrassed by it.

Normally most actors want to become a superstar but they hide behind more diplomatic words like “good actor”. Deep down we all know what every actor’s dream is — to become a superstar.

Both, being an actor and being a Superstar celebrity is not the same no matter how much you like to believe that.

If you want to become a serious actor, join the theatre, learn the nuances of acting and then come to Mumbai and begin doing character roles. You can also join NSD or FTII and start your career from there, however, the struggle of auditions won’t change. It will help you initially by giving you some contacts inside the industry.

Like contacts of people who were your senior in FTII or who visited FTII. You will be happy to get few roles in films and TV and if you are lucky you might end up becoming a lead actor like Rajkumar Rao in few films (chances of which are minimal) but then that’s it. You might never be accepted in mainstream cinema properly as you will always be cited as a good actor.

To become a superstar, you don’t need that much training in acting. Don’t take that in a negative manner as it does not mean that acting as an art is a fluke. You need training but you should not overdo it.

Too much knowledge will actually ruin your chances of becoming a perfect master of the craft. Saying that, again, I don’t mean that you should not get some professional training. Any kind of training is always going to help you in becoming the master at your craft. But you get to know how to handle that training. I have met so many lost souls from the Film industry who think of themselves as super intellectual, who believe that nothing ever matches their idea of perfection. Indian Cinema is shit for them as they have grown on the doses of auteur cinema where shots are slow and background music is virtually non-existent, and the pace of the film is so slow that you have to slog your way till the end of the film.

Yes, Yes, I understand I will be called a film illiterate by such people and I will be blamed for not having the sensibilities for understanding the good cinema.

Well, fuck that, because what I care more is the success in any field rather than becoming a critic or philosopher.

By the way, have you seen any philosophers lately? No, not those found on the tea stalls smoking cigarettes but the real ones with actual knowledge and degree.

Exactly. It is an extinct branch of study and no one pays you for your philosophy anymore. If you want to be an intellectual philosopher, try blogging or writing, don’t come into acting.

If you pick up the number of actors from theatre, NSD, BNA, FTII and other film institutes and compare them to those who have never been to any film institute and are successful, you will be amazed by the stats because the ratio will be heavier on the latter side.

Does that mean that film schools are no good?

Wait. I didn’t say that either. I was just presenting you the stats.

Film schools are good but only when they give you the right training. Most film schools are confused about what they want you to become. The problem is that most film schools concentrate on acting while the students want to become a celebrity like Shahrukh Khan or Ranveer Singh.

That is the conflict of interest due to which when a student comes out of film school, he feels that he doesn’t know anything about how to get work. He is clueless about how to fight in the over competitive world of Film acting. He is taught acting but he not made aware of how to perform in front of the camera such that the audience falls in love with him. He lives in the assumption that since he has paid money to a film school and spend months there, so he knows everything about acting. But then he doesn’t get work and can’t understand why.

Everyone wants to become an actor because of the perks associated with it, not because they want to be called a good actor. Well, of course, there are exceptions but even those exceptions want money to survive in a super expensive city called Mumbai. Film awards are not given for acting excellence either, they are rather given on the parameters of the popularity of actors among the people.

First of all, stop being ashamed of who you want to be. If you want to be a superstar then accept it and be proud of it. There has to be no shame inside you for calling yourself a superstar or desiring to be a celebrity. Anupam Kher would any day replace himself with Shahrukh but do you think for a moment that Shahrukh would do the same. No, right. Though we all agree that Anupam Kher is a better actor than Shahrukh.

One of the actors I met during an audition idealized Anupam Kher and wanted to become like him. Guess what, he ended up doing — small character roles and no marks for guessing that he never moved up the ladder. The acting was a job for him for his inability to do anything else. Don’t choose acting as a last resort in your career. It has to be your first preference or don’t come to try it.

Choose your idols carefully. If your idols are wrong, you will end up in the wrong place. However, there is nothing wrong in admiring non-hero actors like Anupam Kher, Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri but I reckon if any one of those is living in the same expensive bungalows like Shahrukh Khan or Amitabh Bachchan.

So, what does it takes to become a superstar? Should one never try to learn acting?

No, that’s not the answer. Like any other art, acting needs to be learned as well. When people say that they think acting cannot be learned, they are ignorant fools who like to say quotes that do not make any sense. What they mean to say is that acting can be learned but it does not guarantee a lead role in a big budget movie or a lucky break striking you to make you a sure shot superstar.

You must learn acting but along with that, you have to keep your life goals clear as well. I don’t care from where you have learned the art of acting but from all that learning chose which information you want to keep and which information you don’t want to keep.

At acting schools the only things you need to learn is this :

• How to face the camera.
• How to remove your shyness.
• How to perform in front of lots of people.
• How to express yourself physically.
• How to talk slowly, take right pauses and control the modulation of your voice.

Beyond this, there is nothing that you need to learn in the name of acting.

But this is not easy. It takes a lot of practice which you can only get when you join a film school or a theatre.

If you want to become an actor who will win people’s heart from his acting skills, want people to say what an actor you are but at the same time, you don’t care about the money that a film is making or how much popular it is, then this write- up is not for you.

This article is meant for those who want the audience to fall in love with him, irrespective of the character they are playing. This article is written for those who want people to get so crazy about them so much so that they line up outside his house to get his autograph, to search his interviews online and makes his videos hit the million mark the moment they are released on youtube. This article is for dreamers and not for pessimistic reality seekers.

There is a secret recipe for becoming a good actor which I will reveal in my blogs soon, so keep following me and read more of my writings. That secret has a key to open the doors for you but the process of acquiring it must go through its designated steps.

Don’t hasten and don’t lose patience. It never works. Just do what you are doing but always remember who you want to be.