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iView Author:
Pankaj No 1
(Foster City, California - USA)

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Who is # 1 Hero Vs who is # 1 Actor?

I am #1 actor :) - At least my mommy knows, how I use to try hard on stomach pain, or ‘Maa I feel hot inside, its fever’ before going to school. We all are actors in some way or other.

Don’t we wear a mask always, anytime, anywhere hiding our real self and showing moods and gestures liked by others - boss, friends, and girlfriends :), teachers…

Nuff on that, coming back to my PFC tune and discuss who # 1 hero Vs # 1 actor is. I know it’s a very broad yet subjective matter, so let me narrow it down - from Hindi movies and from main stream cinema.

Many names will come up and we can debate on that list, like who is on the top and why, why not etc. My point is different - actually we need to understand that HERO is mere a label given by us - we-viewers, plus media. First of all, actor and hero are not only two different terms but have different meaning and aspects. An actor can be a hero, a hero might be an actor but we rarely see combination of the two. Hero is a tag given to a character/man in the story, where as an actor is anyone who acts.

BUT the biggest confusion we people have created by using the wrong word in wrong place or in wrong context. We have been saying Dilip Kumar is the best hero and actor so far - that is right but wrong too. Dilip kumar saheb is first an excellent actor, and then he was hero of the time. Point to understand is that he was not only one actor or hero at that time, in the same era we have Dev Anand, Raj Kapoor, Rajendra Kumar and many others. When we say best hero, we should know that hero is just an instance of the actor class, in a certain period of time. So then we should talk about actor - Who is/was the best actor? You will get the answer later on, keep reading :)

If you look at history of Indian Cinema - there has always been one Hero of the time. KL Sehgal - Ashok Kumar, Dev Anand - Dilip kumar - Raj Kapoor, Rajendra kr – Shammi Kapoor, Dharmendra - Rajesh Khanna, Amitabh - Vinod Khanna, Anil Kapoor – Sanjay Dutt - Jackie Shroff - Sunny Deol, Shahrukh - Aamir - Salman all were once hero in their career time. As I said we forgot the difference between a hero and an actor. There were many actors (all good) at all the time in the film industry, but we forgot them in lieu of hero. Hero that we liked for his mannerism, his style, his one or two type cast played characters but not necessarily for his acting skill, dialogue delivery, variation on characters played, or a robot material being controlled by the script.

Ok so here is my feeling about it - those days when we really use to label someone as # 1 hero; ARE GONE. One of the reason is: earlier we-viewers were having very limited resource to know about the actor/hero like newspaper, news, magazine and movies. Now a days we know each and every step of our beloved one additionally through internet, TV and continuous ads and news on them and hence our judgement on them includes not only their acting skills but all their other acts as well. Now we have many different ways of measuring them i.e. whose movie made more bucks at box office and abroad, runs longer, who is hit, is endorsing what product/service, is celebrity on some live TV show, i.e. who is popular - not for his acting skill but just popular on other aspects… thanks goes to

1. Media
2. Non-cinema related businesses whom en-cash on hero label for their dumb (not all) products and services
3. Again all of us to encourage and support such drama

All this have resulted in labeling more the one guy as hero. This label is being shared between many in present days. Fact is that there were and are always more then one HERO in the film industry, media played a big role in making someone famous and few other not so famous, irrespective of whether they were/are good or not.

Let us talk about actors now. I remember I use to argue with my parents and other elders that Amitabh is better actor then Dilip kumar - now I know - that my feelings about Amitabh and my argument meant so much to me but was pointless for my elders. Today with my age and experience over Hindi movies and hero/actor - if you ask me who was the HERO of the 70’s - I will reply Amitabh, but ask me who was ACTOR and my reply is Sanjeev Kumar…interestingly not Amitabh, not even Dilip kumar or Rajesh Khanna. But again Sanjeev Kumar is not the only choice; again a list is there with me. Also please note that this is very subjective, and won’t match with your choice.

Its not that I was a kid, and I didn’t know who is the best actor vs. best hero and simply always liked ‘Amitabh‘, no, he is an excellent actor and a real hero as well. Actor because anyone can feel the depth of characters he played, he wasn’t Amitabh in Diwaar, Chupke-chupke, or Abhimaan, he was only a character from the script, one can really relate to the characters done by him (in 70’s), and Hero because in that era nobody was delivering the expression, gesture in a manner that Amitabh was (and is still). His presence on the screen meant too much, watch movies like Majboor, Manzil or even Mili where he was having a very small role. Amitabh in 80’s and onwards became larger then life material, he is and was always natural in his acting but our movie standard went down and didn’t utilize his skills properly. I admire him more then anyone else but… talk about # 1 actor of the 70’s, and as I mentioned above he is not the only choice.

Actual question is: Can we really limit our choice to just one? I don’t think so; I have a list with many names in it. I think you all will agree to this point.

This labeling stuff has been there is past, we carried it but now I think things are changing (or should change) I don’t see a clear cut winner for this label, no more. I like this era, good for all of us, and many other upcoming players. SRK is famous, # 1; but not on acting graph. Try it out, gather 10 friends, toss his name as # 1 hero you will get 4 different answers, favoring different hero of this time. Ask again about real actor not hero, and I doubt you will get SRK’s name there. I have seen a team divided/split as 50-50 or 60-40 over Dilip Vs Amitabh, and got only these two names, but now a days take two actors and you will get those two names only from 50% of the people you ask, and those are also not 50-50 but have a mix reaction like ‘yeah SRK is good not like Aamir‘ or ‘yeah Aamir is too good but for a typical kind of role/script’.

It is good (my opinion), good for all of us, good for industry and for upcoming talents. It gives a fair chance to everyone. This will result in an actor not being type cast as Amitabh once was. Scripts are not written for one, but a script looks for an actor best fit. Producer-director has more control over script then - hero of the movie. This produces actors instead of brand ambassador for a product/service. We will get more Nasiruddin and Om Puri, I am day dreaming…it seems. Anyway for the same reason I don’t like cricketers promoting some product. Have you ever seen Anil Kapoor advertising for anything? He followed this rule till now, no ad for any commercial product/service, I like that, respect him for this act. Many approached him for ads, he refused saying I am well known as an actor, I don’t want to spoil that. But that is his theory. You may ask why Amitabh indulged in so many ads - answer is circumstances - Amitabh passed the actors era, then hero ship era too, he enjoyed it all to the best (like no one else), then fell into bad debts, realized that money is required for his survival and status, so he used his only skill as a medium to get on track.

Back to the topic, who is # 1 Hero today = no one = all are = not a single name = doesn’t matter. Who is # 1 actor today = not a single name, and which is equivalent to past. Long back there was no one single best actor, forget about filmfare or any other award, look at those awards as something that motivates the players, we hyped this label too much in late 70’s, 80’s and 90’s, now we are back to where we were, no more labeling, no one is #1…enjoy movies with actors and not only heroes.