Here Is Why Kartik Aaryan Is The Star Of 2021

It was said about  Rajesh  Khanna, the greatest biggest most  spectacular   superstar  of Hindi cinema  that  men women and children  from the age  of  6 to 60 loved  him.

 The spectrum was actually  much wider.I knew  4-year olds who clapped their hands when Khanna, for whom the epithet ‘superstar’ was  coined, waltzed  on  to  the screen. I see the same  kind of  across-the-board acceptance for Kartik Aaryan.

The  other day I saw a 3-year old girl Amyra  who is  generally a  very solemn child  break into a giggle  and a  dance when she  saw Kartik on screen  dancing to some song called Coco Cola.Amyra’s mother sighed, “I think  Kartik is Amyra’s first love. She  laughs and dances every time she sees  him on screen.”

 Here  let me  hasten to  clarify that  ‘screen’ now means  the home screen.When  we said ‘screen’ during Rajesh Khanna’s era  we meant the bada purdah  from the  era  of lights camera and  action.

I think children recognize  genuine  warmth on screen and in real life  a lot better than  us  adults. I remember my daughter Lata  was only  12 when she first met a  female superstar who  during those times,  claimed… no, INSISTED, that she was a part  of my family and that  my daughter  was her  younger sister.

“I don’t need  a younger sister, thank you,” Lata told me sternly.  Luckily the female superstar  was not in hearing  distance.  Come to think  of it, that superstar, now married and  lost in her own media-made bubble,   is   not a  part  of  my life in any way  now. But the point here,  children  have to love  a star  for him  or her to be durable.

Another  female  superstar , this one  with her roots  in Great Britain acted so weirdly with my daughter and my niece and  nephew , she  immediately pissed them off.  Firstly,  this  superstar  ignored the kids throughout  the  conversation. Finally when she spoke to them she said just one line. “Would  you guys like some  chocolate or  something? I’ve some  but  they may have worms in them.”

Quite a ‘worm’hearted encounter which my   daughter never forgot and hated  watching this  superstar  on screen specially  because at the end  of our tortuous encounter the  superstar  went and plonked herself in the hero’s lap right in  front of us.

If this is how  you behave with  children who have come to meet you, then  lady, you  don’t deserve your stardom.

Another actor who had  a great connection with children  was Sushant Singh Rajput. Once  some close relatives  of mine were in  Mumbai and  keen to meet him.Sushant made  time for them. Took pictures with them, played the  guitar for them, although  they  had  reached Sushant’s beautiful residence late and he was  getting late for his  next  appointment.

It is said that children are the closest to  godliness.I  don’t see any  actor  from the  newest generation bonding with the bachchas  except Kartik Aaryan.