Importance Of Being Kartik Aaryan: The Triumph Of The Outsider

On Thursday at  my  screening of   Bhool Bhulaiya 2  I had invited   20-30  people. 200  people showed  up. There were  little kids and  their grandparents. They  had all come for only one reason: Kartik Aaryan. There was loud laughter and  clapping during the screening.

At the end of the show there were happy people  all around me. A little girl who couldn’t be  more than  6 years old came to me and said, “Uncle, please  invite me for the next Kartik  Aaryan film.”

Kartik’s popularity is beyond anything I’ve seen in recent times. His contemporaries pale into insignificance . In spite  of their peacock antics to stay in the limelight , how many of the so-called A-listers command an  actual fan following? One of them Ranveer Singh had a release last week.It  didn’t even  get an opening.

Bhool Bhulaiya 2  was  an important film , not only for Kartik. The doomsdays prophets  of dwindling profits were writing epitaphs for the Mumbai film industry. They were  talking about the ‘Southern invasion’ in much the same way as an alien  invasion. The last we checked,  South India was  very much a part  of India. So how is  Pushpa  or KGF an invasion?  It’s not like Genghis Khan plundering a foreign country.

As  for Bollywood, it has survived worse adversities  than  the  current slump.Give the patrons  what they want, and they will come  to the theatres. Bhool Bhulaiya2 proves it.

Bhool Bhulaiya2 is  not  only a victory  for  Mumbai’s much-maligned  commercial cinema ; it is also the triumph of the outsider.When Kartik Aaryan came  into film industry he was Kartik Tiwary: earnest, eager to  make  an impact and  ready to work hard.  Luv Ranjan found Kartik reaching out  on Facebook and cast him as  one of  the protagonists along with Divyendu Sharma and  Raayo S. Bakhirta.

Who  was  to know that only one  of  the trio would get a shot at stardom?  Director Luv Ranjan  had no idea  it would be Kartik. “To me he  was  as  important as  the other two. In Pyaar Ka Punchnaama I launched three heroes. I had no idea Kartik would move so far ahead.What I did know  was  that he  had the drive , the will to excel.”

Kartik had no connections in Mumbai. He  didn’t have Karan  Johar’s  or Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s phone number. He  didn’t even have their chauffeur’s number. But he had  a lot of faith in his own abilities.And he  was  willing to take the  humiliation that comes with  the struggle .He stayed in a flat with 12  other strugglers and  paid the rent by cooking for them.He has never  glorified  his days  of struggle, never  bragged about sleeping on railway station and  going  hungry  for  days, although he has experienced  both.

Stardom didn’t come  easily to this  outsider. But when  it rained, it poured.  After Bhool  Bhulaiya 2 Kartik Aaryan is  very close to  achieving his  goal  of becoming No.1. It hasn’t been easy  for the outsider.  But stardom feels so much more satisfying and pleasurable when  you have   earned  it.