u/UndeadReborn

I'm not saying he didn't have star appeal but compared to his contemporaries his star appeal wasn't at their level. But Anil Kapoor's acting is far above their level, like none of his contemporaries even come close, especially in emotional scenes.

If we were to draw a parallel to 90s stars then Aamir Khan is the one who doesn't have star appeal on the level of SRK, Salman, Akshay and Ajay. But unlike 80s stars in which Anil was unanimous in the acting department, over here it is definitely very close in acting between them all (except for Salman).

Maybe it wasn't a complex nepo conspiracy to undermine him but his acting was honestly poor at best. Like watch these clips and I think you'll understand what I mean.

"b-but Salman Khan can't act either and yet he became a star because he's a nepo kid"

Well it's true Salman couldn't act but he had screen presence. Screen Presence is something you cannot define but you know it when you see it and Priyanshu doesn't have Screen Presence to compensate for his lack of acting,

Also he knew right from the start who she was but he to have an extra-marital affair was very important for the "plot" lmao.

I'm definitely curious to see how far Sandeep Reddy Vanga really goes in his film career if he keeps shock value as the main priority of his films because story is definitely not his strong suit.

Akshay Kumar in Samrat Prithviraj: He was criticized for visible lack of effort, not undergoing any changes in looks and stale dialogue delivery.

Salman Khan in Sikandar: Criticized for sleepwalking through the role, low energy and general disinterest.

Aamir Khan in Laal Singh Chaddha: He was criticized for overdoing the facial expressions and dialogue delivery too much to the point that it feels fake and doesn't really connect.

Shah Rukh Khan in Dunki: He was criticized and heavily trolled for his crying scenes in this film.

Hrithik Roshan in Main Prem Ki Diwani Hoon: He was criticized and trolled for overacting throughout the film.

Add some other stars in the comments that I have missed.

Was Varun Dhawan carrying hype in those days? Yes it's a multi-starrer and all but Sanjay, Madhuri were way past their prime and Aditya Roy Kapur didn't ever really have any box office pull let's be honest. The trailer wasn't really anything outstanding. Yes, that one song was a hit so maybe that was a factor as well but other than that I think Varun was a main reason as he was at his peak at that time. Did Alia Bhatt have box office pull?

Source

Like everything is explained with a rationale so that what you are watching should feel like can happen for real. Gods should remain powerful but still in a limited sort of way.

Can this approach give a film based on those epics wider acceptance around the globe?

I believe it is Salman Khan. I don't want to debate about his acting skills, some may think he was very good but let's not pretend like his USP wasn't his looks and physique.

When you see Tiger Shroff, Ibrahim Ali Khan and so many flop nepos when they were launched all built a ripped body but forgot about the acting part. So many of them trained and launched by Salman himself.

Appearance is supposed to be the icing on the cake that is acting for a mainstream hero.

Suniel Shetty: His voice and some of his characters are kind of iconic. But he didn't get the right solo films become big hits. He even overshadowed Akshay Kumar in both Mohra and Dhadkan

Sanjay Dutt: Another actor with huge fan following for his swag and style but besides Khalnayak not a lot of his solo films really managed to capture that essence. He could've been a much bigger Star

Tiger Shroff: The collections that some of his Baaghi films did in small towns proved he was definitely big there but has lost the plot post pandemic. He needs good directors.

• Saathiya - this was Vivek's debut year and he had an average verdict Company and Below Average verdict Road at the box office before this whereas Rani had more experience and was a part of bigger hits with bigger stars like Ghulam, KKHH and Badal.
• Hum Tum - Saif Ali Khan's first "solo clean hit" of his career
• Bunty aur Babli - John Abraham had taken away a lot of the credit for Dhoom so this was Abhishek's next hit after that, by this point Rani also had Chalte Chalte, Hum Tum and Veer Zaara under her belt.
• Guru - Aishwarya Rai clearly the bigger star as she had been part of numerous big hits while Abhishek was still struggling at the box office
• Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani - Ranbir Kapoor's first hit film of his career whereas Katrina had already been a major part of Partner, Welcome, Singh Is King, Race, New York. She was an established Star Actress.
• Mere Brother Ki Dulhan - Imran had given 3 hits before this but Katrina by this point had become an even bigger star actress
• Barfi - Priyanka Chopra had her debut in the early 2000s and by this point was one of the biggest names of bollywood who had worked with all the big stars whereas this was Ranbir's only 3rd clean hit film after APKGK and multistarrer Rajneeti.
• Ram-Leela - By this point Deepika had a blockbuster debut and several other hits whereas it was Ranveer Singh's first clean hit
• Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani - Cocktail had released the previous year in which Deepika took away a lot of the credit, also she had been a part of more hit films and was better established by this point whereas Ranbir was still finding his feet at the box office.
• Baaghi - Shraddha had been in 2 Superhits (ABCD 2 and Ek Villain) and a Blockbuster Aashiqui 2 before this whereas Tiger had a hit debut

When I watch 80s and 90s movies and even some of the widely considered great dancers of that era like Jeetendra it looks more like they are doing some weird exercise and not dance. It's borderline comedic tbh, like that would be considered so out of fashion today. It's not like in the 80s and 90s it was all over the world like this, even if we had copied western style it would have looked better than whatever this is. Why was bollywood doing this?

1. Guilt trips you about your parents

2. Jimmy Shergill loses his girl to Uday Chopra, biggest YRF Propaganda

3. Tanmay Bhat grows up to look like Hrithik Roshan

There is a lot of scope for grandeur, action and adventure in this genre. Bollywood should make more of these films. They can commercialize it completely or keep it grounded. A lot of big stars have would suit this genre too. But then love stories completely took over since the 90s and it feels an utter waste of all that modern technology being wasted just to make love stories.