Bollywood is a flop at the box office. With two months left for 2018, the report card is in. It has been a terrible two quarters for the film industry with only seven films out of the close to 70 Hindi films released between April 1and September 30 (A and B category) making it to the ‘hit’ category.

2017 has been the year of the sleeper hit (Hindi Medium, Bareilly Ki Barfi, Hindi Medium, Shubh Mangal Savdhan, Newton). It was also the year we discovered the Khans were not completely invincible and could no longer guarantee a hit film (When Harry Met Sejal, Tubelight). Amidst all that gloom and doom the only ray of sunshine that emerged were superlative performances by a young crop of actors, some of whom have only made a recent debut on the big screen. Each of them has had their own unique journey towards the arc lights but they all embody that quality of complete convincibility that makes it impossible for anyone in the audience to look away.

Raj Kumar Rao, 32
Rao debuted in Love Sex aur Dhoka as a convenience store employee, who tricks his colleague into a sexual encounter that he secretly records. In the years that followed the ace actor appeared in an eclectic array of films. More recently, he stole the show in Bareilly Ki Barfi, playing Pritam Vidrohi with consummate ease.
Breakthrough Role:
Rao caught everyone’s attention and won the best actor National Award for his portrayal of Shahid Azmi, the Mumbai lawyer and activist, in Hansal Mehta’s biopic Shahid. (2013). Azmi was wrongly accused of terrorist links and was shot dead by gangsters in his office in 2010.

In Focus:
Rao stars and shines in the political satire Newton (2017) in which he plays Nutan Kumar, an Election Commission of India official who tries to organise peaceful polling in a Naxalite zone. The film premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival in February to great acclaim. In October it was announced that Newton will be India’s official entry for the Best Foreign language category at the Oscars.
Actor Speak
“After seeing success nothing much has changed in me as an actor. Since the day I started out, I always wanted to be part of good stories. The only thing that has changed is that now I have options of good stories to choose from.  I have never compartmentalised films. For me, they are about stories. We are now at a phase where the lines between the two (commercial and parallel cinema) are diminishing… this is an interesting time to be in Indian cinema.”
What’s Next?:
Omerta and Bose , in which Rao goes bald in order to portray the Indian nationalist icon.
Stand-out Acts:
Love Sex aur Dhoka, Gangs of Wasseypur, Shahid, Queen, Citylights, Aligarh, Trapped, Bareilly Ki Barfi

Ali Fazal, 30
Born in Lucknow, this Doon School alumnus made his screen debut with a small role in the English language film The Other End of the Line (2008) before appearing in the American television miniseries Bollywood Hero (2009). Fazal has been in everything — from a special appearance as Joy Lobo in the huge Bollywood blockbuster 3 Idiots — to a role in the sleeper hit Fukrey. He has received critical acclaim for his acting chops and held his own even against talent powerhouses like Vidya Balan in 2014’s Bobby Jasoos.
Breakthrough Role:
In Victoria & Abdul, Ali plays the lead role of Abdul opposite the great Dame Judi Dench. The film tells the 130-year-old story of the unlikely friendship between Queen Victoria and her Indian servant Abdul Karim. The film premiered at the 2017 Venice Film Festival, and is Fazal’s second Western film, after 2015’s Furious 7.
In focus:
Fast and Furious
Victoria and Abdul
What’s Next?:
Fazal will feature alongside Kalki Koechlin, in Soni Razdan’s Love Affair, a fictionalised version of the 1959 Nanavati murder case. In addition, he will star opposite Shriya Saran in Prakash Raj's romantic comedy Tadka.
Actor Speak
“Two years ago if you'd asked me whether I want to be a superstar, I'd have said yes but now, I'm not so sure. I feel like I'm lucky to be part of this bandwagon of change, bridging the gap between world cinema and the way our films and our content is changing for the better. I don't know what I have to or want to be, but one thing's for sure: I won't let myself get stuck in a rut.”

Vikrant Massey, 30
“I’m not a trained actor. I have neither read acting books nor gone to acting school. But I have certain fundamentals on how I approach a character, the basic skeleton of my preparation is based on observations from real life, Because I did good work, I have graduated from being the hero’s friend to a hero."
Breakthrough Role:
In Konkona Sensharma’s directorial debut, A Death In The Gunj, Massey plays Shutto, a sensitive misfit, who comes from a small village in West Bengal. With his sad eyes and appearance in a few haunting scenes Massey walked away with all the praise in this ensemble film.
In focus:
Lootera
Dil Dhadakne Do
Half Girlfriend
A Death In The Gunj
Lipstick Under My Burkha
What’s Next?:
Massey’s next is a project called Pujya Pitaji that goes on floors by the end of this year, besides a digital venture that he’s just finalised.

Ayushmann Khurrana, 33
For Khurrana who grew up in small-town Chandigarh in the nineties, in a middle-class family that valued education above all else, wanting to become an actor was out of the question. Years later Khurrana was working as a well-known RJ in Mumbai and auditioning for film roles simultaneously. Luckily for him director Shoojit Sircar was casting for Vicky Donor, a film on sperm donation. Sircar spotted Khurrana on an MTV show and felt his face could translate innocence and honesty on screen, qualities essential to ensure the film didn’t turn into a crass, below-the-belt- comedy. The film was the sleeper hit of 2012 and the rest is history.
Breakthrough Role:
As Vicky Arora, the aimless Delhi boy, who falls in love and marries a Bengali without telling her about his past as a sperm donor. Despite a small budget, the film became a major commercial success and received critical acclaim. Khurrana also composed and sang the film’s popular hit song Pani Da Rang.
Khurrana has even turned author. His book Cracking The Code traces his journey from small-town nobody to Bollywood star. In the book Khurrana reveals how strenuous even stardom can be and how his new-found fame had once distanced him from his wife.
In focus:
Dum Laga Ke Haisha
Shubh Mangal Savdhan
Bareilly Ki Barfi
What’s Next?:
A film directed by Sriram Raghavan which Khurrana says belongs to an “entirely different genre.”
Actor Speak
“We tread the path we choose but life changes gears. In the last five years, I have seen success as well as failure. My first movie did phenomenally well, the next film was okay and third one was a flop. Success is a lousy teacher but failure is a friend, philosopher and guide.”

Sushant Singh Rajput, 31
In a short but interesting career, Rajput has managed to carve a niche for himself. Hailing from a middle class family in Bihar, Rajput studied engineering in Delhi before leaving the course midway to pursue a career in acting. He enjoyed huge success as a TV star before making the transition to the silver screen.
Breakthrough Role:
Despite a tendency for MS Dhoni: The Untold Story to lean towards being a glorifying biopic, Sushant Singh Rajput’s delivered a sensitive portrayal of a restrained process-oriented Dhoni and his inspiring journey.
In focus:
Kai Po Che
Detective Byomkesh Bakshy
What’s Next?:
After the dismal failure of Raabta, Rajput will next be seen in Abhishek Kapoor’s Kailash. This is a much-anticipated project as it also the debut film of Sara Ali Khan, the daughter of actors Saif Ali Khan and Amrita Singh.
Actor Speak
“There are only three things in the world: atoms, spaces between atoms and opinions. Criticism or praise are just opinions. They need not be right or wrong.”

Jim Sarbh, 29
Most movie-goers recognize Jim Sarbh as the hijacker from Neerja, while theatre-going Mumbaikars know him for his 22 stage performances. The grandson of gallerist Kali Pundole, Sarbh was born into a Parsi family in south Mumbai and has trained as a psychologist from the US.
Breakthrough Role:
Sarbh debuted in films with a gritty role as the hot-headed hijacker Khaleel in Neerja, who demands the audience’s attention with his quiet menace. But it was his flawless Arabic that made people really sit up and take notice when they realized he was not a foreigner.
In focus:
A Death In The Gunj
What’s Next?:
Sarbh has a pivotal role in the much awaited Padmavati.
Actor Speak
“As an actor I should be able to convey my characters’ dilemmas to my audience. If it’s time for them to feel sad, they will feel sad. If it’s time for them to feel happy, they will be happy.”
Dev Patel, 27
Dev Patel started acting as a teenager in the British TV show Skins but it was his role in the Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire that made him a global star. That film opened doors and Patel has since essayed a range of roles including as a finicky hotel manager (The Second Best Marigold Hotel) and a genius mathematician (The Man Who Knew Infinity).
Breakthrough Role:
Slumdog Millionaire catapulted Patel to fame and this year he was nominated for a Golden Globe for the emotional depth he displayed in his role as Nicole Kidman’s son in the true-life adoption saga Lion.|
In Focus:
The Man Who Knew Infinity. Based on a true story, Ramanujan is a low-level Indian clerk who's plucked from obscurity by Trinity College mathematician G.H. Hardy (Jeremy Irons) and invited to work with the world's top minds at Cambridge, where he pioneers some of the most groundbreaking mathematical theories of the 20th century.
What’s Next?:
He is current shooting The Hotel Mumbai – about the attacks on the Taj hotel in 2008. He’s also writing a hyper-modern action film, based on 5,000-year-old Hindu mythology, set in a heightened Bombay – an anthem for youth.
Actor Speak
“The great actors I’ve worked with have a curiosity about life, a sense of humour and emotional reserve. I never went to acting school. Everything I’ve learned, I’ve learned from great directors and my co-stars. Acting is about honesty. When I began, I was trying to squeeze as much emotion out of roles as I could and get big laughs. Now it’s about doing less, cutting away the fat.”