In 2019, Bollywood’s leading man is not afraid to be the sweet boy-next-door

By Salva Mubarak1 September 2019

With movies like Badhaai Ho and Love Per Square Feet, Bollywood has witnessed the dramatic rise of the approachable, sensitive man over the past couple of years, personified by actors like Vicky Kaushal and Ayushmann Khurrana

Unlike the heroes we’re used to seeing on-screen in the earlier years, the new-age leading man is the quintessential boy next door (BND). This is the guy you probably sat next to in the metro on your way back home, or the guy in your office who has an unerring supply of graphic T-shirts depicting his love for Game of Thrones. The BND does not look like he hasn’t seen the world outside his gym for a couple of months, and he probably won’t be able to send a bunch of armed goons flying in the air to protect the honour of the women in his lives. But what he can do is present a vulnerable, real, emotional side of a male character, which is just what we need in this era of toxic masculinity.

This phenomenon is marked by the rise of woke, accessible and talented actors like Ayushmann Khurrana, Vicky Kaushal, Vikrant Massey, and Rajkummar Rao. For every chest-thumping action hero, we now have nuanced male characters who aren’t afraid to show emotion and break the mould of what used to be the ‘classic Bollywood hero’. If you ask us, it’s about time they showed up. Here’s how we got here.

Bollywood and its men

Mainstream cinema has always been a mirror reflecting the culture of a certain period through movies and its characters. The representation of masculinity in Bollywood is, therefore, a product of how it’s been perceived at a given moment in time. For instance, in the early ’70s, Rajesh Khanna cemented his superstar status with iconic roles that had him playing tragic characters who are always caught in the middle of some devastating incident. It was followed by Amitabh Bachchan’s ‘angry, young man’, an aspirational persona that reflected people’s dissatisfaction with the authority and the political landscape of the country.

The ’90s were a time when the country was opening itself to globalisation and liberalisation, spawning a Bollywood hero who is worldly, sensitive and romantic, yet rooted in tradition (read: Shah Rukh Khan’s entire ’90s and early 2000s filmography).

Over the years, our perception of the Bollywood hero has evolved. Towards the beginning of the 2010, if the hero didn’t have a six-pack, would he even be considered a hero? The image of the Bollywood hero back then was characterised by tall physique, corrugated abs, and a tendency to lose their shirts regardless of the narrative’s requirement for it, just to show off the aforementioned physique.

The boy next door is here to stay

Today, movies across genres have started exploring a new form of masculinity that’s far removed from the toxic bounds we have come to accept. Ayushmann Khurrana’s recent movie choices exemplify this. He has played the role of a man with erectile dysfunction (in 2017’s Shubh Mangal Savdhan), a man who has to come to terms with his aged mother being pregnant (in 2018’s Badhaai Ho), and a man who plays Sita in Ramleela (in the upcoming Dream Girl). The central issues his characters come up against are far removed from the previously held notions of grand conflict plaguing the leading men.

Through our intense investigation (for scientific purpose only), it’s been determined that Vicky Kaushal’s appeal lies in his approachability. This is not to discount on the fact that he is good looking, and has recently got ripped for his roles in movies like Uri: The Surgical Strike (2019). But the lack of boring machismo, and the vulnerability he manages to convey every single time on screen, confirms the fact that we don’t want our leading men to be what they represented in the previous decades.

Box office gold

Bollywood’s new-age leading man has also proven to be successful at the box office. In the past year, Khurrana’s movies have grossed nearly Rs 600 crore both internationally and domestically, and movies with Vicky Kaushal in the lead have grossed about Rs 400 crores globally. The idea that a new representation of man, so rooted in reality, can fit in the narrative and prove to be a success in getting the right numbers, is proof that the boy next door aesthetic is here to stay.

To say that we’re over the toxic masculinity perpetuated by Hindi mainstream cinema of the previous decades will be a lie. The box office numbers of Rohit Shetty’s cop universe and any movie in Salman Khan’s filmography is a solid testament to the fact that we’re far from achieving an alpha male-free Bollywood. But with the widespread acceptance of actors like Vicky Kaushal and Ayushmann Khurrana, who don’t fit into the classic mould of the ‘fair-skinned, gym buffed’ hero, it’s becoming increasingly apparent that we’re finally on the right track.