The six-pack effect
The ‘exploitation’ of the male body to augment a film’s saleability isn’t a new phenomenon, although it has never been as commonplace as it is in Hindi cinema today, writes Saibal Chatterjee

The male gaze derives ineffable pleasure from the inevitable upshot that a female eye candy delivers. In commercial movies, this art of mass seduction invariably has a happy impact on boxoffice figures. Be it the seductive cabaret numbers by the likes of Helen, Bindu and Aruna Irani, back in the 1970s, or the in-your-face item songs featuring new-millennium sultry sirens like Mallika Arora Khan. A scantily-clad hip-swinger never fails to grab the instant attention of the audience.

It is the oldest trick in the book, a sure-fire way of livening up a film when it is in danger of going limp. When a provocatively attired pretty woman struts across the silver screen, the sizzle acquires almost audible proportions and the resultant sighs that rise and course through a darkened movie hall assume a veritable ripple effect. Whether it is Kareena or Katrina, Bipasha or Deepika, Priyanka or Kangna, the formula is the same as it has been ever since Mumbai filmmakers learnt to titillate the masses with a bit of feminine skin show.

But oomph isn’t necessarily a female preserve anymore in Bollywood because the Mumbai movie industry today banks almost as much on the power of brawn and beefcake to inveigle moviegoers. Tinsel town is now populated by a battery of male superstars with eye-popping pectorals and biceps. These owners of enviably well-toned bodies possess an innate exhibitionistic streak, a trait that serves the business well.

Pretty much like the reigning Bollywood divas that have no qualms about shedding their inhibitions and clothes for the greater cause of boxoffice glory, the leading male icons of the Mumbai movie industry love to play along when they are called upon to pack a shirtless punch. It seems that no mainstream Bollywood actor worth his salt can afford to ignore the centrality of a well-planned workout regimen in his life and profession.

No less a personage than Shah Rukh Khan famously flaunted a six-pack in Farah Khan’s Om Shanti Om in 2007. Understandably, the Bollywood superstar’s fans went into a collective tizzy, as he swayed sexily to an item number composed by Shankar Ehsaan Loy specifically to heighten the frisson of the moment. The actor, his muscles glistening under the arclights and the water sprays, lip-synched his way to boxoffice nirvana as "Dil mein mere hai dard-e-disco" blared away on the soundtrack. It was truly a watershed event in the annals of Bollywood.

What the act demonstrated full-on was that an item number can be performed by a male star. "Dard-e-disco" certainly wasn’t the first such on-screen performance by Bollywood’s undisputed badshah. In 2002, he had teamed up with Aishwarya Rai to belt out the peppy "Ishq kameena" in Shakti – The Power. Wearing an unbuttoned shirt over a black fishnet vest, he matched a kohl-eyed Ash step for step. The film bombed but the song found takers everywhere. And who can forget his Chaiyya chaiyya act with Malaika atop a running train in Dil Se?

After Shah Rukh’s oh-so-hot Om Shanti Om act, Aamir Khan went one better, flashing an eight-pack in the action-packed Ghajini. The megastar’s beefed-up bare chest and pectorals, bolstered by a lawn-mower haircut, stunned his countless fans and created waves in the industry.

With the two reigning Khans having drawn inspiration from the third Khan — Salman, Bollywood’s long-time shirtless wonder — the game was bound to get more exciting in the days ahead. With more and more actors acquiring gym-toned physiques, filmmakers are egging them on to drop their shirts in front the movie camera. Shahid Kapoor and Ajay Devgn, both blessed with bodies to die for, have obliged with glee and their fans have lapped it up with a vengeance.

The hitherto cherubic romantic hero Shahid Kapoor transformed himself into a muscle-bound hunk for one of the two characters that he played in Vishal Bhardwaj’s stylised gangster flick, Kaminey. In a crucial sequence in the film, the actor bared his torso and tested his speed against an equestrian rival. It induced gasps of disbelief and gave the star new sheen.

Devgn, generally known to play intense and brooding heroes on the big screen, took his fans by surprise when he went shirtless in Golmaal 3, directed by Rohit Shetty. The star acquired a grungy look for the film and the bare-body act was an integral part of the persona that he needed to project in the comic caper flick.

Other contemporary Bollywood stars like Hrithik Roshan, Saif Ali Khan and John Abraham have built their acting careers on their smouldering sex appeal. While each is as different from the other two as chalk is from cheese, their fan followings are equally strong and widespread, especially among women.

The dashing Hrithik Roshan’s boxoffice draw stems from his Greek God looks and his powerful screen presence. He is a thinking man’s hunk, who combines the raw physicality of a Sylvester Stallone with the style quotient of a Leonardo DiCaprio — an attribute that was on full display in films like Jodhaa Akbar, Dhoom 2 and Kites.

Saif Ali Khan, on the other hand, has a certain roguish charm tempered by unwavering sangfroid, which probably springs as much from his regal upbringing as it does from his rock-star demeanour. When he started out in the 1990s, Saif was a gawky youngster, who seemed destined to be stuck in the ‘second-hero’ rut. But as time went by and he creased out the rough edges from his personality, his stocks rose steadily in the industry. In the recent years, his well-maintained physique has been used to good effect in films like Race and Kurbaan.

John Abraham is the ultimate Bollywood male sex symbol. His beach scene in Dostana remains the ultimate female fantasy. In the past few months, he tried to reinvent himself by acting in Aashayein, a tale of a terminally ill man, and Jhootha Hi Sahi, a romantic comedy. The films came unstuck at the boxoffice, forcing John to do a rethink about his future in the Bollywood pantheon. He is currently reported to be toning his physique all over again to play an action hero in the Hindi remake of a Tamil hit.

With films like Jism and Paap behind him, he was already the hottest pin-up boy this side of the Suez. That image was bolstered manifold when he starred in the Karan Johar-produced Dostana. The film had him walking around in the tight underwear, getting out of bed or emerging from the sea (in bright yellow jockstraps) a la Bo Derek, reversing the entire gender dynamism that drives voyeurism.

Talking of reverse voyeurism, the man who started it all was the inimitable Dharmendra. Remember Phool Aur Patthar? The 1966 film has a scene in which a bare-chested and drunk Garam Dharam hovers tantalisingly over Meena Kumari as she lies in bed, feigning sleep. The sequence, shot through with dollops of restrained eroticism, was a turning point for the, then, struggling actor.

It catapulted him into the big league overnight and lent him the image that set him apart from his contemporaries. In subsequent years, filmmakers continued to tap Dharmendra’s rugged and earthy sex appeal. The most notable example was the scene in Pyar Hi Pyar (1969) in which he nonchalantly perambulated around a room speaking on the phone wrapped in a towel. Dharmendra was a natural and needed no gym workouts unlike today’s stars.

A few years before Phool Aur Patthar, wrestler-turned actor Dara Singh became the first male star of Hindi films to routinely reveal his taut torso on the screen. He displayed his wares in films like Rustam-e-Baghdad, Samson and Hercules, all produced in 1963-1964. So, the ‘exploitation’ of the male body to augment a film’s saleability certainly isn’t a new phenomenon although it has never been as commonplace as it is in Hindi cinema today.

During heyday of Amitabh Bachchan, who never stripped to the bare essentials, the dishy Vinod Khanna was the hunk for all seasons, a man with a massive female fan following. His magnetism was accentuated by his height and physique, both of which were put to great use by filmmakers all through his career. Back then, item numbers weren’t the norm, but to Vinod Khanna goes the credit of setting a trend that was to be imitated by a succession of latter-day stars, including the likes of Sanjay Dutt, Akshay Kumar, Arjun Rampal, Emraan Hashmi and Ranbir Kapoor.

And it isn’t just Bollywood’s lead actors who work out for that perfect body to enhance their boxoffice impact. At least two others, Rahul Dev and Sonu Sood, possess physiques that can put many a superstar in the shade. Dev and Sood have quite a following down South, having played villains in many successful Telugu and Tamil films.

Kareena Kapoor may have had the entire nation talking about her size-zero figure, but she could never have whipped up the frenzy that SRK’s six-pack did. The new Bollywood male order is here to stay.