THE INDIAN YOUNG & RESTLESS: CAN THEY HANDLE THE PRESSURE?
Sunday, 12th August, 2007
Modeling, movies, music, television… the players in these glamorous professions are getting younger by the day. Slouched in front of the television set, watching the latest episode of the Zee TV serial Kasamh Se, you haven’t the faintest idea what goes through the head of the actress who plays Bani whenever she does a bedroom scene. True, as a viewer, you don’t have to know. The actress is an actress after all. She has a job to do, and she must do it well.
And Prachi Desai, who plays Bani in the serial, does do her job well. You see no sign of the fact that she’s uncomfortable doing these scenes. Because, let’s face it: though Prachi plays a 27- or 28-year-old married woman in the serial, she’s actually just 18 years old. The things she must do for the part she plays are things she’s never experienced in her life.
Before you call the Child Welfare Board to rescue this 18-year-old from this situation, Prachi would like to make one thing clear. It doesn’t matter if these scenes make her uncomfortable. First, these are not her only scenes. Second - and more important she’s doing what she’s always wanted to do. Act.
Today, Prachi is just one teenager among many in the several worlds of glamour - acting, modeling and singing. Check out former child star Hansika Motwani, for instance. A lead actress at the age of 16, she romances Himesh Reshamiya, a man perhaps twice her age, in Aap Ka Suroor. Then there’s 17-year-old Abhas Joshi, a class XII student who gave up his family life and school-leaving exams when he left his home town, Jabalpur, to participate in Star’s Voice of India contest. The contest is still on, so Abhas isn’t a star, but his dream was always to make it big in the film and music industry, and he’s single-mindedly chasing that dream. At 18, model Anushka Sharma actually lives her dream.
Why not? She isn’t an inexperienced newcomer. Having started on the catwalk at the age of 14, she’s been in the business for four years.
For most people, these youngsters are just children. ‘Barely out of their diapers’ would be a bit of an exaggeration, but we’d definitely consider them much too young to make the sort of decisions and live the sort of lives that their chosen professions impose on them.
“What are their parents thinking of?”
But the glamour industry is about youth, beauty and exuberance. Because youth, by definition, is not timeless, if you’re interested in the world of glamour, you’d better begin when you’re young.
On an average People who want to model start at the age of 14. The late Nafisa Joseph began when she was 12. This isn’t a new trend in the modeling industry, but of late the age bar in television and cinema has also gone down. At 16 or 17, you are at your youthful best. So if you have the inclination and potential to make it big, why not?”
AND EDUCATION?
Why not? That’s a good question. It isn’t as though 16 and 17-year-olds are small children. In many ways, they’re perfectly capable of taking the responsibility for their own futures. And youth in the world of glamour is not new. Look at movie icons Hema Malini, Rekha and Sarika. They started acting when they were very young and here they are, apparently unscathed by the experience. The difference though, is that Hema, Rekha and Sarika were pushed into their careers by their parents to support their families. Most other middle class parents would never have done such a thing. To them - and that attitude persisted till not so very long ago - education was more important than anything else. Get a degree, they exhorted their children, and then do what you want to do.
But that attitude seems to have changed. Where once ‘understanding’ were few, now parents have become less demanding in terms of academics and more encouraging of other qualities. A child’s creative orientation has become important. So has the child’s aptitude and potential to earn. So if a child has no academic a inclinations, but has the opportunity and aptitude to do well in a glamour a or creative profession, does the Class X or XII certificate really matter?
It’s a point of view, even educationists agree with. In a world driven by professional qualifications, what sense does it make for a youngster interested in acting of to study history and geography? Isn’t going to an acting or grooming school a better idea?” But that depends on what you mean by an education and what you want out of life.
We don’t realize it then, but when we meet people outside our limited world, we understand how important those history and geography lessons were simply so that we can have a coherent and intelligent conversation. That’s an attitude few people have.
If academics simply isn’t their thing, what is the point, they say; of forcing themselves to do it? Doesn’t it make more sense to get out there and earn a living? And the living, in the glamour industry; can be a good one. Provided, of course, that you get your break.
MONEY AND FAME
Instant fame and money. It is very easy to become a star today. If you are on TV for two continuous weeks, people recognise you. It doesn’t matter whether you can sustain yourself or not. What matters is that you are a celebrity in your neighbourhood, and performing at neighbourhood functions can earn you a good amount of money
ALL GROWN UP
Not everyone can be an Anushka, Prachi, Hansika or Vineet with a career on a roll. Abhas, for instance, doesn’t know yet if he’ll get the break he wants. And while 19-year-old Arshpreet, another Voice of India contestant, has passed his class XII exams, he refuses to graduate in any ‘academic’ subject even though this is his third attempt to make it in the music industry. Instead, he’ll do music.
And can they handle the demands of the industry they get into?
It is difficult. Kids can’t take too much stress. They can’t take criticism positively. It becomes very difficult to handle a lot of situations. That’s why most youngsters in the world of glamour like to have their parents around 24/7. Supportive families make a wonderful cushion to fall back on when the big bad world becomes too big and too bad.
And yet, a lot of youngsters do know what they want from life, which is a good sign of maturity. So clear are some youngsters about their careers that they understand that some compromises must be made without a fuss. Actress Jhalak Thakkar (18), better known as Bhoomika, played a married woman on a Gujarati TV show at the age of 14, and though that meant she was perpetually on the sets and in sarees, unlike girls her age who were in jeans and at parties.
The way they talk and act, I don’t think they can really be considered kids. They know and understand so much.
