A break in Bollywood is termed as a dream come true. Interestingly, on one hand, some actors have to struggle years to get a break in films like Nawazuddin Siddiqui while some fortunate actors get a break without pains for instance children of popular stars like Sanjay Dutt or Sunny Deol, both sons of popular actors Sunil Dutt and Dharmendra respectively.
Thus the important thing is not a break but the ability to sustain a place in Bollywood. Every day, millions of aspiring actors land in Mumbai dreaming of a career in Bollywood. Many are rejected and only a handful seeks entry in Bollywood but the percentage of actors who sustain stardom is alas quite less. Every Friday, actor’s fate is decided at the box-office but only those survive who are gifted, have a strong conviction and a level head to uphold stardom. This week, IFH (Indian Film Industry), takes a look at some of the actors who made marvellous debut with one hit film but failed to make it big in Bollywood!
Vijay Arora, an FTII Gold Medalist was one such actor who made his debut with the 70’s Golden Jubilee hit movie Yaadon Ki Baaraat (1973). In this film, he played the lead hero opposite top actress of the 70’s Zeenat Aman. Even today, people remember Zeenat Aman but alas, the handsome hero Vijay Arora is forgotten. Tragically, he died an unsung death on February 2, 2002, in Mumbai.
Besides, Zeenat Aman, Vijay Arora was paired opposite another top actress of the 70’s Reena Roy in the famous director B.R. Ishara‘s hit movie Zaroorat. Surprisingly, both Zeenat Aman and Reena Roy became top stars, Vijay Arora went into oblivion. In the mid-70’s Subhash Ghai, tried to revive his career with a cameo role in his film Gautam Govinda but the film failed thus ended the career of Vijay Arora in films. Towards the 80’s Vijay Arora got a pinch of success after he played the famous character of Inderjit in Ramanand Sagar‘s TV serial Ramayan that was shown on Doordarshan and was a huge hit.
Another handsome actor from FTII who made a grand entry in Bollywood was Vikram. He made his debut with the mega-hit film Julie (1975) directed by B. Nagi Reddy. The film fetched him roles with big banners like Raj Khosla‘s Sankoch (1976); B.R.Chopra‘s Beta (1982); Ramanand Sagar‘s Prem Bandhan (1979); Anil Ganguly‘s Daasi (1981); Rajkumar Kholi‘s Jaani Dushman (1979); Devendra Goel‘s Aadmi Sadak Ka (1977) however, none of his films were a success. He turned to B-grade action films and ruined his career!
