2023 proved to be Ranbir Kapoor’s biggest year in his almost two-decade career. His two films pulled in a staggering 1,200 crores. But in razor-sharp contrast to his peers (including his wife) who sustain their careers by choosing better scripts or undertaking more challenging roles, Kapoor conquered 2023 by toying with incendiary populist elements. February saw the release of known misogynist, Luv Ranjan’s problematic hit film, Tu Jhoothi Main Makkar while December saw the release of known misogynist Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s problematic hit film, Animal.
In Tu Jhoothi Main Makkar, Ranbir Kapoor’s character’s love interest, played by Shraddha Kapoor, is an independent, driven woman who, throughout the course of the film, is constantly berated by his family for it and ultimately abandons her self-worth and submits to them wholly.
Like all of filmmaker, Luv Ranjan’s preceding work, his female characters are either soul-sucking harpies or marionettes who have little to no right to self-autonomy. Reversely, his men are perpetually portrayed as God’s gift to humanity.
Kindred spirit, Reddy Vanga, takes it up a notch in Animal and his other films with his female characters not only being uncompromisingly mentally subservient to their men, but also terrifyingly physically subservient to them as well. One wrong step and they get slapped on the face, or worse.
It’s obvious that Kapoor believes that, in order to sustain his film career, he is obligated to embrace toxic populist sentiments in his work, sentiments that are becoming more and more mainstream across India thanks to influencer demagogues. What he fails to realize is that even though the pay-off might be immediate – Animal alone generated a thousand crores – this will all ultimately tarnish both his reputation and his family’s, the Kapoors, Bollywood’s oldest and most beloved dynasty.
“It’s obvious that Kapoor believes that, in order to sustain his film career, he is obligated to align himself with mainstream, toxic populist sentiments.”
The actor is far from the only Bollywood actor in recent years to tap into populism to bolster his career. Has-been Vivek Oberoi took on the role of PM Narendra Modi in a biopic, Shahid Kapoor had his biggest hit ever with the deeply disturbing Kabir Singh (Reddy Varga’s first Hindi film) and Karthik Aaryan and Akshay Kumar have populism to thank for their entire careers.
But while those actors who, as opposed to Kapoor, aren’t tied to any film clans and thus have only themselves to answer to, Ranbir Kapoor is invariably tethered to his family and their unsullied, seven-decade-old legacy.
Maybe Kapoor is only going down this dangerous road to safely secure a few box office hit films and plans to steer away from it once it accomplishes its goal (which it definitely has).
We can only hope. He is, after all, one of India’s greatest living actors.
Right now though, the man is irrefutably in his toxic era.
