Is there a mainstream anymore?

Kabir Bedi among the most introspective actors Irsquove spoken tomdashafter over 50 years of being in cinemaentertainmentmdashtells me why he feels his colleagues are the most insecure lot yoursquoll know Firstly the fame they achieve as a result of their profession is ephemeral by nature It fades necessarilyTwo they deal in storytelling an emotional product with nothing quite tangible to itmdashfor you to tell how itrsquoll be received or discarded Sure those stories indeed even fantasies add something to peoplersquos lives But if they donrsquot theyrsquore uselessAlso I guess it doesnrsquot help that one is rapidly deemed God by masses when it comes to popular cinemamdashgiven the size of actors as they appear on a giant screen reducing audiences to bhakts looking up The lead actor is called star The movie is where the line at a cinema ismdashand it starts from the starrsquos posterhoarding at the doorNow you may think rightly that these traditional stars receive adulation disproportionate to their contributiontalentskill But the fact is itrsquos this star system as it were thatrsquos defined mainstream for at least seven decades in moviesmdashenticing public towards a story being told with the star as a gravitating mediumFor the longest cinemas therefore stars had no competition at allmdashby the rsquo80s it was the haystack rotating at appointed morning afternoon evening timeslots turning into the Doordarshan logo for a couple of hours of entertainment to followThe only real competition came in the same decade though when video cassette players became affordable to middle and upper classes and they pretty much quit going to cinemas as regularlySome of the brightest filmmakers moved to television Lower income groups became chief patron of entertainment in theatres that were cheaply priced but quite stinky tooWhat does it take to run a cinema of say 200 to a 1000plus seats That many people through the day on most days of the year to keep it packed and running The multiplex at the turn of the centurymdashwith audis for varying audience sizesmdashrendered cinemas now called lsquosinglescreensrsquo economically unviableThis is also roughly the time movies stopped celebrating silvergolden jubilee 2550week runs Why would they once the film is already out on video or TV Which of course coincided with privatesatellite television in Indiamdashsoaps and reality shows music videos and television newsWhat kinda stars did longrunning stories on TV create The sorts of Amar Upadhyay in Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi whorsquod play Mihir His exit from the show would send masses in tears But that would do little for Amar It could actively work against his career What else can he play He is MihirThat was the nature of the beast Something that Kabir Bedi discovered when like Arun Govil as Lord Ram he played Italyrsquos greatest icon Sandokan on national TV in the rsquo70s Italy went nuts over him But what else could he play in Italy thereafter to cash in on that stardom He was Sandokan for lifeWhatrsquos the key difference between cinema and television or all other screens in factmdashcellphone laptop tablethellip That you fish out money from your pocket for appointed viewing in a cinema which in turn directly funds the productmdashsomething thatrsquos true for no other media in IndiaThere is also the extreme undivided attention inside a dark hallmdashalthough of all other screens I find the cellphone right before my eyes and sound from an earphone as most immersivemdashway over TV for sure and after theatre of courseBoth these aspects define stardom One over the hard cash their films draw at the boxoffice And the fact that people are interested enough to look absolutely nowhere but at their giant projection on screen for over a couple of hours minimum Winner takes allWhat happens when the same starsrsquo films directly premiere on a Netflix or Amazon that you subscribe as a service but donrsquot pay for a particular piece of contentNotwithstanding vast advertising budgets to make the entry seem like an event stillmdashon a levelled playing field they merge with everyone else on the platform and a Jaideep Ahlawat Paatal Lok is as much a rage as Varun Dhawan Coolie No 1 if not more Thatrsquos how wersquove consumed content for a year and half during COVIDEven with theatres reopened Internet exposure Marvelrsquos ShangChi gt Akshay Kumarrsquos Bell Bottom But the cinema star without the cinema further loses sheen As you may have observed during a socialmainstream media campaign to vilify mainstream Bollywood after actor Sushant Singh Rajputrsquos death during the pandemic when theatres were shutLikewise if they land exclusively online they must commune with everybody else in the life of the Internetmdashfull of YouTube sensations that comego and influencers on social media attracting millions at one goCreating circles over circles of massive niches where you can discover a phenomenon particular to a group every day who yoursquod never heard of before Everybodyrsquos a celebrity Who then is a star you actively pay for And if there is no star what then is mainstream Thatrsquos a question quite key to when Bollywoodrsquos audiences return to theatresMayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass culture He tweets mayankw14Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper