A Star is Born

Well almost everyday a new star enters the cosmos of the film world. Worldover. Some shine, some are lost. Some shine for a while and then they fade out.

For over a hundred years people have been in search of stars. Film Stars.

But what makes a star? Is it just looks and poise? Or is it all about acting capabilities? Or is it sheer glamour values?

Perhaps a combination and to understand the star value we need to go back in time to understand how the stars were made.

When cinema started, there was a dearth of people who could act in front of a camera. Actors belonged to the stage. The theatre. And theatre actors did not think much of film acting for a variety of reasons. Theatre was an elitist platform, cinema was meant for lower level of people. In fact, initially, cinemas were shown in fairs as much as in India they were shown in Melas. Theatre challenged a role, a character which had to be portrayed in front of a lively crowd, who watched every movement of the actor while cinema acting was somewhat vague, at times a piece meal set of actions which were later added up in the editing room.

However, cinema was a growing business and big investments were being made for the nascent industry. They needed a set of people who would be committed to cinema and so, the star system evolved. While this process was initiated in the early twentieth century, it has returned in a different template towards the end of the last century. By then the original rules were broken, industry economics were upturned.

In the beginning there was technology and the new medium of entertainment was technology led. The equipment vendors were equally in to business and the man who invented it all, Thomas Alva Edison and his company pushed film makers to only use their equipment and play to their set rules. While investors sank money in to building studios and halls to screen the films, they also needed to control the “software”element of the business. The human actors.

These human elements, otherwise known as actors, had to be “managed” and their popularity and hype calibrated.

In fact the entire process of creating a star was actually no different from what happens today when spin doctors aka PR agencies are called in to create an image of a lesser mortal.

Shah Rukh Khan, from Delhi’s middle class Rajendra Nagar, studying in Hansraj College goes on to become SRK, the Badshah of Bollywood.

A star was born.

Courtesy : Artpickles