End of the road

He appears on screen with a bang -- the messiah of the poor, the super-hero. Every dialogue of his is met with wolf-whistles from the front-benchers and oohs and aahs from the dress-circle. That was then. When the mere name of a Jeetendra, Amitabh, Mithun and Govinda was enough to draw audiences in hordes to the theatre. Cut to the present-day multiplex movies when ''heroes'' come and go on a weekly basis. Apart from a few, there is hardly any actor who can equally appeal to the movie-goer from Amravati to Atlanta. So does it mean the industry has bid good-bye to the "mass hero" -- an actor whose appeal transcends boundaries, whose every look dialogue and style is copied by millions? Yes, feel some, with a tinge of regret. No big deal, it''s time to move on, feel others. The veterans certainly aren''t happy with the trend. "These days you have only ''instant heroes''," fumes Jackie Shroff, a popular "mass hero" in his heydays. "They give one hit, and begin charging a bomb. How can movies recover their costs then?" While Jaggu dada would rather hold the "unreasonable" prices charged by actors for their short shelf-life, his contemporary Mithun Chakraborty, is more philosophical. The ultimate mass hero sighs nostalgically when he says, "Yes, we were the super-heroes..." But is quick to rationalise: "To have universal appeal, you should develop you own style -- be it in dialogue delivery, hairstyles or attitude. But film-makers and stars don''t want to take any risk. They would rather make films for multiplexes or NRIs, that can ensure returns."With films being increasingly targeted at niche audiences (college-goers, NRIs, urban elite), it''s perhaps not surprising why no actor holds the imagination of the nation the way say an Amitabh or Dharmendra once did. Naturally, the big hits have dried up too. As Madhur Bhandarkar, perhaps the foremost ''multiplex film-maker'' says, "The gap between mass and class has become very big." Experts though do not blame stars entirely for this trend. "Films with universal appeal are not being made these days," says trade analyst Komal Nahta. "Since multiplexes give so much back to the producer, they tend to ignore smaller centres. As for stars, how many have the discretion to choose the right scripts and roles anyway?"So does that mean Bollywood would no longer have a hero whose very presence is guaranteed to bring seetis from the audience? "It''s difficult to predict who will click among the new lot," says Bhandarkar. "No. We still have Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan, Salman and Hrithik," says Nahta. "Among the new lot Abhishek Bachchan is popular among the masses and classes. All he needs are a few hits." Guess it will take a Bachchan to bridge the class-mass Bollywood gap again.