Actors that seem to do the same roles in all their movies.

Where else do you get to live a thousand lives and experience a thousand experiences if not in films. You are allowed to feel hundred different emotions in a scene and can go on a journey of an unknown destination. This is the beauty of being in front of the camera. In no way is it easy, instead it is quite the opposite. Breaking your ethics and principles for playing a negative character or smiling even when you have got your heart broken and making it all seem believable on-screen is extremely tough. We have seen a lot of actors experiment on-screen but there are also a lot of actors that are very comfortable in their own space doing what they have been for a long time.

Let’s go back to the very beginning. Earlier on actors were always type cast in a specific role and never felt the need to experiment. If you want a police officer in your film, the producer you would go to Ajay Devgn and if you want a romantic hero, you would go to Shah Rukh Khan. These things happened a lot and still do till date. One of reasons was because, the actor always had an edge above their female counterparts. The stereotypical “Hero” would save the heroine, would have the maximum dialogues, would do the action, would sing and dance do. The actresses were left to wear glamourous clothes and blush at everything the hero said. The actors never felt the need to experiment because they had everything on their plate.

On the other hand, actresses did start to experiment with roles quite early on. For example, Smitha Patil in Mirch Masala or Tabu in Chandni Bar. The actresses had to take up different parts just to show that they are much more capable than just playing the romantic interest. Actors have started experimenting, yes but there are still some actors that take up scripts as per their comfort as they are too scared. They have a fear that the audience might not like them in a new avatar. 

Let’s take the example of Akshay Kumar. He is without a doubt, an incredible actor but he has created a niche for himself and he likes sticking to that. If we look at his previous films like Mohra or the Khiladi series, he established himself as an action star and those were the movies that he was most comfortable doing. Then came a time where he was comfortable with the romcoms and he did films like Mujhse Shadi Karoge and Kambhakt Ishq. Now, he is stuck onto doing either patriotic films like Kesari and Holiday or social issue films like Padman and Toilet-Ek Prem Katha. You will not see him experimenting a lot with dialects or ethnicity. He is comfortable making a certain set of films and he sticks to those.

Another example is Ranbir Kapoor. Again, a fabulous actor yet not very experimental with his choices. He loves playing a boy-next-door character and he plays that to perfection. In films like Wake-up-Sid, Yeh Jawani hai Deewani, Tamasha, Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, and so on, he has always played a very likeable character. Of course, there are films like Barfi and Rocket Singh, but the ratio is quite low. We have not seen him play a negative or a very complex character as yet. 

A good script can take you a long way but a great character will make you immortal. This is a reason why now a lot of actors have widened their horizon and taking up challenges that will test them and their skills. It takes a while for any actor to find their comfort zone and even if stick they to that, its fine until the script is able to take all the pressure of being amazing and incredible.