From Ramp To Reel: Model Actresses Ki Sexi Kahani!!: Unpacking Bollywood’s obsession with models and the evolving debate on talent versus glamour, Monojit Lahiri investigates this contentious issue with purists and bhakts going tongs and hammers at each other!

This article explores Bollywood’s long-standing fascination with models transitioning into acting, examining the tension between glamour and talent. Featuring insights from industry veterans like Waheeda Rehman and Prasad Bidappa, it questions whether cinematic storytelling is being overshadowed by visual appeal, while highlighting the marginalization of trained actors in a spectacle-driven industry.

Bollywood’s enduring fascination with models transitioning into acting raises debates about talent, glamour, and the evolving demands of cinema. While icons like Deepika Padukone, Priyanka Chopra, and Anushka Sharma have proven their mettle, critics argue that prioritizing looks over acting skills undermines artistic integrity.

Veteran actresses like Waheeda Rehman highlight the importance of emotive prowess, sparking discussions about the role of film schools and theatre in grooming true talent. As Bollywood embraces models for their visual appeal, the industry faces questions about balancing star power with authentic histrionics. Is cinema becoming more about spectacle than substance?

The Glamour Versus Talent Conflict
One outstanding fact triggered this subject conversation I had with the beautiful and gifted veteran Waheeda Rehman some time ago. Waheedaji’s observation (regarding this subject) was interesting. While she admitted that today’s heroines were truly hardworking, focused, and ambitious, she noticed an exaggerated emphasis on looks, glamour, and sex appeal. This, she felt, distracted from the main intent because it threatened to devalue the importance of emoting and histrionics, the soul of any memorable performance, as well as the significant contribution theatre and film schools can make.

It was indeed a very revealing comment and offered much food for thought. Coming to think of it, from 1970-71 when the sexy Zeenat Aman sashayed onto the screen inviting everyone to dum maro dum (Hare Rama Hare Krishna), till today, when the svelte Kaif hotted it up with Hrithik, models and Bollywood have always gravitated towards each other—but hang on! Isn’t cinema an artistic platform demanding a special skill-set in terms of histrionics, screen presence, and role compatibility? Shouldn’t, therefore, screen actresses be selected from theatre or film schools, which are legitimate nurseries grooming the required talent? Why are these basic facts forever ignored by the Bollywood badshahs who continue to salivate over young, new, and hot models mandated to promote dazzling artifice and loud exhibitionism?

This phenomenon invades Hollywood too, ramps being a stepping stone to success. Big names like Lauren Bacall, Grace Kelly, Kay Kendall, Jacqueline Bisset, Capucine, Anouk Aimée, Gina Lollobrigida, Sophia Loren, Joan Crawford, even the great Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, and Jane Fonda being only some dazzlers on the list.

The Pro-Model Argument
As always, there are polarized views. The pro-model camp dismisses these allegations with a flamboyant retort. They insist yesterday is history, times have changed along with the rules of the game, and Zeenat Aman, mirroring the mood of the times and swinging to the beat of a restless and directionless generation, pioneered this movement with sensational style and success.

“Film is a visual medium that is meant to connect with the masses in an engaging, exciting, and entertaining way—and boy, do these models rock? They are a feast for the eyes, and that’s half the job done, boss! Who cares about intense method acting? Dump them in those grim, dark, realism-driven movies in which looking hot and happening is a sin!” Bangalore-based, high-profile model trainer and grooming expert Prasad

Bidappa joins the party.
He insists that this issue of dismissing models has been trivialized by one section of the media, industry, and society and is totally unfair. The man who was reportedly behind discovering and promoting A-listers like Lara Dutta, Anushka Sharma, and Deepika Padukone says, “From ramp to screen in these fiercely competitive times is no cakewalk. There are plenty of models, but there are only the special and chosen few who successfully make the switch. They slog hard and long to learn this new and tricky discipline of movie acting, a planet away from modelling, and their dedicated hard work, focus, energy, and talent to adapt make them fly to new heights! Lara, Anushka, Deepika... beyond glamour, looks, style, and poise, have brilliantly fitted into the Bollywood frame—and look at where they went.” Besides, others add, in most of today’s Bollywood films, the kind of acting demanded from heroines (eye-candy, love-interest) is no big deal and can be easily picked up through observation, practice, intelligence, and focus.

The Purist Perspective
The purists are neither amused nor convinced. They lament that in today’s consumerist world, where appearance is reality and glamour, sex appeal, and looks rule, where does true talent have a hope in hell? “Brilliantly gifted actors (Konkona Sen Sharma, Richa Chadha, Nimrat Kaur, Swara Bhaskar, and Shahana Goswami, among others), rich in the critical requirements of real acting—emotional intelligence, ability to understand and play out the graph of the role to perfection, decode and absorb its essence, and claim total ownership—are never even considered by the B-town biggies obsessed with catering to the lowest common denominator. Ditto, jhatka-crazed lowest common denominator mass audiences, pampered and dazzled by the Bollywood template of glamour and gloss.”

Any wonder, add critics with a smirk, that not hospitals and schools but beauty parlours and gyms mushroom across Tier 2 and 3 cities with alarming speed. Who knows, the next PeeCee could well arrive from another small town like Bareilly and totally seduce the world with her deadly body language?!

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