Where have the quintessential Bollywood villains gone?

In the upcoming film Dhoom 3 Aamir Khan is slated to appear in a new avtar that of a baddie Itrsquos pretty obvious that hersquos playing a key role in the film despite being on the wrong side of law But is he your quintessential Bollywood Bad Guyu00a0And while we are at it do our films have terrifying trembleinducing baddies at all these days Aamir Khan will portray a negative character for the first time in Dhoom 3 So far Manoj Bajpai has starred opposite Amitabh Bachchan in three films In all of them the former has played characters with grey shades while the latter essayed righteous men If one takes into account Bajpairsquos last 10 releases he has portrayed villainous roles more often than not So is it safe to assume that this talented actor in particular could very well be the poster boy of what evil stands for in films Prem Chopra was rather in famous for his negative roles Not really Though his Sardar Khan in Gangs of Wasseypur possessed the evil of a baddie he doesnrsquot really terrorise you His reach seemed limited to the rustic town he inhabited Compared to him Gabbar Singhrsquos sinister laughter echoed beyond Rampur thus pushing the threshold of Sholay A similar impact resulted from Amrish Purirsquos Mogambo in Shekhar Kapurrsquos Mr India Much before him stalwarts such as Pran Prem Chopra Jeevan and Ranjeet ruled the antagonistic roost with eacutelan They were capable of doing anything onscreen from assassinating the herorsquos mother to raping his sister to maiming him without even caring to blink However as time passed by these characters started disappearing On the contrary the leading actors were allotted more arm space And by the beginning of the 21st century the bad guys systematically turned into endangered species Amjad Khanrsquos Gabbar Singh raised the villainous bar a notch higher Perhaps every little thing in cinema is just another phase Sadashiv Amrapurkar used to portray ruthless personalities in his heydays Now when he looks back he quantifies what really happened ldquoIn earlier films there was a heavy dose of banawat artificiality in the way a villain led his life He was very different from a common guy and the efforts exposed this fakeness Today you see a lead actor playing negative roles without much of an afterthought and even the villains are closer to realityrdquo explains the veteran actor who once even portrayed a vile eunuch in Sadak 1991 In retrospect such heinous characters seldom greet us in Bollywood products nowadays The most acceptable excuse would be the changing era At least Prem Chopra believes so ldquoEarlier the film revolved around a structure where a hero ought to have an opposing force Now not only the film writers but even the cinemagoers have started reasoning why should that be in movies when real life is far simpler This need of justification has gradually worked against the villainsrdquo points out the gentleman because of whom Prem became an undesirable name for babies The audience despite their persuasive silence have indeed played a part in this transformation By the end of rsquo90s the days of dreadful scoundrels were numbered Shakti Kapoor witnessed this change first hand as he was often seen in roles that demanded lechery as well as sophistication ldquoThe bad guys of those days were larger than life Who wants to see unnecessary rapes happening on the big screen Or for that matter who would like to see a villain in unbuttoned shirt showing off his gold while throwing attituderdquo asks the actor who later switched to comedy Speaking of which evil guys on the big screen at present are usually reduced to caricatures This peculiar trend gathered strength once Bollywood started taking South remakes way too seriously Prakash Raj is a prime example of a character actor who is seen in buffooneryfilled negative roles in Hindi movies In other words the slot for a real villain appears empty not fully occupied However Jaaved Jaaferi who was recently seen in a negative role in the Ranbir Kapoorstarrer Besharam prefers to speculate ldquoToday detailed villainous characters are rarely written and on top of that itrsquos generally refused by Alist actors Therersquos a reason why a SRK or an Aamir would rather play somebody with a grey personality Theyrsquoll never be your bloodthirsty evil guy who will kill or rape at will We have a long way to go before wersquoll watch top actors willing to don negative roles without qualmrdquo says the 50yearold As far as qualms are concerned newcomers seem to care less about their lsquoimagersquo Best known for his disturbing performance in Bejoy Nambiarrsquos Shaitan Gulshan Devaiah has maintained a steady filmography In almost all his movies till date he has essayed someone who is not your everyday good guy In fact his very next release is Sanjay Leela Bhansalirsquos RamLeela where hersquos again playing the antagonist So doesnrsquot he worry about being stereotyped ldquoI can understand the prejudices that certain actors might have against certain roles But I donrsquot subscribe to the thought process or the complex attached to it To me every character has to be different from the ones Irsquove portrayed earlier and as long as that criterion is fulfilled I donrsquot care whether my role is of the protagonist or the socalled villainrdquo shrugs Devaiah Maybe hersquos right Itrsquos all about perception When Gulshan Grover earned the sobriquet of Bad Man due to his choice of work he was merely providing a voice to the way an evil guy was pictured in those days The veteran actor who will be next seen donning a negative shade in Tigmanshu Dhuliarsquos upcoming Bullet Raja offers a stoic point of view though ldquoWhatrsquos happening in the society is eventually picked up by a film writer Like it or not cinema reflects reality In the rsquo70s rsquo80s and rsquo90s the villain looked and sounded different However he still holds a temporary edge over the protagonist and thatrsquos what makes a story excitingrdquo If cinema indeed reflects reality Bollywood films are clearly overlooking reality in the country The real world villains unscrupulous politicians and depraved godmen for starters ironically have a massive fan following But is our cinema displaying them in that manner How many films portray them Apparently the real challenge is to include them into a story Once that happens itrsquod be easier to understand why Bajpairsquos characters are somehow more restrained than Shakaalu00a0