Local boys making it to Bollywood

By Lakshmi Balakrishnan

NEW DELHI, JULY 21. The girls have done it with finesse. From catwalking on the ramp to dancing on snow-clad Alps, it has been quite a short walk for the gorgeous girls of the modelling world.

It is now time for Delhi boys to put their best foot forward and progress from wearing designer fabrics to donning the grease paint. The year 2001 in all likelihood will end not just as one that saw the launch of many new faces, but one that finally had handsome men from the world of modelling make a mark in Bollywood.

And the fact that it was not Mumbai's Milind Soman or a Dino Morea but Delhi's very own Rahul Dev who finally broke the jinx should bring cheer to the city's aspiring actors. Even if ``Champion'' did not really set the box office cash registers ringing, it did launch Rahul Dev as an actor. And now with young Priyanshu Chatterjee being acclaimed for his natural acting talent in ``Tum Bin'', yet another Delhi boy seems to be making a splash in Bollywood. The coming weeks look even brighter, with local model Arjun Rampal all set to make his screen debut.

This July could well and truly have belonged to Delhi models. While Priyanshu made his debut along with another local boy Himanshu Malik in ``Tum Bin'', fans of Arjun Rampal will finally see him in a romantic role in Rajiv Rai's ``Pyar, Ishq aur Mohabbat'' due for release in early August.

Of course, the success rate of male models in Bollywood is not encouraging. Rahul Dev might have made it, but only as ``bad man'' and not ``hero''. Hence a lot is expected from Arjun Rampal. For someone who has been among the country's top ten models for long, Rampal is being looked upon as someone who might be able to do what Milind Soman could not.

But playing a model in his first film was no cakewalk for this former Hindu College student. ``There is a difference between playing a model in reel life and in real life,'' says Rampal. ``I am not playing myself in the film. The character may be a model, yes, but it is a fictitious one.''

``Tum Bin'' was a big test for 28-year-old Priyanshu. Having started modelling as a student of Delhi's Ram Lal Anand College, Priyanshu is aware of the ``bad actor'' tag that most models carry. ``The tag of a non-actor is unfair. It is a myth that models can't act.''

For Priyanshu, the experience of doing a couple of music videos will stand him in good stead. But as he himself points out, ``Modelling depends on just good looks. Acting is more of a craft which makes it exciting.''

The decision to enter films, these models say, is just as natural for men as it is for women. ``It is quite natural for male models to step into films. Ramp life is short, and after some time you need to take on greater challenges'' is how Rahul Dev sums it up.

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