Actors are "Reel" people...!!!

by Ranjit Rodricks

Those who know me well will know that I have been writing on fashion for about fifteen years. And over this decade and a half, a number of models have become Bolywood actors - like Dino Morea, John Abraham, Upen Patel and so many others. 

One actor-turned-model I have known for long is Aryan Vaid (red t-shirt in the pix). He's acted in a number of movies, posed for a number of advertisements and to top it all, he's also the first Mr. India to win the Mr. International title in the year 2000. 

Of course, with so much going for him one could well expect Aryan to be riding a high horse and be snooty like some B-Town folks are known to be.

However, Aryan is probably the exact opposite and actually goes out of his way to help people and makes them feel like they are his old buddies. 

Today, I had an experience with Aryan and another B-Towner (we'll come to him later) which left me thinking that Bollywood actos are real people too - just like you and me.

A week ago I called Aryan to be a judge for the Show Reel Film Festival to be held at Cinemax in Versova and he readily agreed - "as long as I can bring my wife, Alexandra along," he joked. 

This morning (the day of the event) I got a text message frm Aryan an hour before the event saying that he was down with a bad bout of food poisoning and had to drop out of the judging. 

My heart sank - because I had only four judges on my list - and one less would have meant an empty seat on the dias, and uncomfortable questions from the press. Not to mention the fact that I had already informed the press that he would be a celebrity judge.

So I frantically texted him back and "bullied" him into making an apperance - at least for a while. To my relief, (and probably his discomfort) he agreed and managed to sit through half the number of films that were being screened. 

And that's when I realised what a professional he was and why all his titles are duly deserved. Even though Aryan was unwell, he he made it a point to attend the festival and support the young directors and producers with his presence.   

The other young actor I called to be a judge was Mimoh Chakraborty - the son of legendary actors Mithun Chakraborty and Yogeeta Bali. I have never met Mimoh before but over the past few months, we have been conversing on-and-off over Facebook.

Mimoh (in the black shirt) is soon making his acting debut in India's first 3-D film called HAUNTED and is currently shooting extensively for it. Yet, he made time to be a judge at the Show Reel Festival and to everybody's surprise, was humility personified. He addressed everybody he met as Sir and Ma'am - regardless of their stature - and to my terrible discomfort, kept calling me Sir as well.

Well-groomed, well-spoken and well-poised, Mimoh came across as being a real person, just another boy-next-door and not like a Bollywood brat whose father was once rumoured to be India's hightest tax payer from Bollywood. 

In an industry where ego's are bigger than the National Income of our country and where tantrums can be on the scale of a full-fleged battle, it's nice to interact with two gentlemen who made me believe that actor's are - at the end of the day - real people too....!!!