The chocolate boy becomes a bad man in the follow up to Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai
Bollywood can be a place where fortunes change every Friday. And once in a while, those fortunes are made by the audiences, while other times the stars themselves write their destinies. Shahid Kapoor seems to be one hero who is determined to see that his future is about success, success and more success. Once upon a time the actor was a young loverboy, smiling shyly at girls in films like Ishq Vishq and Vivaah, but soon diversified into darker, more intense characters in movies like Fida and 36 China Town. All along, his dancing skills and his boyish charm were his selling points. And then came Kaminey, in which Shahid seemed to have suddenly grown up, showing off his acting chops and his muscles in equal measure. But all along his sweet side always won out and he grabbed the attention of young women in the audience without much effort. But his next, we hear, could change all that. According to a birdie with a loud chirp, Shahid is considering signing up with Ekta Kapoor for the sequel to Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai, with a whole new gang involved. Akshay Kumar takes over Emraan Hashmi’s role as Dawood Ebrahim, while Shahid is being wooed to be the rival baddie, Chhota Rajan. We heard that Milan Luthria, director of the two films, one a hit and the other aiming to be one, has been trying to persuade Shahid to part of the new project, promising that his role will be long and important. Of course, the challenge – which is the part that we think Shahid will relish – will be to eliminate the softness that is so integral to the actor and which his face cannot easily hide, and to bring out the mean and nasty villainous side of his personality. We wait to find out more but we cannot help being pleasantly intrigued by this one…