Stardom is not built on surface dazzle alone. True stars—those who linger in our hearts long after the lights dim—are the ones who emotionally engage us. Think of Allu Arjun in Pushpa—his raw intensity, his swagger, his emotional depth. Ranbir Kapoor in Animal—a performance so ferocious and vulnerable that it seared into the audience’s memory. Alia Bhatt in Gangubai Kathiawadi and Raazi—she didn’t just play characters; she became them. Shah Rukh Khan didn’t become the king of Bollywood because he danced in chiffon-laden romances—he became Shah Rukh Khan because he made you feel the ache of longing, the rush of love, the fire of rebellion. Even Salman, Aamir, Ajay, Akshay, and Emraan, whose personas might seem larger than life, built their stardom on something deeper than spectacle. They mattered because they moved you.
But today, we live in times that are increasingly averse to emotional engagement. The battle is no longer just between films; it’s between films and everything else. The modern audience is under siege—a multi-pronged attack on attention. A single scroll on a smartphone bombards them with dopamine hits: a viral meme, a shocking news headline, a 15-second clip designed to entertain and evaporate in the same breath. The younger generation, raised on endless distractions, finds it harder and harder to untether themselves from their screens, to sit with emotions, to engage deeply.
Cinema, at its best, is an immersive experience—one that requires patience, surrender, and a willingness to feel. But in a world that prioritizes quick over deep, fast over lasting, and fleeting over timeless, the very foundation of stardom is at risk. Stars are no longer discovered; they are manufactured by algorithms. And when the algorithm moves on, so does the audience.
So the question is no longer who will be the next superstar. The real question is—can there be another superstar in a world where attention itself is a diminishing resource? Time poverty has become the bane of the entertainment industry worldwide.
