Seen Bipasha, anyone?

When some years ago, Model-Actress-Anchor Neha Dhupia openly declared that there were only two sure-fire components that went into making a Bollywood hit, SRK & Sex, could she have been thinking of sultry siren, Bipasha Basu who sizzled on screen with her sultry personality?

It’s an interesting back story. Living up to her name, which meant “dark, deep desire” and candidly admitting that Sex and the city was her favourite show, Bipasha Basu debuted with Ajnabee as a Supporting actress in 2001. It was her next, Raaz, that attracted attention and appreciation, even impressing veteran critic Komal Nahata to confidently predict a bright future for this new entrant.

It also fetched her a Filmfare nomination. On a high, the young star was quickly brought down to earth with a series of flops which convinced her that variety was not the spice of life for her and focusing on her core strengths would be the way to go forward. It was the John Abraham starrer Jism – where she plays a sexy seductress in a torrid extra-marital affair – that really rocked her to another stratosphere. Overnight, the little-known actress became B-town’s latest and hottest sensation! Alongside, her very visible public affair with hunk John Abraham made them headline material, the darling of the media and only increased the buzz, popularity and brand value around her a zillion times. So, maybe Neha Dhupia was right after all!

Unfortunately, what goes up must come down, the law of averages ensures it and Bips was next in line for this up-the-down-staircase trip. Since she relied totally on her body language as her lingua franca and connected with delirious mobs only on that score, there was no second line of defence. After success in No Entry, Dhoom 2, Corporate, Phir Hera Pheri, Race 2 and Omkara (where her Bidi jalai le & Namak Ishq ka were iconic) she became a victim of her image, a Frankenstein that both created and threatened to destroy her career.

With time, tastes, audiences and trends change and suddenly Bipasha Basu was stale news, boring and predictable, replaced by fresher, newer and younger sizzlers who could flash killer sex appeal and act too! Like all stars, Bips too yearned to be taken seriously as an actress and appeared in Pankh & Shawb Choritro Kalponik (in Bengali for the late, ace director, Rituparno Ghosh) but neither made any waves to allow entry into that segment. However, smart as she is, she weighed the options and got into a space seldom attempted by glam stars – the Horror scene ! Here, with Creature, Alone & Raaz 3, she did create waves but to most, it was both a come-down and demotion from the big bannered mainstream movies she once did.

Some TV stuff followed and then came marriage to handsome hunk model-actor Karan Singh Grover and a five-year hiatus. Now she plans to return. Can it work?

Actually, comebacks in today’s nano-second world – where brand-loyalty is rare and where the here and now is the pounding buzz-word – is a near-impossible task.

What actually went wrong with her career? Serious BB-watchers believe, a lot. Number one is image. The sex symbol tag worked wonders when she started out, but it slowly started losing its sizzle with time and she had nothing else in her shop to offer.

Then her wrong choice of movies, over-dependence on creating heated media buzz about her Johnny boy affair, doing a Hollywood movie (The Lovers) that sadly went to DTH and lost all clout, moving into a new area (Horror) meant for newcomers & losers ... today when one hears, talks, reads or sees the Bongshell on screen (in re-runs) one feels sad for the dusky fighter who confronted overwhelming odds in a fair-skinned and diplomatic industry where politically right is the stance to take, irrespective of personal opinion. But well, she did successfully carve out a niche for herself, for however short span it was. In the words of Shakespeare, the parting was well made ...

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