Theres something about acting schools. Recently,. when I stepped into the campus of one such school veteran filmmaker Subhash Ghais Whistling Woods International in Mumbai,I couldnt take my eyes off the aspiring actors who were strolling around. I was struck by their body language,zeal and confidence. I observed them carefully,all the time wondering who will be the next Shah Rukh Khan or Katrina Kaif. In fact,there was a wide-eyed girl sitting in the canteen with a mop of curly hair and I thought that she could be the next Kangna Ranaut. Ghai,who was also there,thought the same. But if you go to see,its been ages since these acting schools,and there are so many of them now,actually threw up a star. Compare it to the sole Film And Television Institute of India in Pune,which has given us several star-actors like Shatrughan Sinha,Jaya Bachchan,Naseeruddin Shah,Mithun Chakraborty,Danny Denzongpa,Anil Dhawan and Navin Nischol over the years. They were not actors who were sent to the school by filmmakers to hone their acting skills. They went to the institute on their own and once they graduated,made a mark in the film industry with their talents. But today the scene is quite different. There are many acting schools all over India,but how many people,who have joined these institutes out of a sheer passion for acting, have actually made it big? Newbies,models or star-kids have enrolled themselves or have been sent to an acting institute on the behest of a director after bagging a film. But Ghais picking up talented students from his acting school and making films with them,as he has done with Love Express and Cycle Kick may set a new trend. It will be heartening to see acting schools producing stars once again. geety.sahgal@expressindia.com
