New Delhi: The last few months have seen several comebacks in the Hindi screen. Notably, all these have happened in the OTT space.
Here is a list of Bollywood actors who returned to the limelight thanks to sundry digital platforms this year:
Sushmita Sen: Sushmita’s is undoubtedly the most exciting Bollywood comeback this year. The former beauty queen had been a part of Bollywood hits such as “Biwi No.1”, “Aankhen” and “Main Hoon Na”, and her last Hindi outing was the 2010 film “No Problem”. In between, she did a Bengali film, “Nirbaak”. When she returned with a title role in the digital series “Aarya” earlier this year, she grabbed eyeballs again. She played Aarya Sareen, a happily married woman whose life takes a drastic turn when her husband is killed.
Abhishek Bachchan: His last release on the big screen was “Manmarziyaan” in 2018. In 2020, he explored the streaming arena for a return, and it seems to be working. After making his web debut with the series “Breathe: Into The Shadows”, he looked impressive in Anurag Basu’s film “Ludo”. His upcoming OTT release is the film “The Big Bull”, based on the life of Harshad Mehta. This month, he also appeared in the sports docu-series “Sons Of Soils: Jaipur Pink Panthers”. The series is about his kabaddi team, Jaipur Pink Panthers.
Bobby Deol: This year, the actor celebrated 25 years of his Bollywood debut film “Barsaat”, which had released in 1995. But his Bollywood career has more misses than hits. The actor got a second shot at acting, thanks to the digital domain. After starring as Dean Vijay Singh in the digital film “Class Of ’83”, he was seen in the successful series “Aashram” by Prakash Jha. His role of a fraud godman in the crime drama has been lauded by all. The web series has already had two seasons.
Karisma Kapoor: The Bollywood star of the nineties made her digital debut with the web series “Mentalhood”, which explored the multitasking nature of mothers. This was her first project that had her in a starring role after the 2012 film “Dangerous Ishhq”, which flopped on release.
Chandrachur Singh: Bollywood buffs of the nineties and early 2000s will remember him for films such as “Maachis”, “Daag: The Fire”, “Josh” and “Kya Kehna”. After a glorious start , his film career somehow faded away. He was last seen in an unheard-of film called “Yadvi: The Dignified Princess” in 2017. OTT brought him back to the public eye, when he returned in “Aarya” as Sushmita’s on-screen husband Tej Sareen.
Lara Dutta: Lara starred in many successful Bollywood films such as “No Entry”, “Bhagam Bhag”, ‘Partner” and “Don 2”. She was last seen in the film “Welcome To New York” in 2018. Two years later, she revived her career with the action comedy web series “Hundred” that presented her as a cop.
Aftab Shivdasani: He has been part of Bollywood since childhood. Many would recall him as the naughty kid in the Anil Kapoor-Sridevi starrer “Mr. India” back in the eighties. Although he didn’t quite much of an impact with “Mast”, his debut film as an adult, he managed to get noticed in hit multistarrers as “Hungama” and “Masti”. He went on to feature in more multistarrers, and then in 2020 Aftab finally made his digital debut with the show “Poison 2”. Going by the response to the revenge thriller, he definitely made the right choice.