It is the era of alpha males on screen, many Indian film viewers have noted. What began with Kabir Singh has only been emboldened of late by hypermasculine, aggressive men, even in love stories. This has led many with rose-tinted glasses to hark back to a time when romantic leads in Hindi films were sensitive, and the protagonists of Sooraj Barjatya films – from Vivaah to Hum Aapke Hain Koun – are among those cited as examples of ‘ideal’ men. But the filmmaker himself feels that his Prem (the name he used for all his protagonists) is not much different from Kabir Singh.
Sooraj Barjatya on gentle romantic leads
Barjatya recently saw the release of his new show, Sangamarmar, on JioHotstar. The romantic drama stars Sourabh Raaj Jain and Sheen Savita Das as a couple whose love grows over 25 years despite them not being married. Ahead of the release of the show, Barjatya spoke to Hindustan Times about how the idea of love has not changed much for audiences.
He describes the lead in Sangamarmar as a romantic. “He waits for the woman for 25 years even as she is taking care of her responsibilities,” says Barjatya. Having created several such men who don’t bat an eyelid in going against the conventional ideas of machismo, Barjatya says he is often called out for not showing the truth.
He shares with a laugh, “Every two to three weeks, people tell me such a world does not exist. Don’t give us this wrong hope. Girls tell me that their parents want this sort of guy for them, and yeh banne band ho gaye hain (These don’t exist anymore). But I say jitne pehle the aaj bhi hain (they exist today too). You just have to find them.”
‘Koi itna pyaar to kare’
The heroes of his films have traded traditional masculinity for gentle love. Prem from Hum Aapke Hain Koun (Salman Khan) was willing to sacrifice his love for his family’s happiness, while the Prem in Vivaah (Shahid Kapoor) refused to go back on his word when his fiancée met a life-altering accident. But the success of films like Kabir Singh has many wondering whether audiences still want to see Prem. For Barjatya, it is not a choice of ‘either-or’. “They are representations of the same men,” he says, explaining, “Itna pyaar to kare koi (Someone must love this passionately). If you look at it, whether it is Kabir Singh, Animal, Prem, or the protagonist from Sangamarmar, but itna pyaar to kare.”
Barjatya adds, “All of them have come through the journeys of their soul. They have their own upbringing and values. But essentially, it is the power of love. I feel they are two sides of the same coin.”
Kabir Singh starred Shahid Kapoor and Kiara Advani. The Sandeep Reddy Vanga film, a remake of the filmmaker’s Telugu hit Arjun Reddy, was the highest-grossing romantic film in Indian cinema till Saiyaara overtook it last year. Animal starred Ranbir Kapoor in the lead, and was one of the highest-grossing Indian films of 2023, grossing ₹900 crore.
