Saturday 13 October 2007

What does it take to be successful?


As a kid, i grew up hearing proverbs like "Hardwork Pays", "Those who work the hardest are the last to surrender" and similar ones at both home and school. I strongly believe in this until today but somehow i have got this feeling that hardwork alone doesn't do all the wonders. There is something more to it. To confirm if my thoughts are true, i am trying to compare the two top people in Tamil film industry namely Rajnikanth and Kamalhassan.

Both of them started off as just actors and Rajni until today has not donned any other role except being an actor(Of course, he wrote the screenplay for the movie Valli alone) and has been doing almost similar kind of roles for the past 20 years. What i am trying to bring in here is that the amount of effort that Rajni puts on for a movie is bare minimum when compared to Kamal.

On the other hand, Kamal tries his hand in Tamil Litreature, pens screenplays and dialogue for his movies, started a production company, got into direction, acted in Tamil, Hindi, Kannada, Telugu and Malayalam movies and more than anything, gives 200 percent to anything that he does.

If Kamal can change his look, his acting, his accent or his role and keep the audience interested (and indeed the National Award committee) Rajni with his sheer presence and dialogue delivery keeps the audience spellbound. It takes someone special to have a continual and universal fan following considering he does pretty much the same role over and over again.

I haven't watched Sivaji yet but the kind of impact it has created on Tamil audiences world over is surprising. I know a Senior PM of my company who planned to watch Sivaji on the first of day its release but due to a sudden customer visit he had to cancel his plan and was cursing the customer the whole day in front of us for visiting our campus on the day of Sivaji release. But from the reviews i read, i am sure, if not for Rajni, the movie would have been shown the door the very next day of its release.

On the flip side, a movie like Anbe Sivam sank without a trace and Kamal had put in so much effort for the movie. For that matter, the movie was not so bad to be thrown out of theatres in 15 days. And with Dasavatharam coming up, i am even more worried about its fate as Kamal himself told in a SUN TV interview to Gauthami that a film like Dasa cannot be committed just for the sake of monetary benefits.

So, whats all about the hardwork that we have been hearing for ages now? The success of a person like Rajni highlights the fact that hardwork alone will not help you achieve fame or money. So, what else is required? Is it time/luck/belief in god ? What is it?