Why Ugly Actors are Considered Better Actors by Society

If the title of this blog post did not shock you, the main body will try to put up some challenge. I will come straight to the point: There is a tribe which is growing stronger by the day which considers ugliness as a proof of better acting skills in Show Business (movies). If you have not thought about it before, you would find it difficult to digest it immediately. But go on and recall some of the actors who are "popularly" considered “best” of Bollywood in terms of "acting skills":

1. Om Puri
2. Irrfan Khan
3. Nawazuddin Siddiqui
4. Rajkummar Rao (Yadav)

All of these have been ugly.

Om Puri did most of his acting through his excellent (’manly’) voice while his measles’s scar ridden face looked the same all the time.

Irrfan Khan, with his swollen eyes as if he was awake whole night smoking or floating on drugs, gave same expression no matter what the movie. For example, just look at his face when he is playing a bandit in 'Pan Singh Tomar' Vs when he was playing an aspirational middle class man in 'Hindi Medium' or a Christian old man in 'The Lunchbox':

Irrfan Khan has always been hyped so much, but I wonder if he ever played a “character” he was expected to. I always find him “playing  Irrfan Khan” in each movie. When he played a bandit, he did not look like a real bandit but he looked like “Irrfan Khan in the role of a bandit”. In The Lunchbox when he played the role of a man reaching 60, he just looked like a “poorer and older Irrfan Khan”. I wonder why there has been so much “hype” about his acting skills. 

Out of these four, I like Nawazuddin Siddiqui most, because he seldom played the role of a lead character. Most of the time he plays role of a criminal, a thug, an evil man or a poor homeless man, because that is how he looks. At least he does justice with the looks he got and does not try to cheat himself or others. I like him because if he is ugly, he does not deny it. 

Now coming to Rajkummar Rao whom I dislike most, because he always does makeup, excessive hairstyling, etc as attempt to hide his ugliness. And he always gets mainstream actor roles despite being a totally misfit person for such roles. He has a “joker like” face, especially when he smiles. 

Forget about lead roles, he does not even fit into the comic roles in any of the movies he works in. In songs, he can’t lip sync well and looks so artificial. He can't dance well too. It is a pity to see our movie industry go down to the level where it can’t even fit actors into roles properly. I don't know how he gets so many roles in movies one after the other, while everyone knows that if he is in a movie, it means that the movie was made on a low budget and the producers expected it to do just "okay" kind of business.  

Social Bias

I am not alone who thinks that there is a social bias which considers ugly actors as "better actors" and makes people judge actors unfairly. You can check this Quora thread, for example: Are ugly actors/actresses better than attractive ones?. 

Due to the prevailing social bias, other talented actors have suffered since despite being more talented than these ugly actors, they did not get the same amount of press coverage. 

1. Anupam Kher
2. Manoj Bajpai
3. Pankaj Tripathi
4. Ayushmann Khurrana

I will pitch one great and good looking actor of my choice against each of the ones listed above: As per my opinion, in terms of acting skills:

• Anupam Kher > Om Puri
• Manoj Bajpai > Irrfan Khan
• Pankaj Tripathi > Nawazuddin Siddiqui
• Ayushmann Khurrana > Rajkummar Rao 

Manoj Bajpai could have played each of the roles Irrfan Khan played and would have aced those. Pankaj Tripathi could have aced all the gangster roles Nawazuddin Siddiqui played. And Ayushmann Khurrana could have done much better justice with all the roles that Rajkummar Rao (Yadav) has ever spoiled. 

This trend is not only seen among male actors. Even among actresses, we have cases like much hyped Konkana Sen Sharma who is not good looking but was always considered goddess of acting skills.

I do not think that beauty or handsomeness is a sign of acting skill, or that ugly actors are by design inferior to handsome actors in any way. I can’t be biased while attacking other people’s bias. All that I want to say is that main leads in our movies should be played by mainstream actors. The actors I listed above under “ugly actors” list did not deserve to play the lead roles in mainstream movies. One Irrfan Khan in an offbeat movie like The Lunchbox would be totally fine. But a Rajkumar Rao  won’t fit into a hip video song like this one. If a Rajkumar Rao Yadav can be the face of Honey Singh's song, then the song died long back and what we are hearing is its wretched ghost.

Bollywood's definition of charisma died the moment above movie scene was shot. Whoever casted this guy in this role should be sent to Africa to live in some tribal area without signs of civilization. 

God, bring back my Hrithik, Salman, Ayushmann and Aditya Roy Kapur. 

Only the best of Bollywood can compete with the best of Hollywood!  

- Rahul Tiwary