Bollywood film industry is one of the leading film industries of the world with an audience reach throughout the globe. Although, the Indian film industry is the collaboration between different regional film industries within the country, the Hindi film industry, internationally known as Bollywood, stands out from the others and is always considered as the face of Indian cinema on the global front.
Completing more than 100 years of its existence, the Bollywood film industry has entertained its large group of audience with films from all kinds of genres. Other than being one of the largest film industries in the world, Bollywood is also one of the leading industries in terms of releasing films year after year. Although Bollywood is known for its larger than life cinema, songs, and dance numbers, one thing is often common with every Bollywood film.
Almost each and every character in the film is inspired by real-life professions in India, especially the main protagonist or the main lead cast of the film. While Hollywood depends on Superheroes to save the day, Bollywood has the confidence in the power of a normal human being, even though a bit exaggerated.
Today, we are going to discuss these popular professions played by the main lead of the film in Bollywood cinema.
Highly Famous Character Professions Seen in Bollywood Films
Police Officer
The No.1 on our list of popular character professions is the Police Officer. The character wasn’t explored in the early days of cinema but it got its peak during the 70s and 80s. Amitabh Bachchan got the title of Angry Young Man after acting as an honest and strict Police Officer in his first hit film Zanjeer. After Zanjeer, he reprised his role as a Police Office in several other hit films such as Parvarish, The Great Gambler, Dostana, Suhaag, Khakhi, Shehenshah, Inquilaab, Aakhri Raasta and many others.
He was remarkable as a Police Officer in the films. Another actor, who played the role perfectly, was Akshay Kumar in some of his hit films like Main Khiladi Tu Anadi, Mohra, Khakhi, and few others. Jackie Shroff wasn’t far behind either as he donned this character in some back to back hit films during the 90s. The popular ones among them were Ram Lakhan and Izzat. The role of a Police Officer was highly dominated by the Actors; however, there were a few iron ladies in Bollywood who played the part pretty well.
College Student
Bollywood films are often woven around romance irrespective of the genre of the film. And, the best place for a budding romance was considered to be the college during the 90s until the new millennium. Many romantic films, as well as action films, were based within the college campus and the main lead cast were often seen playing the role of young college students.
None of the actors dominated this character as one must look young to play a college student and the actors lose the youthfulness after some years. Yet, a few actors played the character of a college student perfectly in films like Dil, Khiladi, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Shiva, Jaan Tere Naam, Tezaab, and many others.
Also Read : Movies about Friendship and Friends
Singer/Dancer/Performer
As explained earlier, Bollywood films are highly based on a screenplay that includes a romantic angle. And, what’s a romance in Bollywood films without songs and dance? Well, almost every main lead character in Bollywood films are portrayed as trained singers and dancers, yet there are also specific characters developed for the professional singer, dancers or performers as well. You can read our post about Best Movies about Music and Musicians.
One of the iconic examples of this can be seen in the 1990 film Aashiqui, where the main lead Rahul Roy played the character of a struggling singer, who helps his love interest played by Anu Aggarwal to become a model. Besides that, there are many other films where the main lead played the role of an artist, mostly a singer, and the plot of the film revolved around that character. Some examples are Amitabh Bachchan in Yaarana, Hema Malini in Naseeb, Rishi Kapoor in Karz, Rina Roy in Asha, Mithun Chakraborty in Disco Dancer (1982), and many others.
Soldier
There’s no real life hero better than a soldier. Hence, it is pretty much logical that several characters in Bollywood films are based on soldiers. Take the 1997 film Border for instance. There’s no better actor than Sunny Deol, who played an Army Major in the film.
Another actor, who dons the role of an Army man, is none other than Sunny’s father Dharmendra. The veteran actor has played the role of a soldier in films like Haqeeqat (1964) and Lalkaar (1972). Akshay Kumar has also played the character of soldier well in films like Sainik (1993) and Holiday (2014).
Although the tough character is highly dominated by Bollywood action heroes, it hasn’t been the same all the time. The current king of romance, who launched his acting career playing a young soldier in Fauji, has portrayed the role of an Indian soldier in blockbusters like Main Hoon Na (2004), Veer-Zaara (2004), and Jab Tak Hai Jaan (2012).
Bandit /Dacoit
Well, who can forget the iconic character of Gabbar Singh played by Amjad Khan in one of the legendary film of Bollywood, the 1975 Sholay. There are bandits or dacoits played in Hindi cinema before and after Gabbar Singh, but none of them got the same response or popularity as the ace villain of Bollywood cinema. The legend of this character was also followed in several films within songs, dialogues, costumes, and many other ways.
Not just in the villainous role, but the character of Bandit or Dacoit has been portrayed by the main protagonist of the films as well. The 1978 film Saugandh starred Amitabh Bachchan as a dacoit. Action hero Dharmendra is known to have played a dacoit in many different movies throughout his career. Some of the formable mentions include the 1982 films Badle Ki Aag and Rajput. Seema Biswas as Phoolan devi in Bandit Queen and Irrfan Khan as Paan Singh Tomar.
