With Kangana Ranaut declaring war on Hrithik Roshan, it seems she may have ticked off his name, and many others, from her list of possible co-stars.
Ajay Devgn, Salman Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan, Sanjay Dutt... these are some of the A-listers who have discreetly moved away from Kangana’s range of casting, leaving the coast clear for her to work with actors like Imran Khan, Vir Das, Rajkummar Rao and R Madhavan, whom she has already worked with.
Priyanka Chopra is probably sailing in the same boat.
In spite of her superstardom from Mumbai's Bandra to Hollywood's Beverly Hills, Priyanka is apparently blacklisted by Akshay Kumar, Salman Khan, Aamir Khan, Ranbir Kapoor and Shah Rukh Khan.
The only A-listers who are happy to be paired with PeeCee are Hrithik Roshan and Ranveer Singh.
Of course, there is nothing official about the ban on these two female superstars.
This is a good time for the two actresses to consider the future course of their careers. Given the complete domination of the male superstars in Bollywood, can Kangana and Priyanka survive without male patronage?
On one hand, they may be congratulated for making their own careers without any support or godfathers.
But on the other hand, how far can a leading lady go unless she has the superstars on her side?
Mumtaz and Sharmila Tagore, two of the biggest superstars of the 1970s, benefited from their association with the baap of all superstars: Rajesh Khanna.
Jaya Bhaduri did a host of good films with smaller co-stars like Anil Dhawan and Vijay Arora. But it was her pairing with Amitabh Bachchan that really made her a star.
Zeenat Aman piggybacked her stardom on Dev Anand’s patronage.
Hema Malini, the biggest female superstar of her era, had every male superstar cast opposite her.
The rules haven’t changed since then.
Deepika Padukone is equally at home working with Shah Rukh Khan, Ranbir Kapoor and Ranveer Singh.
After Katrina Kaif’s fall-out with Ranbir, she is looking forward to working with her ex-boyfriend and mentor Salman Khan again.
Given the scarcity of co-stars, Priyanka has made her move into Hollywood at the right time.
But what will happen to Kangana's career?
Will she attempt to mend bridges with the co-stars who make a difference? Or would she be happy being the Queen with a king-sized chasm to fill?
