There are some Bollywood celebs who like to shock the audience or leave them in awe with their choice of films, while others prefer to play it safe. Not many actresses deviate from their starry paths and give their nod to projects that do not feature an A-list actor. But this year, we saw an emergence of confident actresses who were willing to work with actors who had just made a foray into Hindi filmdom or were not exactly on the top of the heap...
Sonam Kapoor
The actress had two releases this year - 'Bewakoofiyan' with Ayushmann Khurrana and 'Khoobsoorat' with Pakistani actor Fawad Khan.
Sonam Kapoor and Ayushmann Khurrana in 'Bewakoofiyaan'
Ever since her debut in 'Saawariya' (2007) with Ranbir Kapoor, her choice of films and co-stars attract equal attention. Last year, she starred opposite South actor Dhanush in 'Raanjhanaa' which proved to be a landmark film in her career. She has earlier told hitlist, "I have not followed the conventional route. I have always chosen the story and the script above everything else. As far as my co-stars are concerned, it is the director's call. These choices have paid off for me." She may be doing the upcoming film 'Prem Ratan Dhan Paayo' with Salman Khan, but at the same time she features in 'Dolly Ki Doli' with Rajkummar Rao, Pulkit Samrat and Varun Sharma.
Bipasha Basu
In 'Humshakals', she had Saif Ali Khan three times over, but she preferred to steer clear of the promotions as she apparenlty felt she was just made out to be one of the girls in the film along with Tamannaah Bhatia and Esha Gupta.
Bipasha Basu and Karan Singh Grover
However, Bips has been teaming up with not-so-established names for her co-stars. She was seen with Pakistani actor Imran Abbas in 'Creature 3D' this year and her soon-to-release horror flick 'Alone' has telly actor Karan Singh Grover playing her man. At the film's trailer launch, she spoke about her co-star: "I've always had the hot guys and Karan is hot. I would give him a full 10 for the hotness quotient."
Kangna Ranaut
She earned critical as well as commercial success with 'Queen' which released in March and had Rajkummar Rao as her co-actor.
Kangna Ranaut starred opposite Vir Das in 'Revolver Rani' and Rajkummar Rao in 'Queen'
This film is now considered a defining point in her career. The actress has admitted that the projects that excite her now are different from what she used to do earlier. She was seen in 'Revolver Rani' with Vir Das and last month in 'Ungli' along with an ensemble cast including Emraan Hashmi and Randeep Hooda.
Kangna Ranaut and Rajkummar Rao
They dared too...
In the biopic 'Mary Kom', the character of Priyanka Chopra's husband was essayed by theatre actor Darshan Kumar, who also features in the upcoming Anushka Sharma-starrer 'NH10'.
Priyanka Chopra and Darshan Kumar in 'Mary Kom'
'Mardaani' had Bengali actor Jishu Sengupta play the role of Rani Mukerji's husband.
Vidya Balan teamed up with Ali Fazal in the detective drama 'Bobby Jasoos' this year. The actress has done it earlier in 'Kahaani' (2012) with Parambrata Chattopadhyay as well as in films like 'Ishqiya' (2010) which had Arshad Warsi (along with Nasserudin Shah), and 'The Dirty Picture' (2011) which had Emraan Hashmi, Naseer and Tusshar Kapoor.
No experiments, please
Sonakshi Sinha's (below) choice of films is clearly guided by who her co-star will be. This year, she was seen in two Hindi films - 'Holiday' with Akshay Kumar and 'Action Jackson' with Ajay Devgn.
She also acted in the south Indian film 'Lingaa' opposite the legendary Rajanikanth. At the risk of being repetitive, Sona prefers the conventional route of playing the village belle mostly.
Asin (below) is pretty clear-cut about her innings in Bollywood. She wants to be seen with A-list stars only. After her Hindi debut film 'Ghajini' (2008) with Aamir Khan, she has stuck to the Kumars, Bachchans and Khans as her co-stars.
She has had no release this year thanks to her self-imposed diktat.
Shraddha Kapoor (below) apparently prefers to work with the younger lot. She had 'Ek Villain' with Sidharth Malhotra and 'Haider' with Shahid Kapoor this year.
