What is the current aesthetically appealing male/female Bollywood archetype in your view?
Someone reached out to me because of another post I made about how the hard "angry young man" (AB) fell out of demand in favor of the soft "chocolate boy" (3 Khans) and gave me the idea of make a post about it. So we are trying to find out what appeals as the archetypal male or female star of current times. So in your view, what kind appeals to you? I will start so you have a sense of what I am asking... This is about aesthetic to have audience pull, we are not talking about talent. What I was arguing in my other message is that in a visual medium, you have to pull an audience with the flavor of the time (say chocolate boy appeal) before they come in and judge your talent in the cinema.
For me, as non-Indian American who was introduced to Bollywood through SRK:
Male archetype of a hero that would have audience pull - over 6 foot, sharp features, playing an ethical character, has talent (last bit, I am keeping out of scope of argument here). I don't want him to be a misogynist, I don't need him to be cute. For example, young Aamir Khan is the type of cute that really does nothing for me to go buy tickets. I have only seen a couple of his films, like Lagaan which I can appreciate as a good film. I thought Mangal Pandey was a great film, but really didn't like him in it, for me Toby Stephens was the actor who was great in that one as someone with a great character. Junaid Khan however fits my archetype much better. He has conservative good looks that's not very sexualized or in your face. I think he needs to play a character like Mr. Darcy (Junaid's publicist, if you are seeing this...). His first period film role suited him very well for this reason too, it was a gentleman's character. I haven't watched a Bollywood film in a decade honestly, save two SRK films (bad), HTP (charming), and English Vinglish (a solid film), but when I saw Junaid on Netflix the other day, I clicked. So, he fits my archetype in the same way SRK of Devdas did back in the day. Then, I saw Junaid acts quite decently and thought, let's see what he can do. I am not against nepotism if it's a Hrithik or a Junaid, but I can't stand it for most others like Abhishek, if I am being honest. Conversely, I don't watch actors just for being tall or chiseled, I have never bought a ticket for an Akshay film, honestly. So it's archetype, plus characters they play and how.
Female archetype that would have audience pull - for me there hasn't been any woman in recent times who was as completely a star as Kajol or Rani or Aishwarya. They are very feminine women and have a look I like. I think Aishwarya though is the only actress who played the kind of period roles I like to watch, so I would watch a historical fiction because she's in it. Like I went to see Jodha Akbar in theaters (quite rare for me here) because she and Hrithik were playing archetypal characters for me. In the current lot of actors, I often cannot tell them apart for both men and women and it's not because of race! Maybe Bollywood has a type now that doesn't fit my archetypes, but I feel a lot of them try to look the same also which wasn't the case before. They model themselves on Kardashians which shocks me because here Kardashians are seen as talentless marketers who banked on Kim's sex tape and silicones. I watched the beginning of Archie out of curiosity because it was on Netflix and I didn't know until the middle when I checked out that there were two boys playing two different roles! I can't stand to watch any of the kids that feature in Bollywood Wives or even Aliya. It's not about looks, they are just very vapid. Literally, I won't watch a film if it has Aliya in it, she has negative appeal for me. I only saw a part of Gangubai for SLB and thought SLB has lost it. Deepika is okay, but quite lackluster for me in a period film like Padmavat.
That's just me. So what is the current archetype of the Indian audience? What do they like? It's not like my likes will make a difference, I am not the typical audience. But yours will. Do up vote it so we get a lot of responses to see what they have in common.