If you have a sizeable friend list on Facebook and some of them are young girls in high school or college, then in the past 10 days you must have come across status messages that go: “I want to become a member of Happy Club” or “How does one get into this Happy Club?”. Well, sorry to disappoint those who run a club with the same name here in Calcutta, the Happy Club the Facebook girl gang wants to be a part of is the one run by Prem in Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani.

They all just want a piece of Ranbir Kapoor.

Suddenly, Shah Rukh Khan’s open-armed invitation, Aamir Khan’s intense-look appeal, Salman Khan’s no-shirt draw, Akshay Kumar’s gummy grin no longer does. What does is Ranbir Raj Kapoor’s charm. Straight out of the Raj-Rishi Kapoor club of oh-so-cute appeal. After Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani, there’s not an iota of doubt that this Saawariya-turned-Sid has earned the right to say Bachna Ae Haseeno. Yes, Ranbir Kapoor is the next big thing of Bollywood. And the son of Neetu and Rishi Kapoor is here to stay.

Box-office Badshah

A trade analyst will always tell you that the true barometer of stardom is the box-office opening. When the fans do not care whether the film is good or bad, they just have to catch the rising star. Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani turned out to be the fourth biggest Bollywood opener of all time. At Rs 24 crore-plus, the first weekend collection was, in fact, a shade better than Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, Shah Rukh’s biggest starter.

The other films at the top are Ghajini, Singh is Kinng, Kambakkht Ishq and Love Aaj Kal. If the headstart of Ghajini, SIK and KI bear testimony to the pull of Aamir and Akshay, for Love Aaj Kal, director Imtiaz Ali played a big hand along with Saif Ali Khan.

You can’t say the same about Ajab Prem... director Rajkumar Santoshi, whose last two films were duds, Family and Halla Bol. And while box-office queen Katrina Kaif was Prem’s Jenny, the ghazab opening is being attributed to Ranbir and Ranbir alone. “From the promos, the audiences sniffed out that Ajab Prem... is his first out-and-out commercial film,” says a trade analyst. “Saawariya was a Sanjay Leela Bhansali film. Bachna Ae Haseeno was a love story but not very massy. And Wake Up Sid was quite niche. But with Ajab Prem..., the audience has shown their prem for Ranbir.”

As Sid, the plex audience was already won over — shows were increased in Week Two, a real rarity — and now as Prem, the single screen’s also been taken care of. Plus, he must be the only hero in Hindi film history who is poised for superstardom without having landed a punch.

So, what makes Ranbir such a rage?

The real thing

Ranbir is for real, stresses fan Mridula Vohra, 22. “How many of us choose boyfriends who go around shirtless or bashing up people? Ranbir is our dream man.” No arguments there.

“With Ranbir, you are not just with an actor but also someone who is as passionate about your project as you are,” says director Ayan Mukerji, describing his Sid. “He makes you realise that you are not the only person trying to make a good film.”

That has a lot to do with what Ranbir was doing before Bhansali threw him the towel in Saawariya. He studied filmmaking at the School of Visual Arts and acting at The Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute, both in New York. “I have been practising method acting for a long time... there are elements like emotional memory which really come in handy,” Ranbir had told t2 even before the release of his debut flick.

Says Wake Up Sid co-star Konkona Sensharma: “Ranbir is a consummate actor, even though he is very young. And he is also very skilled about the technicalities of filmmaking. He has been an assistant director and that does help him as an actor.”

His Bachna... girl Minissha Lamba gets even closer to the truth. “Ranbir performs with his heart... you see the real him when he is happy, when he is sincere, when he is naughty!”

Ajab co-star Katrina Kaif sounds like a Ranbir fan, too. “I think he is fantastically talented. And he is extremely versatile. He is not ashamed to do anything... he can dance on the table in front of a thousand people.”

And it’s not just his leading ladies who have such nice things to say about him (often to girlfriend Deepika Padukone’s dislike). Ranbir’s a hit with exhibitors and distributors too. “He is so gifted... a complete natural. His acting is effortless and he comes across as someone who takes his work very sincerely. That young girls are crazy about him is not just because of his looks but the way he acts!” sums up Shunali Shroff of Fame Cinemas.

What women want

Shah Rukh Khan is 44. Aamir Khan is 44. Salman Khan is 44. Akshay Kumar is 42. How long can they the audience to be ‘idiots’ and play college kids? How long can they use six pack abs to stay cool? How long can these men pretend to be boys?

Ranbir Kapoor is all of 27. He can play the college kid. He can play the young lover. He can play the boy becoming a man. And if need be, he can play The Man.

Says a Bollywood director, on condition of anonymity: “Many scripts, which had to be abandoned because all the big names were ageing, are being revived now with the rise of Ranbir. They finally have a kid who can carry an entire film on his shoulders.”

His competition? Imran Khan is 27, too, but as Kidnap and Luck proved, it would need something really out of the box for the Jaane Tu... star to reach out to a larger audience. For a start, he has to choose the right films, something Ranbir does so very well. For every Wake Up Sid, he has an Ajab Prem. For every Rajneeti — Prakash Jha’s hard-hitting film on the game of politics — he has an Anjaana Anjaani — Siddharth Anand’s rom com opposite Priyanka Chopra.

The only man Ranbir has to fear is a certain Shahid Kapur who has tasted success in both worlds — plexes with Jab We Met, standalones with Vivah. Add to that the Kaminey double bill and you know the 28-year-old means business.

Finally, let’s hear it from the ones who matter. “He is the only one, the number one... fabulously sexy and I can still take him home to mom,” says Abhishikta Ray, a Class XI student of Ashok Hall.

Sreela Sengupta, 42, makes a case for gender over generation: “Ranbir is so cute that women my age want to both take him home to mother and be his mom!”

That, as they say, is that.

Saawariya (Raj): “I know he’s going to be a huge star so maybe I can get some mileage out of that too” — Sonam Kapoor

Bachna Ae Haseeno (Raj): “Ranbir performs with his heart... you see the real him when he is happy, when he is sincere, when he is naughty!” — Minissha Lamba

Wake Up Sid (Sid): “Ranbir is a consummate actor, even though he is very young. And he is also very skilled about the technicalities of filmmaking” — Konkona Sensharma

Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani (Prem): “I think he is fantastically talented. And he is extremely versatile. He is not ashamed to do anything... he can dance on the table in front of a thousand people” — Katrina Kaif