Isn’t it strange how perceptions change like the seasons? This time, last year, Deepika Padukone, fresh from the heady success of Om Shanti Om, was the toast of the town. While she dimpled at awards functions, holding aloft all the Best Newcomer trophies, close competitor Sonam Kapoor was like an effete also-ran. After her debut film, Saawariya flopped and got flogged on all fronts, Sonam paled into oblivion. Even if she had walked down Linking Road at peak hour, she need never have feared that she’d be mobbed. The fact that she had no release since that flop debut almost erased her from public memory.

It was only towards the end of last year that Sonam slowly began to step out again, first by walking the ramp for designer Anamika Khanna. It was a huge hit. She dazzled like a star as she confidently flashed cleavage and wore a big, bright smile. Importantly, Sonam didn’t look one bit like a demoralised, defeated star aspirant. Thereafter, Sonam has done several photo sessions and each time she has managed to look interestingly different and unfailingly glamorous. With the promos of Delhi 6 doing their rounds, she’s whipped up enough interest around her again. There is a distinct buzz about Sonam Kapoor with her Indian, Waheeda Rehman look and her proud, even slightly arrogant, carriage.

God knows how Delhi 6 will turn out as a film but right now, Sonam Kapoor is definitely the belle of the ball. And with dad Anil Kapoor’s Slumdog Millionaire catapulting him in the headlines, it sure seems like it’s the turn of this Kapoor branch to stand under the spotlight.

Coincidentally, Sonam is the flavour of the season exactly at the same time that Deepika Padukone is tasting big-time failure. Today, Deepika’s Chandni Chowk To China has got the same kind of flak that Sonam’s Saawariya got in 2007. And, in this never-ending see-saw, while Sonam looks fresh and fetching, it’s Deepika who is looking pale, predictable and overexposed!

Of course, for some people, the status quo remains unchanged. Like the only thing about Hurman Baweja that has changed since his disastrous debut film last year (Love Story 2050) is the way he spells his name. Hurman’s second film Victory makes you want to scream, will the film industry please stop making poor clones based on the Chak De! India formula? Just because that film on hockey clicked in a big way, we had John Abraham trying to pull off a similar feat with Goal. If John failed to hit a winning goal, so has Hurman with an oft-attempted cricket theme. Why don’t film-makers realise that if Chak De! was a super hit, it was not because it propagated a sport but because it was simply a terrific, well-made film? If Lagaan and Iqbal succeeded, it wasn’t because we are a cricket-crazy nation but because they were perfectly scripted, slickly made films. But film-makers won’t give up. There’s someone now making a film with kabaddi as the background and another who has scripted a film around chess!

Somebody should also tell film-makers to please stop making movies around the film industry. Ever since Om Shanti Om which had everything you need to know about the commercial film industry, we’ve had Sudhir Mishra’s Khoya Khoya Chand (flop), Rajkumar Santoshi’s Halla Bol (flop) and now Zoya Akhtar’s Luck By Chance (which has all the ingredients for a flop). How narcissistic to think that your in-house humour and your workplace intrigues are going to perennially interest the public!

By the way, Gulshan Grover’s Mark Mascarenhas act in the recently-released Victory was first offered to Anil Kapoor. But Anil had problems on two fronts — he was the negative influence in Slumdog Millionaire and the money-mad Victory role wouldn’t have enhanced his reputation in any way. To top it, he was offered peanuts for the role. On the other hand, it was just up Gulshan Grover’s street and he lapped it up. Just as he has happily accepted the role Sunil Shetty stepped out of in Sanjay Gupta’s ensemble film Acid Factory. When Sanjay Gupta fell out with partner Sanjay Dutt and bad-mouthed Sunil Shetty’s Mission Istanbul, it was clear that Dutt buddy Shetty would never work with Gupta again. Gulshan Grover was only too thrilled to do a role that Sunil had once accepted!

Bharathi S. Pradhan is managing editor ofMovie Mag International