Years back a handsome young man was noticed for his intense'n'emotional performance in a small love story called 'Tum Bin'. The man was Priyanshu Chatterjee and he made an instant impact as a guilt ridden person who is aiming for redemption after accidentally killing another man.
The film was a reasonable success (and a big musical hit) in spite of being pitted against 'Aks' [which incidentally flopped]. The carpet was laid down for Priyanshu and it seemed that he would fill in the slot for one of the newest entrants to make a mark.
There was a lull for some period before the 'Tum Bin' team returned with 'Aapko Pehle Bhi Kahi Dekha Hai'. Though Priyanshu won hearts yet again in this frothy entertainer, the film flopped. Things still didn't look much bad for Priyanshu though as he got an opportunity to work in some high profile films like 'Dil Ka Rishta' [Aishwarya Rai] and 'Pinjar' [Urmila Matondkar]. Unfortunately none of them worked with his sole hero act in suspense thriller 'Woh' failing to find any audience.
Solace came from unexpected corners with 'Julie' turning into a runaway success by toppling the might of Rajiv Rai's 'Asambhav'. But Priyanshu could hardly capitalize on the film's success as 'Madhoshi' [Bipasha Basu] and 'Koi Mere Dil Mein Hai' followed later and delivered a turkey at the box office.
The good part though was that for each of the films, he hardly got flak for his performance. But in the world driven by box office success, Priyanshu was no more a name to count upon. This was one of the reasons why his 'Film Star' didn't even get a theatrical release and came straight on DVDs.
This weeks sees the (probable) theatrical release of Utthan (which surprisingly has already come on DVDs) and the fate of the film is quite clear already considering the movies flopping left, right and center in the last few weeks. With no movies in the pipeline with an exception of a stray 'Main Rony Aur Jony', Priyanshu is indeed having a tough time.
One just hopes (and prays) that Priyanshu finally finds his bearings in the industry and gets picked up by a reputed production house that realizes his true potential and brings him back into the limelight. After all he is a certainly not a bad actor to get lost in oblivion!
