Pop singers love to try their hand at acting, but some of them really shouldn’t:
Mariah Carey
All natural and unshowy, Mariah Carey was a genuine revelation in the film ‘Precious’ (2009). But sadly, no one has made it more than three minutes into ‘Precious’ without running out of the theatres.
Eminem
To be fair, he has only ever really played himself-although a mumbling, monotone version, in ‘8 Mile’. But playing yourself can be harder than it looks.
Jennifer Hudson
Nobody could have guessed that an American Idol reject would win an Oscar for her raw performance in ‘Dreamgirls’. Or, admittedly, follow it up with a drab role in the ‘Sex and the City’ film.
Britney Spears
It’s easy to pick on Britney Spears for starring in ‘Crossroads’ (2002), but that’s because watching ‘Crossroads’ was like performing dental surgery on yourself with a tinfoil drill. Her place here is well deserved.
Rihanna
Rihanna wasn’t given an awful lot to do in ‘Battleship’, but she still managed to fail hopelessly. Your mum, given the chance, could grunt at a Transformer more convincingly.
While in Bollywood…
The trend of musicians taking up acting has not been a success, even when it comes to our desi singers. Musicians like Himesh Reshammiya, Sonu Nigam, Lucky Ali and Shruti Haasan have all fizzled behind the camera, despite trying their luck as actors in films like Aap Ka Suroor, Karzzz, Jaani Dushman, Kaante, Sur, and Luck, respectively.
Pakistani singer Ali Zafar has been the only success story, both behind the mic, and on-screen as well, with films like ‘Tere Bin Laden’, ‘Mere Brother Ki Dulhan’ and ‘London Paris New York’ to his credit.
