Those who saw him as Prem Partaap Patialewale in Woh Saat Din fell for his innocence and those who saw him in Mashaal loved his intensity and his guts to stand up to the institution called Dilip Kumar.

Anil Kapoor has had a steady track record in this rat race. At 42, he has been a parallel hero to number one for almost 20 years now, never a rage but never out of sight either. He is the industry's dependable bet. He can sizzle hearts in a Mills and Boon romance like Lamhe, equally endearing as a clean shaven eighteen-year-old as he is as a graying forty year old. He pranced around in comic costumes in Mr. India and Roop Ki Rani Choron Ka Raaja and even did the disappearing act. He tried his hand at being the gruffly angry villain in the forgettable Anil-Jackie Yuddh, he copied Raj Kapoor to a T in the Swathi Muthayam remake, Eshwar ( when he should have been copying Kamaal Hasan, but maybe that was a trite difficult). He has tried being angry, very angry, in Rakhwala and sweet, very sweet, in Mohabbat with the innocent and vulnerable Vijyeta Pundit. He again burned up the screen in Meri Jung - the passion was palpable. In Jaanbaaz, he was the perfect Casanova who had a perfect fall, and he was the best Lakhan to the gruff Jackie's Ram in Ram Lakhan. He outdid everyone else in Virasat, coming in the realm of an actor like Amrish Puri, complete in every respect. Anil Kapoor had miles to go, but he is not through yet.

His heroines have been more or less steady, Madhuri Dixit with whom he has done almost half his films (both forgettable and unforgettable) and Sridevi. Khel, as a trio with the Dixit phenomenon and Anupam Kher's talent was by far one of his best comedies, while Mr. India was everybody's fantasy. He is still playing hero to Madhuri, now Nene, in an international class, Pukar. But perhaps his biggest draw has been the Ghai phenomenon, Taal, wherein he competed with Akshay Khanna and won Aishwarya. There seems to be no anachronism here, perfect grace and excellent characterization setting his role apart. In fact a few of us may have shed a few tears too when the singing star of Taal fled to her first love from the mountains. The showman just watched…

The distant cousin of the first family of films, Anil and Boney Kapoor made it big by sheer grit, but theirs is a story of successes and failures in equal measure. He doesn't feel old enough to play Kareena Kapoor's father though and would rather caper around singing "tu meri mithai" with Rani Mukherjee in his latest, Nayak.

Anil has managed to stay young, look young and behave young, despite what anyone may say or think. He has no ego, is totally professional and absolutely dedicated to his work. This is perhaps what has given him consistent popularity and his fresh, normal appeal.

Here's to the Nayak… hoping he will stay Nayak forever more.