Actors we missed this year - 2008

Preity Zinta
Clearly, cinema's loss has been cricket's gain. Zinta showed up on screen in the arthouse flicks Heaven On Earth and The Last Lear, but we only got to see that intoxicating chirpy-happy energy on the cricket field as she bounced up and down to egg on her IPL team. A little of that merriment on screen too, please.

When to see her next: Zinta's set to star in Jahnu Barua's Har Pall, but we haven't heard anything from that project in awhile.

Konkona Sen Sharma
Koko's in cracking good form in Kunal Roy Kapoor's upcoming The President Is Coming, but the film is likely to hit the only early 2009. A shame because it's the kind of movie that makes us realise just how invaluable the Life... In A Metro actress is, and how she should be in pretty much every Friday release.

She can only make them better, really -- and yet we haven't seen her since the skippable Aaja Nachle and the deplorable Laaga Chunari Mein Daag.



When to see her next: Konkona stars opposite Ranbir Kapoor in next year's Wake Up, Sid -- and it's a pairing that automatically invokes curiousity. Marital comedy Dil Kabaddi just hit theatres, plus the actress is doing Zoya Akhtar's Luck By Chance and Rituparno Ghosh's Sunglass. So there's going to be quite a bit of Koko in the coming months, thank heavens.

Deepak Dobriyal
Loving Konkona is all very well, but most would agree that the single finest performance in Vishal Bhardwaj's masterful Omkara came from the man playing Saif Ali Khan's measly sidekick. Dobriyal has since impressed us in 1974 and was the only good thing in Shaurya. We'd definitely like to see more of this quality actor.

When to see him next: Dobriyal stars in the Mumbai-themed set of short films called Mumbai Cutting, up for release shortly. He also has Anurag Kashyap's Gulal coming right up. But his most critical role might be in Rakyesh Mehra's Dilli 6, where he is rumoured to be playing a character similar to Delhi's infamous Monkey-Man menace.

Siddharth
Former cinematographer Siddharth made a huge Bollywood splash as the most intense of the lads in Rang De Basanti a couple of years ago. Since then, the fresh-faced actor has done very well in Telugu cinema with movies like Bommarillu and Aata, and starred opposite Ayesha Takia in Vishal Bhardwaj's AIDS short, Blood Brothers.

But what happened to all those Bollywood offers that were trickling in?



When to see him next: Honestly, we're still waiting. There was much buzz around the actor after Rang De, and many deals were apparently waiting to be inked. Yet there really hasn't been much movement, and it's a shame Bollywood hasn't been more proactive about snapping up this clearly talented performer.

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Hollywood, Bollywood and also other Regional and international.