Oscars 2022: Will Smith's Best Actor honour is a timely reminder that he remains the biggest Black star of his generation

Many might not remember but there was a time back in the first decade of this new millennium when Indian choreographer Shiamak Davar bought Will Smith onstage in a desi awards function, and made him dance to a couple of Bollywood numbers. Sure, Denzel Washington is the better actor, but when it comes to achieving global acclaim and recognition, Smith maybe paved the way for Black actors to be idolised as the ‘Hero’ long before it became natural and expected. And in an era of dreamy white boys like Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise, it was actually Smith who emerged as a truly global star at a time when Hollywood’s studios really needed one. For the longest time, it felt like Smith had left his instinctively self-reflective personality behind to clamour for approval in a world where he too believed a lifeless statuette was worth a billion people’s love. For some time now, Tom Cruise has been regarded as the last living superstar in Hollywood but for a decade or so, it was Smith, his popularity a formative structure the likes of Dwayne Johnson would inherit where the colour of his skin has ceased to matter, at least for a brief moment in American or maybe world history.