Shahrukh Khan

I never imagined that I would devote a post on my blog to Shahrukh Khan. Many people love his movies but I'm one of those people who don't particularly like his acting, especially in movies like Om Shanti Om, Main Hoon Na, Mohabbatein. For me, my 100 bucks is better spent on books or food than watching such a movie in the theatre. But when you consider the reason for his selection of roles and the way he acts, it boils out to something very simple. He does it for the masses. People love him not what he does, but how he does it, for the intensity and the goofiness he puts in in some of the characters he portrays. While that has become, for him, a restriction of sorts, he is considered one of the most bankable stars in the Hindi film industry today.

One of the few movies in which I liked his acting, Swades, didn't do well at the box-office. This means that, Shahrukh Khan the actor and Shahrukh Khan the entertainer are totally two different persons. And one has to take precedence over the other. Further, people are likely to idolize one of these two persons.

Another reason why I like Shahrukh the person is evident in two documentaries I've seen about him. One is the Revealed series on CNN, and the other is a documentary by BBC(?) The man has had big wild dreams. In one of the documentaries, he says, as a young boy he wanted to own the city. But after all these years, it seems that the city owns him. In many aspects he is right. But what's more the city (and the country) loves him. Watching Shahrukh Khan's life story is more inspiring than watching one of his movies. The way he brought himself to Mumbai from Delhi, the way he struggled doing TV serials, the way he risked his career by taking on negative roles in his early days shows more about his calibre then his roles as Raj or Dev Saran. Watching what inspires the person who inspires a million hearts is more worthwhile than watching, frankly, most of his movies.


Some people reach a position in life for which they have given their all. And when they reach it, they have the right to be proud about it. They have the right to call themselves the King. And today Shahrukh Khan, without the backing of a filmi family, has reached that position solely on the basis of his hard-work and passion.