Interesting SRK Article of 2/20/12

A thought provoking, if somewhat melancholy article on SRK's current situation in the industry.

When i get down to thinking, i wouldn't write him off just yet. And no, im not just saying that because i am what you would call a SRK "fan." While reading the article, i felt like i was reading about Salman when he had his bad days. And look how he got out of that today. In my opinion, this "Khan" fan following is so strong and its nothing like we have ever seen before, so i don't believe that we will see a "goodbye" anytime soon. Not yet, i say its still early. Its just a matter one that one perfect movie and everyone will change their tone. But I mean, yeah sure, SRK or Salman or Aamir aren't always going to rule but they are still ruling and will continue for now. SRK is not out of the game.
And also, i disagree with her statement, "He rarely ever chooses scripts that do not revolve around the central theme of 'Shah Rukh Khan'." That's highly questionable in my book; specially since she talks about his earlier days. Also, "he rarely shares screen space"..Okay. Well, what actor that is considered a superstar "shares" screen space? SRK sells. Superstars sell. Why share when you are fine alone? Sharing doesn't come in the question, at least not for me unless there is a script that is just out of the world then yeah, maybe. Or unless he is so desperate to get a hit or a good movie out there...and he isn't yet. And also, like she said, he is THE single most important face when it comes to indian cinema across the globe...again, that's just another reason i say its not time for a goodbye yet.
This might just be me, but something about the article just doesn't click. It sorta seems to me that she is saying he should stick with what he always does; arm spread out ...the 20 years ago stuff. I don't agree with that. At all.
But i do agree that the stress is showing. He is stressed...we are talking about a man who has been in the top for a long time, he is fearing. People are writing him off left and right. He must be sulking, we all know about his "have to be #1" attitude. And after Ra.One...he definitely is sulking. He has a reason to be. But again, i highly disagree with the reasons the girl mentioned. It just didn't click with me. I didn't buy it.

EDITED...
By the way, thanks for sharing. Good read. (:

me to watch at home and in the supervised and scarce trips to the cinema hall. So when I finally caught up with Maya Memsaab, Ketan Mehta's colonized interpretation of Gustave Flaubert's Emma Bovary, the pigeon-chested actor who made uninhibited love to the sultry Deepa Sahi immediately had my attention.

"Who is this scrawny guy, who wears the sexy nail marks on his back like a badge of honour?" I remember thinking.

What sexual awakening was to thousands of teenagers in the optimistic 90s, Shah Rukh was to Indian cinema. He was yet to discover his best camera profile and the scope of his dimples. He has, since then, scaled buildings, detonated bombs and brought roses to his sweetheart at midnight, but his super stardom has taken its bloody toll. He has lost the nerve he once showed in revealing his imperfect body in Maya Memsaab and reneged on the promise he made to his converts in the 90s to always select good cinema over money.

Yes, in that way, I have had a falling out with him. While he has moved on, I haven't.

As a revisionist hero, Shah Rukh was the spiritual head of the new order he established in the early 90s and sustained for the next 10 years paring competition from two other emerging stars - Aamir and Salman - both intense and utterly focussed on using the consumerist audiences of the age of liberalization to their advantage.

"Shah Rukh Khan sells, period." - Shah Rukh Khan

Like an ageing rockstar who remembers the heady aphrodisiac of a stadium full of screaming girls, Shah Rukh keeps trying to recreate the magnetic hold he had on his audience 10 years ago as a monument to his ego in films such as Ra.One. His is a career well lived. He is wealthy beyond all comparison and has established a fan base that few actors can emulate.

"My life may seem glamorous from the outside but off screen it's as ordinary as anyone else's. I want people to know that movie stars live a normal, middle-class life," he told the BBC at the time of releasing the documentaries by filmmaker Nasreen Muni Kabir on his outer and inner worlds.

Yet he rarely ever chooses scripts that do not revolve around the central theme of 'Shah Rukh Khan'. He rarely ever shares screen space, except in his early years, with some one who is his true competition. In Shimit Amin's Chak De India Shah Rukh gave a stellar performance due to the strong ensemble cast and the fact that the focus was evenly shared by a team of good actors.

Shah Rukh has been told, over and over again, by the men he trusted his career, and by default his life with, he looked cute when he nodded his head a certain way or like a devil-may-care Cary Grant when his hair was brushed away from his forehead. Nobody would ever dispute his contribution to cinema. He is the single most important face a billion people the world over identify Indian cinema, its culture and the masculinity and fabulous wealth of its men with. I will not waste your time running you through a laundry list of his films and achievements, his endorsements and the sheer discipline with which he has built himself an empire in Mumbai.

I see him as a middle-aged realist with sharp intelligence but too entrapped in his super stardom to realize the message his changing audiences are sending him in his Friday outings at the Box Office. Yes, Ra.One made money, and so has Don 2. But the man on the street, which he himself once was at the time of Circus and Dil Dariya, is losing interest in the hamming, in the lined forehead and the body tortured in the gym to keep the tapering waist even in his middle age.

Would you, Shah Rukh Khan, see your own films, if they were showed to you back in 1988 when you valued character-driven performance? How would you rate your acting? I doubt if he would answer those questions.

If they were to put up a statue of him at Bandra it would have its arms outstretched and head tilted back - a pose his fans interpret as welcoming both the malice and the love he has received over 20 years. Which is not inconsiderable. He is the first hero to give back to his fans as much as he got, welcoming them into his drawing room. If only he knew when to stop.

The stress is starting to show

At the height of his success, Shah Rukh, with good humour and the shrewd derision he often directed at himself, said he has learnt to live with the burden of his fame. In a candid interview with his friend and filmmaker Karan Johar, he said he would always be King Khan in his mind and amongst the people who love him. The first cracks in the good humour have started to show now.

Despite protestations that opinion of film critics do not matter, the stress is showing after repeated thrashing from opinion makers across the board on two of his last films, Ra.One and Don 2, which were almost his children in the amount of love and attention he had bestowed on them. He had exhausted himself promoting Ra.One on a scale that has never happened before and previously thought impossible.

The sulking star is now in the news for slapping filmmaker Farah Khan's husband Shirish Kunder, a lightweight in the pecking order of the industry. He is taken to making potshots at rivals, dressing in drag at major award shows and masquerading a barely concealed jealousy at the success of a hugely successful risque film under the garb of genial humour.

I mean it the kindest way, but it's time to say goodbye. Shah Rukh will not be able to keep up with the formidable crowd forming at Bollywood's second rung every day, neither will he be able to accept a character role that is not an ode to his super stardom. For as long as his friends in the industry keep shaping his career he will find a hit or the other. But now is a good a time as any for a dignified exit from playing the romantic hero opposite heroines half his age and choose scripts that will do justice to his talent.

For a man who is a strategist, he is one lost superhero.

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every cloud has a silver lining.

aha..anything but i found it hilarious when people say SRK's movie buisness get reduced..

That's the lamest statement someone can ever come up with.

Any one who has some mathematical knowledge and IQ can see, Ready and Ra one made same amount of money BO and that means movie is viewed by the same amount of people approximately but one is an ATTB and other is just a hit because of the budget. I can understand if some one cant understand this simple logic ahaha


Regarding comeback, I wonder what is there to come back. When Salman acted in an indian based 50 croe budget movies where SRK acted in heavy budget 100 croes movies. That's the only reason for the difference in verdicts.

Unlike Salman, who had back to back flops for 5-6 years consecutively including disasters in between, I dont see SRK having flops. His recent releases made more than 110 croes and were the third and fourth biggest hits of the year..so much for a flop star..LOL

But when HR made 2 flops or SRK's movies have become 3rd/4th biggest hits of the year, people are eager to write openly about their career getting finished.
blah blah..

when Salman khan went through a terrible phase with tons of disasters, i dont see such article came up..may be because people are scared haha😆

I'll be honest. I have never liked Shah Rukh Khan's acting.

Then if you don't like him, why waste your energy writing a thesis on his life?

The article starts with the author admitting that their opinion will be biased, he/she doesn't like shahrukh so no doubt he/she will be thrilled to see him go---which in my opinion will never happen...Shahrukh along with amitabh bachan, salman khan, aamir khan and many others have played a pivotal factor in setting the conventions of the Bollywood film industry..In my opinion, shahrukh identity is through his acting, if he stops acting no doubt he will feel lost and useless...Just like amitabh bachan is going on strong now so will shahrukh, so what if some of his films didn't live to fulfill expectations they still were classified as either hits, semi hits...

Yet he rarely ever chooses scripts that do not revolve around the central theme of 'Shah Rukh Khan'.

Very confusing, what is the central theme of "shahrukh khan"? I have never heard of this. Does the author mean shahrukh khan's character from DDLJ? Well let's have a quick run through of the characters he has played in last 3 years, a nerd/macho man in rab ne, man with asperger syndrome in MNIK, a superhero in Ra.one and a underworld mafia leader in Don 2...These aren't falling under the category of a "raj"...

. But the man on the street, which he himself once was at the time of Circus and Dil Dariya, is losing interest in the hamming, in the lined forehead and the body tortured in the gym to keep the tapering waist even in his middle age.

So is the man on the street more interested on shahrukh khan's looks or the film and his acting? Long gone are the days when people would be happy watching cheesy flicks of two lovebirds eloping. Ideologies and lifestyles have modernized and so has the demand for edgy movies, that is what shahrukh is offering. One second in this article the author is claiming that shahrukh is only choosing scripts that evolve around the central theme of srk and then he/she is indicating that the men on the street want the old "srk"...No doubt he is becoming old, he is turning 46, my dad is the same age and let me tell you he doesn't look a thing like he did 20 years ago...as we would expect

But now is a good a time as any for a dignified exit from playing the romantic hero opposite heroines half his age and choose scripts that will do justice to his talent.

Well isn't this the case with the entire Indian film industry...I don't see Salman Khan, Amir khan acting with 40 plus heroines...even rajnikath acted with Aishwarya Rai who is a good 30 or so years younger...Write an essay on them please, very keen to read..

Don't like SRK but it's hard to deny that he still is the biggest Indian superstar world wide. Give the man his due haters.

wat-up...you haven;t posted the full article

SRK was onto something with Swades, Paheli and Chak De. What's happened to that SRK? 😕

I havent read the article but I get the flow of it. SRK obviously cannot remain no. 1 forever. He is almost 50. But I guess the pressure is more on him for a few reasons: