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By: Aseem Chhabra

A profile of the actor in The Times of London puts him down without any reason or understanding of Bollywood.

Catherine Nixey doesn't know much about India, its popular culture, Bollywood films and certainly not much about Shah Rukh Khan. But yet she was sent by her newspaper - the venerable The Times of Londonto interview Khan and write a profile about the star. And she starts her 1,600 word long piece - Meet the biggest film star in the world, published last Thursday, by suggesting (and then she goes on building on this theme) that Khan is quite an arrogant person.

She tells us in the second paragraph that Khan has the habit of repeating that he is a humble man. And then she questions him why he likes to stand on the balcony of his house and wave at his fans like the Queen. Khan responds in his regular humor that his fans and the press in India are used to: "I do it. Like the king." Alas Nixey does not get that humour.

She pokes fun at the fact that there are 11 bouncers standing outside Khan's hotel in Central London, even though there are not many fans there to see the star. But in the process she shows her absolute ignorance about how Bollywood stars actually get mobbed by fans in India and in cities with large South Asian diaspora population.

She comments about Khan wearing tinted aviator glasses during the interview, as if this is a sign of his arrogance. But I wonder if she would make a similar comment if she ever interviewed Jack Nicholson or Wong Kar-wai? And she quotes Khan as saying that Harvey Weinstein once called him the "biggest film star in the world."

It should be noted that journalists and others in the west are in the habit of making such superlative statements when they cannot explain the influence and popularity of Bollywood stars. In 2002, GQ magazine called Hrithik Roshan "the most famous person in the world that you've never heard of" and in 2005 New York City's Film Society of Lincoln Center held a retrospective of Amitabh Bachchan which was titled Amitabh Bachchan: The Biggest Film Star in the World! When Aamir Khan was in the US to promote Lagaan, he was often described in the press as India's Tom Cruise. Nixey also makes it a point to say that Shah Rukh has more Twitter followers than Cruise.

Then she shows more ignorance in the piece. She has obviously not seen any film of Khan. She mentions after his breakthrough film Deewana, Khan starred "in such award-winning, multimillion-selling Bollywood box-office hits such as Kuch Kuch Hota Hai." That to me sounds like something out a press release or perhaps information gathered from a Wikipedia page on Khan.

I look at some of Nixey's other pieces. I don't think she have ever written a profile of a big star -Hollywood, British or foreign. Her specialization seems to be more in area of literature, the classics and television. It is mystery why her editor assigned her to profile a big Bollywood star?

If Nixey had the knowledge she could have deciphered the language of Bollywood and of Khan's true popularity for her readers. She could have attempted to explain how the fan adulation in India affects even the humblest of human beings. But her piece is a missed opportunity for a popular Bollywood film to crossover to the general film loving audience in London.

I know Shah Rukh Khan does not need to be defended and one piece in The Times is not going make a dent on his popularity in India or among the diaspora, nor will it have any impact on the imminent success of Chennai Express. The problem with Nixey is that she has written one of the most offensive and condescending pieces and so one wonders how she comes off suggesting that Khan is arrogant?

When she first meets Khan, Nixey does not think it is inappropriate to write: "this enormous star ...is surprisingly tiny." While I am not sure about Khan's height one thing is clear - Nixey is a very small journalist.
http://www.mumbaimirror.com/columns/columnists/aseem-chhabra/A-small-piece-on-SRK/articleshow/21585561.cms