Shahrukh the Controversial Khan19 comments

By Sikandar Usman

January 1992, came out the super hit film Deewana starring Rishi Kapoor, Divya Bharti and introducing Shahrukh Khan. Nothing like a Greek god, a long haired, big nosed and skinny youngster charmed millions of people across the globe. With big hits like Raju Bangaya Gentleman (1992), Darr (1993), Baazigar (1993) and Dilwale Dulhainya Lejayenge (1995), Shahrukh Khan became one of the leading heartthrobs of Bollywood. However such success was not achieved overnight. In his initial days Shahrukh did three films at a time which kept him working for a little less than 20 hours a day. Even such stardom comes at a price. For his finest performances till date, he was the last name on the directors’ wish lists, replacing Aamir Khan and Ajay Devgan in Darr, and Akshay Kumar and Arbaaz Khan in Baazigar. At that time, there was little controversy revolving around Shahrukh Khan.

Shahrukh Khan is known for his exceptionally successful career. In the early 90’s, a lot of articles were written saying “Can Bollywood take Shahrukh’s arrogance?” It was only his hard work, coupled with supreme performances, which helped him get away with such gossip. But films have not always been the source that brought him to the limelight. Shahrukh Khan truly ruled Bollywood during the 90’. Things however, started getting a bit complicated for him. Electronic Media boomed in the year 2000. Great competition between TV channels, newspapers and magazines took place. At the same time, in early 2000, Hritikh Roshan, making his debut in the blockbuster Kaho Na Pyar Hai, emerged as a serious challenge to Shahrukh Khan. Paparazzi gossip had it that after the failure of Baadshah, Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani, and the mixed success of Josh, Shahrukh Khan was dethroned by Hritikh, from the title of Bollywood King. After Kaho Na Pyar Hai, till 2006, Hritikh Roshan had only two big hits; the multi-starrer Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham and the sci fi action thriller Koi Mil Gaya, while Shahrukh Khan was loaded with hits like Mohabattien, Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham, Devdas, Chalte Chalte, Kal Ho Na Ho, Main Hoon Na and Veer Zaraa. In the year 2006, baseless rumors about Shahrukh Khan’s rivalry with the Bahchans started flying around. Abhishek Bahchan, with a series of hits like Dhoom, Bunty aur Bubly, Sarkar, Dus and Bluffmaster, was believed to take SRK’s place. The fact that added fuel to the fire, was that despite critical acclaim for Shahrukh Khan’s films, Swades (2004) and Paheli (2005) had flopped at the box office and Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna (which also starred Abhishek and Amitabh Bahchan) and Don (the remake of the 1978 Amitabh Bahchan starrer), both received mixed reviews and failed to make the Shahrukh Khan impact on the Indian box office.

The serious controversial phase began in 2007. To sizzle up gossip, the Indian media churned out exaggerated stories about The Khan-Bahchan clash. Shahrukh Khan became the host of the game show Kaun Banega Carorepati Season 3 (the 1st two hosted by Amitabh Bahchan). This gave journalists a good story, saying that Shahrukh is trying to take over Amitabh, by first doing a Don remake, and now the game show. At an award ceremony, Shahrukh Khan’s joke on Amar Singh added fuel to fire, to the presumed Khan-Bahchan rivalry, as Amitabh Bahchan was a party member with Amar Singh. After Abishek Bahchan’s wedding with Aishwarya Rai, an article saying “No Khans invited” came out, which implied that Shahrukh Khan was not invited as he was also not on friendly terms with Aishwarya Rai – back in 2002, while shooting for Chalte Chalte (Aishwarya Rai was paired opposite Shahrukh Khan), the ugly spat that Shahrukh Khan had with Aishwarya Rai’s then boyfriend Salman Khan, was the reason she was no longer part of the film. However there was speculation about Shahrukh Khan and Amitabh Bahchan not keen to work with each other. The delay of the filming of Vivek Sharma’s directorial debut Boothnath (released in 2008) which starred Amitabh Bahchan in the lead role, while Shahrukh Khan made a special appearance, was caught by the news that Amitabh Bahchan had chopped Shahrukh’s role from the film. Another rumor was that both the actors did not have the dates available in which they could shoot a scene together. Meanwhile, Shahrukh Khan and Amitabh Bahchan, time and again, outrightly denied any sort of rivalry against each other. The rumors of the Khan-Bahchan rivalry finally came to rest when Amitabh and Abhishek Bahchan did make a cameo appearance in the Shahrukh Khan starrer and produced, Om Shanti Om.

Om Shanti Om, which is one of Shahrukh Khan’s biggest hits, is mainly known for the special star studded appearances it had by more than 30 actors. Manoj Kumar, one of the spoofed actors, took great offense and demanded his spoof scene be chopped from the film. Farah Khan (the director of OSO) and Shahrukh Khan promised to do so, but then went back on their word. However Manoj Kumar successfully won the case against SRK and Farah Khan. In 2007, one more controversy came Shahrukh Khan’s way. Two of the ace filmmakers, Raj Kumar Hirani, and south film director S.Shankar, signed Shahrukh Khan for their films, ‘3 Idiots’ and ‘Robot’ (a sci fi action film) respectively. Due to differences with the directors, Shahrukh Khan ruled out both of the films. S.Shankar, who had recently directed south blockbuster Sivaji, and Raj Kumar Hirani, the man behind Munnabhai, were two huge losses that Shahrukh Khan had to face. At that specific time, he is reported to have said, ‘ I am unemployed for seven months and I’m better off’.

2008 was a challenging year for Shahrukh Khan, as he became a soft target to controversies relating to Akshay Kumar, Salman Khan and Aamir Khan. Akhsay Kumar, who had delivered five back to back superhits (Bhagam Bhaag, Namaste London, Heyy Babyy, Bhool Bhulaiyaa and Welcome), remained unaffected by Tashan, which bombed at the box office. His next release, Singh is Kinng, surpassed the records of Om Shanti Om at the ticket window. Hence, Akshay Kumar took the crown of Bollywood King. This gave way to a lot of stories about the rivalry between King Khan and Khiladi Kumar. It was believed so, because Shahrukh Khan replaced Akshay Kumar in Billu, which was produced by Shahrukh Khan, and directed by Priyadarshan, who shares good comradeship with Akki. Shahrukh Khan also hosted a game show “Kia Aap Paanchvi Pass Se Tez Hain?” This was an Indian version of “Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader? The show was a flop, while Salman Khan’s hosted game show Dus ka Dum became a superhit. Salman Khan and Shahrukh Khan had patched up back in 2004 on Farah Khan’s wedding. Later however, on Katrina Kaif’s birthday, the two Khans had another spat. Shahrukh Khan had refused to come on Salman’s show, and make a guest appearance in his home production. Salman Khan made fun of Shahrukh Khan’s game show, saying that Shahrukh being a superstar could not make it a hit. Journalists, belonging to separate camps of these two actors, wrote stories crediting their respective favorites. Some stories said that Salman Khan went out of his way to make a special appearance in Om Shanti Om, and coming on KBC, while Shahrukh Khan did not return the favor. Some stories said that Bollywood had divided into two camps, and Shahrukh Khan had the advantage, having most of the veteran directors like Yash Chopra, Karan Johar, Farah Khan and Farhan Akhter on his side. Friend or foe, Aamir Khan, also known as the Ace Khan (in response to King Khan), took some jibes at SRK as well. It was at a press meeting where Aamir Khan endorsed a Samsung mobile and was asked about competition with Shahrukh Khan (who is a brand ambassador of Nokia), to which Aamir Khan replied “As always, Shahrukh prefers to come second.” The Khan-Khan friendly banter did not end here. While shooting for Ghajini, Aamir Khan injured himself, and was on rest for five weeks, staying in his house in Simla. At an interview he told the press that his dog is named Shahrukh. This comment was not accepted by Shahrukh Khan fans at all. However the news hungry Indian media exploited and filled the magazines and websites with dozens of stories relating to the same incident.

In December 2008, two long awaited films came out; Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi and Ghajini, starring Shahrukh Khan and Aamir Khan respectively. RNBDJ, a romantic comedy, proved to be not only another fine performance by Shahrukh Khan, but also one of the biggest hits under the Yash Raj banner. Sad news for Shahrukh Khan, Ghajini became an all time blockbuster leaving RNBDJ behind, producing stories that this time Aamir Khan dethroned Shahrukh Khan and Akhsay Kumar and took the title of Bollywood King. Yet apart from Aamir Khan’s comment about his dog named Shahrukh, for which he apologized to Shahrukh Khan and his fans, nothing seems to be substantially proved or believed about anti Shahrukh Khan Club members (Bahchans, Khans and Akshay Kumar) existing. At the premier, on Abhishek starrer Drona, Khan-Bahchan fans saw something they had been waiting for a long time. Shahrukh Khan with his family had come to the premier. Not only had that happened, but the Bahchans (Amitabh, Abhishek and Aishwarya) also shared warm gestures with him. So finally there was a cooler response as opposed to media exaggeration.

Close friend/Producer Vivek Waswani had asked Shahrukh Khan to make a guest appearance in his film Dulha Mil Gaya, which started filming in 2007. Shahrukh Khan agreed to do one song in the film. Later on, Vivek asked Shahrukh to shoot more scenes with another song, and he refused due to the agreement and unavailability of his dates. This delayed the film for two years, followed by other reasons as well, but mainly, because Shahrukh Khan was criticized by the Indian media. Although braving an injury, Shahrukh Khan, going out of his way, completed the film which is set to release in December 2009. The film also stars Sushmeta Sen and Fardeen Khan.

With the start of the year 2009, Cupid smiled at Shahrukh. This is the year when he patched up with Aamir Khan to settle the issue of multiplex distributors and producers. Akshay Kumar also refuted any cold vibes against Shahrukh Khan. Rumor has it that now Salman Khan is trying to patch up as on the press conference of Dus Ka Dum season 2, Salman stated the he does not mind having Shahrukh on his show. However this year also came with many challenges for the superstar. His first release for the year Billu flopped at the Box Office. He faced heavy losses due to his team’s poor performance at the IPL, and a shoulder injury, because of which his upcoming films My Name is Khan and Ra.1 got delayed. The two recent controversies put Shahrukh Khan in hot water with Muslim groups. The song lyrics from his film Billu were mistaken to be words of blasphemy. Another issue was that some believed Shahrukh Khan. A round of rumors started flying in the air. These two controversies were highly publicized through text messages and social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. Shahrukh Khan stood in the face of these rumors, clarified the song lyrics and stated that it was a printing error.

When all was good, SRK landed into yet another controversy. While shooting for ‘My Name Is Khan’ in the US, Shahrukh was invited by a South Asian community and got detained at the airport. It was mainly believed that such an incident happened because he had a very common Muslim surname -Khan-. However he was also questioned about the purpose of his visit, his baggage was checked and he was not allowed to make a phone call for nearly an hour. Journalists called Shahrukh’s two hour detention a publicity stunt. As a reply to the media, showing his discomfort Shahrukh Khan stated ” I don’t want to sound pompous, but Shahrukh Khan doesn’t need any publicity … it is not a publicity stunt. My film is coming out almost nine months later and it’s not a matter of pride to be discussed at the airport. I try to follow the rules of the country I travel to but I never experienced this kind of treatment. It was embarrassing. There are some routine security measures but that process was not followed. Instead, the authorities asked me bizarre and irrelevant questions.” On 25th August 2009, the real reason behind Shahrukh Khan’s detention came out. It mentioned that SRK’s produced TV show was promoted by brothers Farhath Hussain and Altaf Hussain, with local producers who were on the radar of the authorities in the US, UK and India. Some of these people were under the scanner for dodgy financial transactions and allegedly had links with the underworld and some terrorist organizations. However, any action taken by Shahrukh is still awaited.

Statistics from www.boxofficeindia.com show that Shahrukh Khan has only been number two to Amitabh Bahchan. Other big names like Aamir Khan, Salman Khan, Akhsay Kumar and Hritikh Roshan come after SRK. Controversies and other troubles have been coming to Shahrukh Khan in different guises, at different times, but the art he possesses, for entertaining the world, has always helped him overcome them.

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