SHAH RUKH KHAN
It is play time at Mannat formerly the old bungalow Villa Vienna. Shah Rukh Khan is at home with children nine year old Aryan and six year old Suhana, Father India as his friend even as he promptly puts his feet down from the sofa when admonished by wife Gauri. Probably the biggest star in Bollywood today, Shah Rukh is over has stuck mainly to mainstream masala, he has won a widespread national and diasporic following for his roles that struck a chord with audience as a faithful lover in Dilwale dulhania Le Jayenge. (The braveheart Will Take the Bride, 1995) a playful college student who becomes a devoted father in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Something is Happening 1998m and a wronged son in Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham Sometimes Happiness Sometimes sorrow 2001.
Unusually for a Bollywood star, Shah Rukh Khan began his carrer in television serials (Fauji 1988, and Circus, 1989) and has recently returned to the medium, again unusually for he is at peak of his career as a game show host in Kaun Banega Crorepati, (the Indian version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire. Despite deviating from his good boy, as an obsessive lover Darr (Fear, 1993) or deadbeat adulterous husband in Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (never say goodbye.2006) Shah Rukh is the ultimate poster child for middle-class India, his rise coinciding with that of a newly liberalizing nation. His appeal for women, especially would like to take home to their fathers. As a romantic hero, he was shown versatility. If he has played musical mentor to 1980’s diva Madhuri dixit in Dil to Pagal Hai (The Heart is crazy, 1997) he is also readying to play lover to twenty-year-old model Deepika Padukone in the forthcoming 1970’s saga of a struggling actor, Om shanti Om. An actor who came in from the cold to an industry that thrives on nepotism Khan who lost his father at sixteen and his mother at twenty-six, has created a substitute family of his own some of the finest talent in Bollywood from director Karan Johar to Choreographer-turned director Farah Khan for countless youngster he has become a role model, epitomizing a can do spirit and a cocky confidence which they see as a much needed change in atraditional culture that places a premium on modest self-effacement. A good student at Delhi’s St. Columba’s school and a one-time national-level hockey player, he is probably the first actor in Bollywood who realized the importance of a rich extracurricular record. His devotion to the brands he endorses and commitment to his film when a film is released I will use whatever outlet there is to promote it, he states is unparallelled as is his energy.
The actor has worked with some of Bollywood’s Biggest director’s from Yash chopra (Dil To Pagar Hai) The Heart is Crazy,1997, to mani ratnam (Dil Se) From the Heart 1998), to Sanjay Leela Bhansali (Devdas-2002), Though he is personally fond of action movies, it is as an affectionate lover and picture perfect son that he has achieved star status. If Amitabh Bachchan’s vijay resonated through the 1970’s as the embodiment of the angry young man, Khan’s Raj/Rahul epitomized the resurgent 1990;s where a young India learnt to appreciate the sound of its own voice. And now, having crossed forty like his other two famous khan contemporaries, aamir and salman, whose names will forever be mentioned in the same breath as his he is clearly preparing for posterity. He has been signed on for 104, episode of the hugely popular television quiz show Kaun Banega Crorepati’s third series on Star Plus, and has been pushing the envelope playing a remorseless drug lord in don (2006), a twisted remake of Amitabh Bachchan 1978 film of the same name and a down at-heel coach of an all girl’s hockey team in his cause film Chak De India (Taste India. 2007)
Not content with having built the ultimate ivory tower his landmark home in Mumbai he is now keen to understand the new generation audience which seems to have no fixed taste but has a mind of its own. He has been Hindi cinema’s No-1 star in the USA and UK and for many in the diaspora, he embodies the best of a resurgent India. But what keeps him grounded and perhaps connected to most in his audience is that the retains his middle-class roots. The boy who used to live in a modest Rajender Nagar home in Delhi is still a aprt of the star who now stays in super deluxe five stars hotelsor indeed his own home valued at over Rs. 100 Crore Khan says his friends Karan Johar, remains the kid from Delhi who can’t quite believe he has achieved so much, He still adores gifts especially when they are prettily wrapped loves to buy toys in London’s Hamley’s as much for himself as his children, and doesn’t hesitate to ask his friends if a designer label is cool enough. He’s the boy who came to Mumbai to do independent movies sometimes yes sometimes No 1993) where he plays a loser and stayed on to make blockbusters where he always walks into the sunset with the woman of his dreams. He is the boy who would be-and did become-King.