I already posted the awesome awesome videos that Shahrukh and YRF released today highlighting the SRK fan community.  Reverse fanvids, if you will.  But I have so many more thoughts on what they mean than I was able to put in that post!

For instance, doesn’t this remind you of Aamir Khan promoting 3 Idiots?

If you don’t remember, from 6 long years ago, in the month before 3 Idiots came out, Aamir Khan “disappeared”.  What he really did, was travel around India in various disguises, interacting with common people, and then inviting them all to the Bombay 3 Idiots premiere.  He posted various clues and images online while he was traveling.  The idea was to highlight all of India, and all the regular people of India.  He visited a traditional sari weaving village to encourage people to buy hand woven saris and support the industry, he talked with school children about Gandhi, and so on.  Rather than promoting himself, he was promoting the people.  Here’s a video of him visiting the famous shrines in Varanasi, for instance, where his mother grew up:

This is kind of like what Shahrukh did this morning, right?  He is promoting the people, not himself.  He secretly met with them and picked out certain folks to focus on in the promotions.  And it’s all in service of driving people to see his movie, releasing soon.

Only, there were some differences, and I think they say a lot about what kind of fans and audience each Star is trying to reach.

1. Aamir only looked at India; Shahrukh looked everywhere from China to Lucknow to Peru.
2. Aamir met these people in person; Shahrukh met most of them online through twitter
3. Aamir looked at all the people of India; Shahrukh only looked at his particular fan community
4. Aamir wanted to show people who needed help; Shahrukh showed people who are helping.

What does this mean?  Aamir has become more and more India focused as the years go by.  He is still the biggest presence at the international box office,  and his Lagaan is still the closest Indian film has come to crossing over to the art film mainstream in recent years.  However, he does these things not to reach a new audience, but to present his India, his vision of India, and his desires for India, to the world.  Which is why his main artistic focus for the past few years has been on his Indian broadcast television show, Satyamev Jayate, rather than on any international film release.

Shahrukh, in contrast, sees his international audience and his Indian audience as the same thing, all his fans equally.  As I have said over and over again, and as the recently released box office figures show, Shahrukh is looking beyond India for his audience.  Whether it is the global box office, or the distant regions within India.  He wants to be the star for everyone, not just the star for those in India.

Which is why he spends so much time on twitter.  A fan of Shahrukh is much more likely to “meet” him through a tweet than through a visit to Mannat.  So there is no preference given to those fans who live in India and can actually visit Mannat and see him in person.  Shahrukh has always been more of a written communicator than an in person one.  From the very beginning, one of his strengths was his willingness to give many many interviews on any topic to anyone, and be clever and charming and engaging in print.  Now, that has translated to massive activity on his twitter account, and being charming and engaging directly to his followers, instead of through the intermediary of a reporter.

While Aamir in his 3 Idiots promotions limited himself only to those in India, Shahrukh limited himself only to his own fans.  I feel like the first video, which looked at fans of Charlie Chaplin, Sachin Tendulkar, Michael Jackson, and Amitabh Bachchan equally, is clarifying that there are many different fan communities, and they are all valid.

But the videos after that, show how Shahrukh’s own fan community functions.  It tells us who these people are and what they get from Shahrukh, and what unites them.  In the same way that Aamir’s travels through India for 3 Idiots wanted to show how the Indian community is all one, what values they hold in common, how they could and should unite.

And the final change, the one I find most telling, Aamir showed people who might need help, while Shahrukh showed people who are now helping others.  To my mind, Aamir’s message is to the rising middle class, the ones who have the authority to help, to make massive changes, to use their power to alter Indian society.  While Shahrukh’s message is to all the people around the world, to do what they can in their small way to make things better where they can.

Taken all together, Aamir’s message was that he is Indian, just like you, and he wants India to be better, just like you.  That he may be a big star, but at heart, he is just average.  We are all just people.

Shahrukh’s message is to his fans, the people he inspired, and he is saying “if you do good works, if you are faithful, if you help people, then you can be like me.”  We are all stars.