I think, like myself, the world at large has gotten tired of no new SRK news, now that Fan promotions and IPL are over.  So, since he isn’t poking his head out of doors, we are all scavenging around for whatever little scraps may be lying (laying?) around outside.

First, a Jaipur lending library received donations from Shahrukh’s private book collection!  This news story was reported as “Look! More evidence of his generosity, we should all donate to free lending libraries.”  But I think they are missing the bigger story, which is “Go to Jaipur and you can take a book out of a library that may have been touched by Shahrukh Khan!”  It’s almost worth buying the plane tickets, right?

(Also, Jaipur is pretty, so you could see some sights while you waited for the library to open)

The bigger news, which I don’t necessarily believe but really WANT to be true, is that Shahrukh might be making another movie with Aditya Chopra soon (like, next year soon), and it might be a historical epic in which he plays a warrior.  Yes, like Asoka, just like every news report says.  But I don’t like how he looks in Asoka, so I am going to fight the power and not use an Asoka still, and instead put a nice picture of him, where he DOESN’T look like he has a mop on his head.

(Jab Tak is also, kind of, a historical movie in which he plays a warrior)

The real big news here is that Shahrukh is still working with Adi.  Post-Fan, there was all kinds of buzz about them having a falling out, because Fan was disappointing.  I didn’t believe it, first because I just plain don’t think a relationship in which you are in the room with the family when their father dies is going to fall apart because of poor box office for a movie.  Second, because there is no way they ever thought Fan was going to be a hit, that movie was brilliant, but weeeeeird.  And third, because it didn’t actually do that bad.  I mean, the box office was embarrassing for an SRK movie, clearly people didn’t like it.  But the profits from opening day and the satellite sales more than made back the investment, so everyone came out of it solidly in the black.

I don’t know if they are going to work together again on this particular hypothetical movie, but their teams are clearly already working together on spreading rumors about this hypotehtical movie, so that means friendship is still on, all is good in the world, I can continue to believe in love and joy and happiness.

Oh, also, if this movie actually does happen, I am SO THERE.  Like, opening day I am there.  Okay, I know I say that about all Shahrukh movies, but this time I really mean it, like leave early from work, try to catch the Thursday midnight show, really really there.  I have complete faith in Aditya Chopra, and especially in Aditya Chopra and Shahrukh.  He just really “gets” him.  Every Adi-SRK movie has re-invented and re-defined the Shahrukh star character and shot him off into a whole new era of his career (DDLJ made him a romantic hero and a superstar, Mohabbettein made him a Man and confirmed his stardom by putting him toe-to-toe with Amitabh, Rab Ne reminded us that he can really act and let him ease into more older character parts, etc.).

I am also just Deee-Lighted that Adi is going back to directing.  It really feels like he is entering a new phase of his artistic life, you know?  Where he finally makes movies just to make movies, not to serve a larger plan.  He made DDLJ to prove what he could do, then switched focus to putting Yash Raj Studios on a firm base, made Mohabbettein to secure that base (and launch his little brother), and Rab Ne to help recover from the disaster that was the 2007-2008 series of YRF films (I liked Jhoom Barabar Jhoom, but it was really just me).

But now Befikre is emphatically just for him, because as an artist it is the film he wants to make, not something that will serve the good of the studio as a whole.  And another film right after?  Awesome news!  We could be entering the Aditya Chopra film renaissance, where he lets the studio look after itself for a while and focuses on being a director, not on running the whole film industry.  Although, I do wonder who he has running the studio now?  Surely not Uday, right?  Ol’ Froggy?  I could more easily believe that little 6 month old Adira is holding the reins than this guy:

(Although, realistically, it’s probably Rani, right?  She seems more than capable of running a movie studio)