This seems like a fun question that hopefully people will have many opinions on. It’s Saturday, there should be loads of time to talk with the internet.
What would you like to see more of from Shahrukh? What imaginary pairings, what roles, what genres? What has he never done before and should?
I have a pretty simple list:
- I want to see him in a same sex love story. He can sell romance with anything, I knew he would have amazing chemistry with a male actor, and I think he would be the best person to break that barrier.
- I want to see him play the father of grown children. He’s come close, playing Varun’s brother-who-is-like-a-father in Dilwale, but he hasn’t actually crossed that barrier.
- I want to see him in a film noir. Not an action movie, but a real noir with evil people who keep beating up the hero and a twisted mystery that reveals the darkness of society and all of that.
How about you? What do you want to see?
dontcallitbollywood 
Agree with all of your suggestions. I’d also like to see him try a more Irrfan-type role, small art house relationship drama, just to see if he can pull it off or if his movie starness is just too big to fit into that type of film.
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Yes! I was thinking about the same. I want him in a little story, no stardom, only excellent acting and emotions.
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that’s kind of what he did in Dear Zindagi, but then he was just playing a supporting character in that, no big emotional scenes which would be the biggest challenge to play in an arthouse way.
On Sun, Oct 14, 2018 at 11:55 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I’d like to see him in a small domestic, artistic drama with Tabu. The tiny part they did it Saathiya.
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I would love to see him in a comedy. Not a golmaal, i-am-going-to-seriously-hurt-someone-because-of-how-dumb-this-is, but an intelligent comedy. Come to think of it, I would love to see him in a role like Ayushmann’s in Andhadhun – also with Tabu because they have a really interesting chemistry.
I think he looks really nice with Manisha Koirala.
Either that or I would love for him to do a role like Captain Wentworth in Persuasion – maybe with Tabu?
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Oh, that would have been great! Shahrukh as the hero of Anudhan.
And I have, of course, already written a Shahrukh version of Persuasion: https://dontcallitbollywood.com/2017/07/16/silly-sunday-speculative-post-persuasion-the-perfect-mature-love-story-for-shahrukh-aamir-hrithik-rani-anyone-over-40/
On Sun, Oct 14, 2018 at 4:29 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Yes! Something filmed in one apartment set in a kind of “My Dinner With Andre” way, we see their daily life move slowly along.
On Sun, Oct 14, 2018 at 2:27 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Marrying both of the above ideas, a gay middle aged romance in cosmopolitan India. Both men are married to other women and have raised recently-grown children. Both coupkes are at different stages of growing apart, maybe one wife is having an affair, maybe the other wife pours her devotion into the children. Neither man has admitted to himself that he is gay, but the two men are college buddies who rekindle their friendship after their 25-year reunion, and things evolve from there. These are subtle people who have lived life as per societal expectations, so no big OTT passion moments but just a slow evolution, acceptance, and changes. Since they’ve both only romanced women thus far in their lives, they would be very “male” and stiff-upper-lip in romancing each other. A movie like this would almost *have* to be an art film. Let’s see if he can romance without relying on his usual tools of his trade.
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Oh my gosh, I love this idea! Have you seen Karan’s part of Bombay Talkies? the way Randeep and Saqib Saleem just stand next to each other, not touching, and you can feel the tension. I can easily see that with a middle-aged love affair with Shahrukh. They meet for coffee, they walk through the park, they look like any other couple of middle-aged friends but there is something under the surface. I’d also love an implication that they had something during school, were roommates. But in that “it’s just a phase while we are at school not serious” kind of way, and now they are feeling something at a deeper level. Surprised by emotions late in life.
I’d love to see it with completely passive heroes, one wife announces she is moving to America to live with the kids, the other announces she wants a divorce, they just drift through afraid to reach for what they want even when it is right in front of them. Until finally at the end the big romantic gesture is something very simple like one of them reaching out to touch the hand of the other in public at a coffee shop.
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Not very original, but I’d love to seem him in a Hollywood film – not the lead, but a juicy role that made use of his talent and where he could play off some great actors. Intelligent intrigue like Michael Clayton but more international, with SRK in the Tom Wilkinson role where you don’t know if he’s a victim or part of the plot. Picturing diaspora but somewhere different like South Africa, he’s caught up in something beyond his control and about to lose the business he’s spent a lifetime building, leaving him with nothing to hand over to his children just as they’re coming of age. A female lawyer or investigator goes down to track down a lead and has to figure out what he’s not telling her…
Or another kind of role I think he’d have fun with is an Alan Rickman-style villain role, especially in a superhero or high fantasy movie.
And Billu left me wanting more than 5 minutes of SRK and Irrfan onscreen together, playing some sort of complicated allies – family or friendship that’s gotten twisted by circumstances. I hope Irrfan comes through his illness and we get to see many more years of him.
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I’d love to see him in a BBC miniseries type thing, I think that would be the best place for this kind of role. Either a one episode thing as the murderer or the wrongfully accused. Or a 3 episode kind of thing where an investigator gets pulled into a confusing world and he is the quiet man from MI5 who pops up off and on and seems to have all the answers. Anupam Kher was in a random episode of Spooks/Mi5 years ago and he was brilliant (of course) but it was also the kind of serious dramatic role that he doesn’t get to play in India.
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