I am probably going to be busy at work again today, and I will definitely be sleepy because I woke up at 5am for no reason, so I am going to put up a post that will give me something interesting to read (I hope) while I try to stay awake and field phone calls. (don’t worry, there is also a Shahrukh themed TGIF going up later)
How did you become a fan of Shahrukh? What was your first movie, your first moment? This is open to people who aren’t “he is my one and only” kind of fans as well, if he is your 4th or 5th or 6th favorite, I still want to know when and why you learned to like him.
I can tell my story, this is the version that’s in my book (or close to it, I cut and pasted it from an earlier draft):
That was ten years ago [that I first saw DDLJ], and I’ve now seen DDLJ so many times that most of the viewings blur together. But there are three moments that I remember as clearly as the car accident I was in when I was 5, or my grandfather’s funeral, or the first time I held a baby. Life changing moments.
The first was the introduction of our hero, played by Shahrukh Khan. He is coming out of a rugby scrum, in the rain, and he looks terrible! I was so disappointed! His hair was all wet and stringy, his nose was huge, he had the beginning of a double chin, and his bare legs were hairless and chubby. But I had already bought my ticket, so I thought I might as well stay and tough it out.
I don’t remember the next hour or so in detail, just that I still wasn’t really sold on the hero. The heroine was great, respectful and caring about others, but still with a firm sense of self, and very loveable. But the hero was still kind of ugly, and also kind of a jerk. Worst of all, I couldn’t even really tell if he was in love with the heroine, or just faking it. She was torn between her own desires and her responsibility to her parents and her fiance, and he was just kind of joking through life and didn’t even really seem to care that the woman he might–maybe–be in love with was engaged to someone else. It was all very hard to relate to.
And then right before intermission, the hero and heroine are saying good-bye at a train station. The heroine turns away, then turns back and says “oh yes, you are coming to my wedding, aren’t you?” And there is this moment, where his face changes, he shakes his head, and he walks away and leaves her. And the song starts, “Ho Gaya Hai Tujhko” (“It has happened to you”), and it really had happened to me! She was standing there onscreen, unable to move or get past the moment that had just occurred, and I was sitting in my seat, in tears, feeling everything all at once.
After that, I went back to the dorms and asked my desi roommate and other friends for recommendations, I watched Main Hoon Na and K3G and Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and Kal Ho Na Ho in rapid succession, and then I just started watching everything and anything. I traveled an hour and a half up to the Indian neighborhood every Friday after my last class and rented stacks of DVDs, and then spent the weekend watching them. I started reading rediff.com every day on the recommendation of my Desi friends. My social life revolved around watching Indian movies on my laptop with my friends. I watched the theater releases and was able to see every new Shahrukh movie from Paheli onwards in theaters. DDLJ was the first DVD I ever bought, and later the first blu-ray. I went to India in 2008 and saw it at the Maratha Mandir, the only thing I wanted to do on that trip. I bought the Inner/Outer World of Shahrukh on DVD and practically memorized it, and then did the same with Anupama Chopra’s biography of him. I decorated my first apartment with print outs of his posters. I made all the friends I have today through sharing his films. But it all started with watching DDLJ in the theater and having that moment when I fell in love.
Where did it start for you?
dontcallitbollywood 
I’ll start with the end. On our first trip to India we told the people planning it for us (don’t worry second trip we did all ourselves) that we had to go to Maratha Mandir to see DDLJ. A few times when that became problematic they tried to talk us out of it. When we went, a guide came with us. He was surprised when we said we were staying for the whole film. Apparently it is a thing for tourists to pop into a film for a little bit “for the experience.” He was a young guy who said to us, don’t be upset if I fall asleep. We of course were mesmerized and thrilled at every frame. When it was over he said, “I watched the whole thing. I’d forgotten how good it was! Thank you!” Strangely I am not sure what my first Shah Rukh film was. It was probably KKHH because my first ever film was Hum Tum and I started following Rani and Saif and quickly found SRK. I then watched everything. I ordered DVD’s for the older ones and watched everything else on Einthusan.com which had everything way before netflix. The first film I saw in the theater was JTHJ and was so pleased that when he actually kisses Kat and the whole theater gasped, I knew why it was a big deal. Carol often says and I have to agree, that what hooked me completely was the interviews. A few weeks after I found him is when he spoke at Yale and that did me in. I watch Inner/Outer; every tour, every show, every interview I could find. I could go on and on but that’s enough for now, I think.
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Maybe you had the same experience I did, only stretched out. He was charming and interesting to watch in DDLJ, no big deal, and then that one moment just killed me. It sounds like for you, you went from “good actor, I enjoy watching him” to “my whole life is changed” after the Yale speech.
It took me a long time to see one of his interviews. Back in 2004 when I was starting, youtube was just beginning and the English language Indian news sites and so on. My friends talked about his interviews but I didn’t really know them, besides just a quote I would see here and there. I think it was in Anupama’s DDLJ book (which I must have read around 2004/5 shortly after it was published) that I first ran across anything close to a full interview. And then the Kuch Kuch DVD had an interview with him, one of my friends found some bootleg copy of his first Koffee appearance, and then it was Inner/Outer that really opened my eyes to his intelligence, followed by Anupama’s biography which has so many amazing quotes from him. Now all those interviews are available on youtube and it is far too late for me to catch up. I also find sometimes I would rather read what he says than hear it. When he is talking, he is so charming and his voice and face and gestures are almost hypnotic that it is easy to lose track of the words. But when I read a transcript, the language alone is so intelligent and almost poetic, I want to read it over and over again and focus on it word by word.
On Fri, Oct 26, 2018 at 11:17 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Hello
When I was 8/9 years old I was sleeping at some friends and we watched kuch kuch hota hai. I discovered Indian movies that night and that actor but then I completely forgot about it. Many years later KKHH was broadcasted on tv and I was surprised to see it and to realise that I still remembered the main song. I became increasingly curious of the genre and decided to watch DDLJ because there the same actors in it. It was that movie that made me fall in love with Sharukh.
I mean at first I was just a bit curious but at the end of the movie I became a fan of shahrukh/ the Raj persona.
DDlj is definitely my favorite movie but KKHH holds a special place too.
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Such a sweet story! And another person who discovered Shahrukh but didn’t really fall in love with him until later.
It’s funny how many people mention DDLJ as the one that changed everything. And of course it changed everything for Shahrukh as well, made the whole country fall in love with him all at once.
Also, thank you for commenting! I think this might be one of your first comments? I always love hearing from new people.
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Yes DDLJ is a game changer, he is like the perfect boyfriend/husband that everyone dream of but at the same time not so perfect to make it a bit real ad common.
Oh you’re welcome, it is not the first time that I am commenting but it’s been a while, like two years, I kind of stopped reading your blog and then I saw the publication on fb and realized how long it’s been since the last time I visited it.
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My fandom happened in 2 phases. First–I was visiting homes in small towns and villages in rural Ethiopia in the early 2000’s for my work in nutrition. And many of these homes were decorated with posters of Bollywood stars. Not specific movies–more like photoshopped montages of popular stars, interspersed with blingee-type clip art. And one face kept arresting my attention. Eventually I got curious enough to try to figure out who this face belonged to. I searched “Bollywood actors” on my painfully slow dial-up internet connection, and found a name, Shah Rukh Khan. I was watching no movies at this time, but I got a ton of reading done! And Shah Rukh had faded from my consciousness by the time I got back to access to media.
Second–in 2015 I was on some long flights for work–traveling for 30+ hours–and my thought process went, “These short American movies are not going to cut it. Why don’t I try a Bollywood movie–they’re long, right? Hey, who was that one cute guy on the posters in Ethiopia? Oh, yeah, something Shah something Khan. Let’s see if they have any of his movies.” They had Chennai Express and Happy New Year. I watched CE then HNY on the way out and then on the way back. I think it was actually 1 2 3 4 (this guy is a clown, but, like, an actually entertaining clown!), Titli (the colors, the flowers, the stunning Deepika, the intense looks, the nuzzling), and Kashmir Main Tu Kunyakumari (the comaraderie, affection, and more clowning) that really hooked my heart.
After that it was about 6 months of growing obsession where I watched movies and read/watched every single interview I could find online. In a way I was hoping to find something that would show me that this guy was fake, just another shallow, self-obsessed, ethically challenged star. Just so I could move on with my life. But, that never happened, so here I still am! I mean, he’s not perfect, but he is all of those things I first liked about him, plus smart, funny, hard-working, loving, considerate, visionary, etc, etc. My husband, kid, family, and friends have all adjusted to Shah Rukh as a presence in my life, and I have met so many cool people *waves at Margaret and everyone here* since then.
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I’ve heard variations of your Ethiopia story from so many people I know who have done similar work. Peace Core in Jamaica in the 1970s, seeing posters of Amitabh. Like that. It’s part of what makes me believe that these films have traveled far farther than anyone realizes, into places where the only people seeing them are volunteers providing vital services, not academics or film critics or anyone else who might record these contacts.
And I am fascinated that it was his face which you found so arresting. I never had that experience, since I saw him in a full length film long before I saw a still image of his face. I can’t see his face and appreciate it as a face any more, I just see it and see “Shahrukh”.
I am so glad to have a vote for Chennai Express! I really love that movie, warts and all, and I haven’t found many people with a good thing to say about it. But it is so bright and fun and funny! And such a wonderful clever role for Shahrukh! And such a strong performance from Deepika!
I like your mention of your family adjusting. For the “real” fans, that definitely seems to be a part of it. Part of what I am jealous of with desi fans, it’s a lot easier to explain in the Indian context that you have this level of obsessive dedicated fandom for a movie star. I suppose in the West it might be accepted if it was Star Trek or The Beatles or Dr. Who, but for a movie star it is just not “normal”.
On Fri, Oct 26, 2018 at 1:58 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Haha, they have adjusted, and are very nice about it, but there’s no one in my flesh and blood life who have really come along on the journey. For that I rely on online people! And sometimes joyomama, who lives in my area but not really close.
Of a couple dozen Indian colleagues, I’ve only met a few who are movie fans, and only 2 fairly hardcore Shah Rukh fans. Obsessive star fandom is definitely a thing there, but there is also that weird anti-popular cinema feeling among middle class urban people.
But I have had a blast watching movies (Don, Chennai Express, Dil Dhadakne Do) with rural community health workers!
Interesting point about getting to know him first through stills vs through action. A very different experience. 🙂
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What I’ve found with the obsessive fandom in the desi community in the US is that it can be a second generation thing. Not always, but sometimes. Kids who grow up here look at the movies with fresh eyes, versus their (generally educated middle-class) parents. Definitely seems like that’s where a lot of the big SRK boom in the early 2000s was coming from, teenage girls born and raised overseas falling in love with this Indian-but-progressive male figure. I’m basing this on my college years, where I found myself in this group of girls/women my age who had grown up with the movies sort of in the background but not respected, and then discovered this big blast of fandom in high school and college. Which also meant I was very lucky, because I had lots of flesh and blood friends to talk to in the early years.
I kind of want to find someone who has never seen a Shahrukh movie, show them stills, and track their reactions over time in a big notebook. But that would probably be a wrong thing to do. Maybe if I ever get a grant to do lab research 🙂
On Fri, Oct 26, 2018 at 2:24 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Hee hee. And now my kid’s middle school friends from South Asian families say that “Shah Rukh is old and gets drunk in all of his movies”, lol. I keep trying to find out from her which stars if any they like, because I’d be quite happy to watch those movies with her, but if she knows, she’s not telling me.
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I always forget how short kids’ lives/memories are. So, your daughter’s middle-school friends would have been 3 when Om Shanti Om came out. And 7 or 8 when Chennai Express happened. And since then it is all bad movies and weird movies. No wonder they have no interest in him. Maybe if he manages one more fun romantic role in the next 5 years he can win over another generation.
On Fri, Oct 26, 2018 at 2:41 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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You know the Indian satellite channels which just show movie songs, from the 60s to the present–often separating them out into blocks of programming like “classic”, “romantic”, “best of today”? I wonder if my kid’s friends ever watch that kind of thing at home, either via cable, youtube, or DVDs. That could be another way of getting to know Shah Rukh. Hmmm.
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There’s also the classic SRK films being broadcast on satellite. Although now that Netflix has most of them, I don’t know how common that is.
On Fri, Oct 26, 2018 at 3:09 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I think I’m probably like your friends. Indian but raised in the US and having not much of a connection to Indian culture. We are not a Hindi-speaking family so the language barrier was also there. It was on a family trip to India that I discovered SRK. I was a little kid and not enjoying being there at all because of the heat and all the relatives I didn’t know crowding me. I used to spend most of the time watching TV and there were channels that used to play BW songs all day long. I think the first song I saw was Loveria from a really old SRK movie and I was instantly in love. I thought he was the cutest thing I had ever seen. Those dimples just about killed me. That’s why I don’t get people who say he’s not good looking. What? Huh?
I came back to the US and looked him up online and the obsession began. My parents were really happy to feed it because it was a thrill for them that I was enjoying something from their culture. I was psyched when I discovered that the local Blockbuster had copies of Asoka! I looked up everything, read every interview I could and loved him even more.
Then I started growing up and forgot about SRK. I was too cool for all those cheesy movies like Mohabbetein and Kal Ho Na Ho. I fancied myself an intellectual and read books and listened to NPR. No way would I admit to any SRK obsession. Off and on, I would watch and enjoy the occasional Don or Om Shanti Om but the childhood love had faded. Up until last year, I had mostly abandoned BW completely. I would watch the SRK movies most of the time but roll my eyes and wonder why I wasted my time. I had just about thrown up my hands in disgust by the time he assaulted us with Dilwale. I couldn’t understand why this smart and gorgeous man was ruining his career one movie at a time. It just didn’t compute.
Then he made JHMS and I was in love again. It was also one of those movies that I assumed I would watch and roll my eyes at as had become the norm. I was not even planning on watching it and ended up seeing it on a lark. He touched my heart again after many many years and I was completely bewildered by the hateful reaction of the Indian public and critics. Then I went back and saw Raees, Dear Zindagi and Fan and what?? SRK is making good movies again??? I was stunned that people are not liking them. I feel confident in saying he’s on the right track again even if it’s taking the audience time to catch up. I did it. I think others will see it too soon. Sometimes I think it’s the overdose in the Indian media that made people sick of him. His horrible movies didn’t help either. Since I’m out of that media environment, I don’t see anything else other than the occasional movies or things I choose to seek out myself so I think the turnaround was easier for me.
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Awwwww, Asoka at Blockbusters! You just took me back in time 14 years. I don’t know what it was, but Asoka was the only DVD that Blockbusters ever had. Every time I was in a Blockbusters I used to check and see if they had a new movie option, and it was always just Asoka. And sometimes 1947: Earth. I wonder why? Maybe a precursor to the Netflix deal, Shahrukh was smart enough to sell rights overseas?
Okay, shaking off my college years and returning to the present, I am so happy JHMS brought you back! And so happy that you think it might bring other people back too! One thing I found really interesting was that the JHMS box office was good in America. Not spectacular, but good. Better per screen than a lot of other films. I wonder if it might be partly your experiences? That people came to it with fresh eyes and outside of the media stream, and that the generation that came of age with him in the 90s is swinging back around, at a place in their lives when they are ready to return to Indian films.
Also, just for you:
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I can tell you that the overseas audience genuinely loves SRK in a way that probably even Indians living in India don’t. But he has tested everyone’s patience with so many bad movies. The audience outside India even helped rescue disasters like Billu! SRK admitted that they managed to save Dilwale through the skin of their teeth due to the international box office.
Going by my family and friends’ reactions, people are/were exhausted by the sheer amount of trash he has been producing. Please give them one really good movie and they will be back happily. They just need a reason. The overseas audience is not the one that he needs to worry about. The Indian audience is probably a lot tougher because I assume there are a lot of other factors present there.
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I wouldn’t consider myself a “fan” but Shahrukh has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. KKHH was one of those movies that I watched a lot as a child. I also remember watching Chaiyya Chaiyya a lot as well since my best friend was obsessed with that song when we were like four or five. The interesting thing is that I never even really watched Hindi movies until I got to high school since I didn’t know Hindi and my mom was the only one in the family that did. There were Hindi movies like KKHH, Taare Zameen Par, Dhoom 2, or Bhoothnath, that I would see occasionally with my mom but it wasn’t common. I really got hooked on to Hindi movies once I saw DDLJ with my mom which I ended up loving. From then I watched KKHH and K3G because those were the only other Shahrukh-Kajol movies I had heard of. Then I realized that Karan Johar had been a part of all these movies that I loved which lead to me watching KANK and SOTY. Then I discovered Varun and moved on to exploring more Hindi movies
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It’s funny how Shahrukh is kind of a gateway star, bringing you to Varun through Karan. I wonder how common that is? Shahrukh being the first person you notice, but then bringing people on to others?
On Fri, Oct 26, 2018 at 3:47 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I feel like it would be quite common since his most popular movies do tend to have other actors play good parts as well. Like KKHH could lead to other Kajol and Rani movies or K3G could lead to other Hrithik and Kareena movies. Or even something like Chennai Express could introduce someone to Deepika.
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Now that I think about it, if you compare his filmography to Aamir or Salman, there just aren’t that many kind of hyperlinks available. If you like Lagaan, you can watch more Aamir movies or more Ashutosh Gowariker, but there isn’t really anything else that similar. Salman even in Bajrangi Bhaijaan, unless you really liked Kareena in her 15 minute role, there really isn’t anyone else to watch. But Shahrukh, he always has a strong female co-star (except for Fan, where he was his own co-star) and tends to work with directors that have long filmographies.
On Fri, Oct 26, 2018 at 3:59 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Exactly! Another one I just thought about is KHNH with Saif and Priety.
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Yes! And even recently, Raees would turn you on to Mahira and Nawazuddin, and JHMS to Anushka and Imtiaz Ali, and Dilwale is all about introducing people to Varun and Kriti. He’s very generous to his collaberators, when you think about it in terms of if the movies would make you want to watch more from his co-stars/directors as much as from him himself. I saw it myself, Chennai Express was my first Rohit Shetty film, and I watched a whole bunch afterwards because I liked the Shetty touches so much.
On Fri, Oct 26, 2018 at 4:12 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Oh yeah definitely. I was really upset at how bad Dilwale turned out to be but I’ve always appreciated the fact that it helped Varun a lot in terms of popularity. I honestly don’t think any other star is like that. Even though Aamir has done film’s like Dangal, the movie is still mainly about him.
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You can see it in how Anushka and Dips’ careers have turned out. Being launched opposite him gave them a permanent leg up, they were able to show real acting ability and learn on set and all kinds of things right from the first, in roles and with skills that could easily translate into other films. Amir is wonderful at mentoring his Dangal actresses, but a two month intensive in wrestling isn’t going to be nearly as useful as Anushka learning to dance and do a love scene for Rab Ne.
On Fri, Oct 26, 2018 at 4:24 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I loved this story from your book! I could imagine the look you’re talking about as soon as I read it. Of course, the reason for that may be that I’ve watched DDLJ so many times that I’ve lost count. I wanted to watch that scene again and searched for it on youtube, but all the youtube videos around that scene mostly start from the song Ho gaya na hai tujhko… So, if you or anyone reading this finds a youtube video for it, please share it here.. 😛
Anyway, not surprisingly, DDLJ is the movie that made me his fan. I was 12 when I watched this movie in a theatre in Chennai, almost a year after it released (this movie ran for that long even in a place like Chennai, where the Tamil film industry is also huge!) We hardly ever went to movies as a family. But we went for this one coz it was running for so long and we heard good things. That day my younger sister (2 years younger than me) and I fell in love with Shahrukh Khan. Of course, we were kids, but, I think that day onwards I just wanted Raj as my boyfriend when I grew up. After that movie, our obsession for Shahrukh Khan grew as he grew. And even our family could not force us to study when a Shahrukh movie was playing on TV. They would just give in to our pleadings even though we were never allowed to watch movies during our evening study hours. My sister and I have spent many summers watching and re-watching many Shahrukh movies since then. We also share every Shahrukh interview with each other and discuss it passionately dissecting all the things he does and says. 😛 I think my sister is an even bigger fan because she goes to the theatre the same weekend his movie releases. And, to this day, she will never admit that Happy new year or Dilwale are bad movies. Anyway, that’s my story. As I wrote this, I realized that my fandom for Shahrukh is tied in with my memories of watching his movies with my sister, although that doesn’t happen as often now coz we live in different cities.
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Awww, now I miss my sister! Shahrukh is something we share too. Not as much and not for as long as you two, but similar. We both found him at the same time separately while in college, and then we were reunited over that winter break and spent 3 weeks watching every Shahrukh movie we could. That’s how we spent every college vacation from then on, and it’s still what we do every time we get together.
I am jealous that you had Shahrukh all through childhood, that’s so sweet.
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The first Indian movie I tracked down was Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara because I saw a poster in my local mall and was intrigued by an Indian road trip movie set in Spain. That one impressed me enough that I got curious and started watching whatever seemed interesting and had decent ratings on Netflix – by myself, mostly, after the rest of my family went to bed. I found OK Kanmani and kept going, and very quickly following the top rated movies led me to the SRK fare available at that moment: Kal Ho Na Ho, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, and Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham. So, watching KHNH, I remember having a similar first reaction to yours, he gets such a big intro and I thought, wait, that guy? I knew the name Shah Rukh Khan but I didn’t have a face in my head and I’d thought he was probably the cute love interest until SRK got the sparkly entrance. Kept watching until I got to the big twist sometime around 1am and thought wow, this is a total soap opera, I haven’t watched anything like this since I was 13, and turned it off. But I finished it the next night and there I was, way too late for a work night, sitting on the couch crying at the hospital scene, and the moment I remember is thinking, what the heck? why am I crying? The next day I was talking to a desi friend at work and she just said, oh yeah, that’s Shah Rukh.
I think of that as the start of the puzzle because there was something in my reaction I couldn’t figure out, but I was still exploring and watching a bunch of different stuff. I saw DDLJ but didn’t really fall for it, and some of his other young movies turned me off for a bit, and the big 90s films were fun but I thought of them in that dramatic, kind of soapy Bollywood category.
When JHMS came to Netflix I avoided it for a while because I’d been disappointed by Raees and I wasn’t excited by the premise. But JHMS turned out to be the puzzle all over again, except this time in a movie I really liked – the first movie in years that I felt the need to rewatch, more than once – with a Shah Rukh who seemed way more real, and mature, and accessible. So here I am, still trying to figure it out. Glad to have the company I’ve found here :).
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I am glad to have you! And I love your description of crying and trying to puzzle out why you were crying. That’s the thing, you find yourself reacting inspite of yourself, without any logical intellectual connection. Like his performance is bypassing your brain entirely and getting straight to your heart.
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I am amazed by the comments here indicating many people rediscovered Shahrukh through JHMS. I didn’t like that movie at all even though I watched it in a movie theatre. I loved Shahrukh’s beard look and his acting was great and he was charming. But, maybe the story itself and Anushka’s so called Gujrati accent turned me off. I still have to figure out what is it about that movie that I don’t seem to get.
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I felt the same about DDLJ ;). Who knows? Could be just how the moment intersects with your life. I don’t speak Hindi and didn’t understand Anushka was putting on an accent until I read some reviews. I liked her character and didn’t have the negative reaction I saw in some reactions, but maybe that was partly because I was missing clues that were supposed to cast her as a certain type? I don’t know. JHMS also has more parallels with my experience, so that’s probably part of it.
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Yeah maybe it’s about the moment in our life when we watch a movie. Anyway, maybe I should rewatch it someday.
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I mean, I still have issues with big pieces of the plot. I just really like how SRK and Anushka play off each other. It’s one of those movies that I think is much better on the level of acting and dialogue than on the overall structure and plotting.
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I came to Shahrukh by way of Hrithik. My niece talked me into watching Jodha Akbar and, after wiping the drool off of my chin, I had to see ALL Hrithik’s movies. And I loved them – until i came to Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham. I couldn’t understand why mama Jaya loved that short little man with the big nose so much. As the movie progressed, I liked him a bit more but I had to find out what the attraction was. So, I set about watching all of HIS movies. They were entertaining but still not giving me an answer. Then I saw Darr. And lost my heart to that damaged, broken boy. (I hated Sunny’s character – I thought he was sadistic, teasing Juhi when he knew that she was already freaked out. And then Juhi urging big, mean Sunny to kill the kid when he should have had him institutionalized….. Shahrukh was so good that I wanted to protect him.) From there, it was a short journey to wanting more of this actor.
The only problem I have now is – I don’t like to see any movie in which he dies. I have the Devdas DVD but have never watched it. I’ve seen Raees once and that’s it. I have Hey Ram but, again, haven’t seen it. Nope. I want to see a happy Shahrukh, in his signature pose, embracing the world.
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I used to have that rule! No movies where Shahrukh dies. I finally broke it just so I could say I had seen all of them. there was a funny story in an interview with him a few years back, they asked if his kids had seen his movies and he said yes, only they didn’t let them watch any where he died. But then Suhana was older and they decided it was time so they sat her down and showed her them, and she cried a little. I am sure it was done in a caring appropriate way, but I can’t help picturing this poor little girl being sat down an shown death scene after death scene (and he has so many death scenes!).
Oh, and interesting that you had the reverse journey of Nikki! She started with Shahrukh and ended with Varun, you started with Hrithik and ended with Shahrukh. Everyone has to find their own person I guess.
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I’ve become a fan of Shah Rukh in 2005 after watching K3G in cinema. It was my first “bollywood” and SRK film ever, and it change my life.
There wasn’t youtube back then, or fancy sites, buying dvds in internet seemed impossible. I was living in a dorm, had one bad computer (not even mine, borrowed from my neighbor), and I was spending hours in internet to learn something about this fascinating actor with long name (I still remember the noise my PC was doing while working). Later I have seen some other movies, some of them I didn’t like: DDLJ (because I read too much about it), Mohabbatein (boring, boring, boring), Main Hoon Na. And some of them I loved: Karan Arjun, Koyla, Devdas, and much later Veer-Zaara, Kal Ho Na Ho (there is even my quote among others on the cover of polish dvd, because I participated in a competition). Durning years I had many crushes, but SRK is always the king for me, and the only Khan I like.
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I am glad to hear SRK is king for you still! We won’t tell Maddy.
On Sun, Oct 28, 2018 at 5:10 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I think for me it’s just that I came to modern Bollywood films in the early 2000s, after a childhood of watching black and white BW films with my parents, and SRK and Aamir were the two most significant actors of 2000s decade, putting out the kinds of movies that appealed to me, both critically and for entertainment value. But I would consider myself a fan of the industry and its output and its players moreso than a fan of any one player in it. But like Obama, SRK is the entire package – home life, professional life, dedication, ethics, heart, and mind – which certainly makes him fan-worthy.
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Totally shallow and unworthy thought that occurred to me in response to your thoughtful comment: “Aryan and Malia! They have so much in common! They would be the perfect international power couple! The wedding photos would be amazing and the in-law parents would love each other! How can we make this happen?”
And then the b-plot in my movie version would be their respective bodyguards also falling in love.
On Mon, Oct 29, 2018 at 4:12 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Aryan & Malia would be the hottest, trendiest, most IT couple on the planet. What a good idea!
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And then Sasha and Suhana could become best friends and slowly take over the world!
On Mon, Oct 29, 2018 at 8:08 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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