Happy Shahrukh Summer! You realize if I spin this out long enough it will go right into “30 Days of SRK” in the lead up to his birthday? But we will probably all be sick of him by then.
There was a serious problem with early Shahrukh films, they hired this young energetic actor from nowhere to support the bigger star, and then he swooped in and stole the film.
Question is, in which of these films do you think he most overshadowed the “star”?
Deewana: Poor over-shadowed Rishi with more screen time and more backstory, and yet who remembers him?
King Uncle: Jackie was the hero, the “Daddy Warbucks” character, and Shahrukh was merely supposed to be the charming younger brother.
Darr: The most famous one! Sunny Deol is the hero, Shahrukh is the villain. But who is the male lead character?
Ram-Jaane: Is this even fair? Is this a situation of Shahrukh stealing the movie, or it always being written for him?
Trimurti: 3 brothers this time, Jackie as the noble hero, Anil as the troubled scamp, and then Shahrukh the immature baby.
Dear Zindagi: Now we are in the phase where Shahrukh is the older character actor, and yet he STILL overshadows the lead!
Ae Dil Hai Mushkil: Just makes me giggle to put this on the list. You decide, did Shahrukh’s five minute appearance overshadow the rest of the film or not?
dontcallitbollywood 
A much more interesting question in my opinion would be “In which film did the SRK star persona most overshadow the role?”. Many, many movies come to mind.
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That is a good question! I may borrow it.
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I was going to say Deewana, because it’s true nobody remembers Rishi, but it’s also true that Rishi was so miscasted it was easy to be better than him, every not ugly young guy would overshadow Rishi. Darr is something else, one had to have a lot charisma to be noticed between Sunny and Juhi.
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Yeah, agree about Deewana. Any young man on a motorcycle would feel exciting in contrast.
But can we say the same about Darr? Juhi was at her peak, but Sunny was kind of old for the role.
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Maybe, but he still was like 100 times better and more in shape than Rishi in Deewana.
And for Sharukh in ADHM, he was stealing this scene, but I personally hate his speach about uncredited love and so I also don’t like this cameo much.
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Someday he and Ranbir will co-star for real, and I look forward to Shahrukh dancing rings around him in both charisma and acting ability.
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Yes. I want to see that.
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I didn’t like SRK in ADHM too. And that speech made no sense!
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Oh yes, this speech is just something a guy who can’t have the girl would repeat to feel better.
OMG I hate this movie.
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Meanwhile there’s some girl he has on a string who feels like dirt because he is always talking about the one who got away and how his love for her is true and pure, unlike this woman who is actually interested in him.
Didn’t I give ADHM SRK a good ending? Oh yes I did! https://dontcallitbollywood.com/2017/10/08/silly-sunday-post-happy-25-days-to-srks-b-day-25-srk-plots-filled-in-part-2/
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ADHM is a terrible movie!!
I would have preferred a movie about SRK and Aish’s character instead and what happened to break them up. An anti-love story maybe.
Anything would have been better than Ranbir forcing himself on Anushka every few minutes and then getting cancer so they can be together til she dies. In reality, an uninterested girl would have remarried someone else and Ranbir still wouldn’t have mattered to her. She would have moved on with her life because no friendships ever mean that much in comparison to a real spouse and children.
Karan Johar was living out his own fantasy life where friends are more important that actual spouses and families.
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Sunny is only 9 years older than SRK. He was only in his 30s when Darr was made! Rishi was also only 39 when Deewana came out. They really were not that old. Think about this – SRK released one of his biggest romances Veer-Zaara when he was 39.
I don’t think age itself is always an issue. The problem with Rishi was that he really was a milquetoast kind of a mild actor. It worked for him to play the kind of soft roles Amitabh didn’t play in that era. A kind of alternate programming available for those that were not into the angry young man thing. SRK’s arrival pretty much ended his career because here was someone willing to play romantic roles but wasn’t bland and boring like Rishi. It didn’t help that Rishi had anyway become complacent and gained too much weight and dressed like a grandpa in sweaters. SRK is in his 50s now and he still wouldn’t have the same issue Rishi did.
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I’d say Deewana (and not Darr) because SRK didn’t have the author backed role in Deewana. He shows up towards the second half once Divya-Rishi story has progressed and ended. SRK was just a whiff of fresh air and you just wanted Divya-SRK to be together because they look so evenly matched. Rishi had started to look old and bored and all that weight didn’t help.
In contrast, SRK had the author backed role in Darr. The movie starts with Jadoo teri nazar and the whole movie was from SRK’s point of view.
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Oooo, good points! And Sunny has the author-subtly-undermined role. Pushing a shopping cart, wearing a woman’s ring, there are all these little moments of emasculation. Culminating in Shahrukh defeating him and Juhi having to save herself.
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It’s a sad comparison for the other actors because honestly, SRK really is a much better actor than Rishi, Sunny, Anil, and Jackie. They really don’t match up to him so overshadowing them is not a difficult task. But even more than acting, it’s really about the charisma. SRK is just magnetic and he is that way in real life too. He commands whatever room he is in. It’s an inbuilt thing – you either have it or you don’t. Ranbir is a very good actor (better than the ones named earlier) but would lose to SRK too if they did a movie together because he can’t match up to that blinding star power.
That’s why Amitabh/SRK scenes come out so well because both can rise up to meet each other on equal footing. Salman also has lots of charisma but fails on the acting front. But give him easy fun stuff to do and he can go toe to toe. It’s an absolute disaster if he has to act though like in that scene they had together in Tubelight.
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I would also say that is why Billu works so well. At least, I enjoyed it even if it flopped. Irrfan and Shahrukh created equally interesting characters through equally skilled performances, and in that case the charisma imbalance was used deliberately.
Maybe I would pick Dear Zindagi from this list? Because it is the most foolish casting, they thought with the script being so heavily weighted towards Alia, and Alia’s youth and prettiness and acting ability, Shahrukh wouldn’t overshadow her. But he really really did! I can’t think of an actress in that role that he wouldn’t have over-shadowed. Maybe Rani?
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They could have easily gotten someone like Rishi and the focus would have stayed on Alia easily. But again, it would have been very boring to have straight up therapy sessions. The only reason they don’t make you fall asleep is because of the slight sexual tension between SRK and Alia. It had to be a fine balance because getting someone younger would mean the audience would want them together which doesn’t work if you want to show a healthy doctor-patient relationship. Getting someone too old or unattractive doesn’t work because then there is no tension anyway. SRK works in that sense because it’s totally believable that she would fall for him but also believable that the audience realizes that he’s too old for her and this not appropriate.
The problem occurs since the other 3 men are so pathetic that in spite of the age difference, you really don’t mind Alia and SRK hooking up. The audience is so used to seeing older men and younger women pairs that the expected revulsion isn’t really there. Maybe Aamir would have worked. Older but not as sexy as SRK so the audience isn’t left wanting them together. He also has a pleasant charisma but not the overpowering type that SRK has.
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Maybe Irrfan Khan could have done it too? Pleasant intelligent charisma, we could see Alia being drawn in to his wisdom and the forced intimacy they had together, but it wouldn’t feel like they could truly be a couple.
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I’ve watched that last scene from Billu so many times! It’s so good, kills me that it’s 5 minutes at the very end of the movie. SRK and Irrfan have good chemistry, there’s a slight competitive vibe but they can both be very subtle and bring in emotional depth. I think they work better together than, say, SRK and Nawazuddin in Raees. Would love to see a real SRK – Irrfan movie.
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I think Billu was one of those movies where the stars ended up spending more time together on the promotional tour than they did while filming. Irrfan and Shahrukh looked like they had a great personal vibe together in interviews and stuff, I wish we could have seen that in the actual movie.
Or, they could make this script that I wrote for them: https://dontcallitbollywood.com/2018/11/02/shahrukh-birthday-repost-shahrukh-and-irrfan-in-a-passionate-late-in-life-relationship/
On Tue, Jul 2, 2019 at 5:50 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Same!!! That hug. Ooof. Also relevant for Pride week.
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Since you added newer films as well I feel it’s ok to add Saathiya too. Here’s this engaging, fresh movie with the newest puppy in town as the leading man and all kinds of exciting things are going on and OMG, no! Rani! Aww poor Vivek. And and… Then SRK shows up and *BOOM* movie? What movie?
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Oh, great choice! And I think I am reposting a fanfic I wrote about SRK in that movie in a few days. I’d post the original link here, but I don’t want to spoil the rerun post! Swing back on Thursday to see it.
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I don’t know, overshadowing to me means an actor by his skill or persona steals the spotlight despite the script not favoring him or the director not intending it to be that way. I haven’t seen Ramjaane, Trimurti or King Uncle.
ADHM – didn’t work for me.
DZ – It remains Alia’s story throughout. SRK has a big impact on Alia, which is why we feel he dominates their scenes because she’s subdued and in awe of him and we’re seeing him through her eyes, I think.
Deewana – It’s easy to pile on Rishi, but the movie is named after SRK’s character! The story demanded SRK to be the complete opposite of Rishi – young, energetic and brash. At the same time, he has to make the audience care for him since they should accept him with Divya at the end. SRK delivered brilliantly but the story supported him throughout.
Darr – He may be the villain but he is the protagonist, not Sunny. I don’t know if the movie was always planned this way (it wasn’t, if you believe Sunny’s version of what went down!), but I think Yash Chopra fell in love with SRK and the narrative changed. Sunny didn’t do himself any favors with his bland acting (no chemistry with Juhi) but his character was also made to do stupid things. SRK had the author-backed role and the best songs.
All this to say that to me these roles were designed for the actor to shine.
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Excellent points!
I think the only one I would argue about is Deewana. Shahrukh gets the title song, but he only gets 2 songs to Rishi’s 4. Rishi gets far more screen time, Shahrukh doesn’t show up until after intermission and Rishi reappears a mere half an hour later. Shahrukh gets the girl in the end, but then Vinod Khanna gets the girl in Muqadder Ka Sikander and it is still Amitabh’s movie. I think Rishi’s role was intended to be the starring part with Shahrukh merely a sympathetic second lead, and yet today most people only remember Shahrukh’s hour of screen time and two songs versus Rishi’s hour and a half and 4 songs.
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How about Maya Memsaab? I don’t think he overshadows Deepa, but he does the other male leads. I know he’s supposed to be her passion, but it felt like the script was written as the husband’s tragic love story?
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Ooo! Yes, I think Shahrukh is supposed to be the callow youth, we should find the first man who seduces her more sexy and intriguing, and her husband more tragic and noble, and Shahrukh just kind of “there”. But instead he had a stronger onscreen presence than any of the others.
On Tue, Jul 2, 2019 at 11:40 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I was scrolling to the bottom of the comments to say Maya Memsaab too! It is meant to be an ensemble picture, and he really doesn’t have that much screen time, but his part is elevated through his charisma and their chemistry. And he is very good at portraying the weakling who betrays his first love when she becomes inconvenient/embarassing.
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Jinx! Great minds… 😉
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I say “Deewana.” I remember watching the movie back in 92′ and thinking the new guy (SRK) was one ugly dude but a compelling watch. There are other movies with the same or similar plot line, but “Deewana” was one of the few where the *second* hero ends up with girl. And I think it’s entirely because of SRK’s intense presence – there’s no way the audience would have bought a woman going back to Rishi after being with SRK. 🙂
And oh, I actively disliked SRK’s performance in ADHM. His acting was so at odds, tonally speaking, with the rest of the performances that he actually threw me out of the film during his scenes. 😦
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