Happy Saturday! Today is the day we close up the lake house, which is always cold and sad and exhausting. So I’m gonna do that, and then come home and watch Bhool Bhulaiya 2 and review it as a nice relaxing evening.
It’s SRK Month! So we must chat about SRK. And yes, also various trailers and things you care about. But mostly SRK.
We have a new SRKian! Isn’t that exciting? Royalparadigm just started commenting after lurking for a bit and was brought to us by, of course, DDLJ. That movie just keeps bringing in new SRKians even after 27 years.
What is one thing you would want a new SRKian to know/see/hear/whatever?
For me, Inner/Outer World of SRK! It’s such a pleasant way of getting to know SRK as the public performer and the private person and the very very SMART interview person.
dontcallitbollywood 
This is last week’s most important announcement – Aayush Sharma’s third film:
I won’t lie, it’s so bizzare I can’t help but love it. The muscles, the crown, the audacity of AS #03, I can’t stop smiling.
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I feel like he’s growing on all of us. Plus the fact it actually says AS#03, as if anyone was waiting for Aayush’s next film. I mean I guess Salman really loves him to keep on producing his movies.
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Interestingly enough I became a SRKian after Chennai Express. I watched it when I was a kid and fell in love with him. He was so mean but I still loved him. I just loved the movie and slowly went into the SRK spiral.
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I love watching behind the scenes stuff and interviews for SRK. He’s much more thoughtful and philosophical than people expect him to be. He’s also consistently adorable in the moments where he’s with friends and has his guard down. Thank you for recommending that video.
Having only discovered him in 2019 and not having anyone around me who knows about him independently of me, I’ve never had the opportunity to experience the magnitude of his stardom. That’s why I’m excited for Pathaan. I’ll get to see him on the big screen and see other fans react to him for the first time. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to experience that on the level of a world tour, but I’ll take what I can get.
It’s funny, I’ve always been a firm believer in the “Never meet your heroes” philosophy, but SRK has somehow broken through that. idk if it’s the way he says he loves to be loved and he has worked hard to be recognized that makes me trust him to be kind to his fans, or if it’s just that undefinable endearing charm clouding my judgement, but I would so love to meet him some day. (as I’m sure we all would)
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I am excited for you to see him on the big screen! And I hope you have a great experience. Ive been spoiled, I had so many great SRK opening nights before pandemic and streaming shrank the audience. There’s nothing like a sold out theater screaming in excitement.
There are a couple DCIB people who have met him in real life, and he was wonderful. Kind and interested and apparently smells AMAZING.
If you haven’t yet, check out the movie Fan. It’s disturbing but brilliant, and a great investigation of his stardom and fandom.
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Those Big Screen experiences are unforgettable! It will be surreal if you’ve been a fan for so long Royalparadigm. Hope you have a blast.
My first was Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna and I vividly remember sitting there like a little kid totally awestruck, like seeing Santa in the house on Christmas Eve.
OSO was a full house in Sydney with full on-participation from the audience laughing and cheering. It was a lot of fun.
The first time I saw MNIK , after all the drama of boycotts and protests I started crying so hard at the beginning I could feel the seats around me shaking.
And then Don 2 I sat through back to back sessions – first time just watching him, then the second time paying a little attention to the plot.
And of course, DDLJ in Mumbai at the Marathi Mandir – a print which looked 30 years old, no subtitles and a rat running across the front of the screen – best fun ever!!!! 😄
……… roll on 2023!
As for meeting him in person, that’s a whole different topic! 😊
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Madhuri’s Maja Ma is available on Prime already. Someone watched it? I saw the first 30 minutes but I’m not sure if I like it. I don’t want to spoil the movie, like the people on twitter spoiled it for me, so I will only say: it’s better to watch in blind, without reading about the plot.
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I tried to watch it and only got 30 minutes in. Madhuri was beautiful and her acting was great, but I couldn’t get past the terrible Southern accents of the Indian American family. I was pleasantly surprised by the plot but I couldn’t watch any more of it.
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This is not making me excited.
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I first watched an SRK movie in 2017 or 2018. I was sick, and couldn’t read, but my book group was vicariously travelling to India so I thought I would watch some Bollywood on Netflix. And after three movies, I was struck by the fact that there weren’t a lot of actors in India (I think Red Chilis had recently signed an agreement with Netflix so they were pushing the Red Chilis library at me). And I thought “who is this short ugly guy in so many of these movies”. So I looked him up! And the internet told me he was the KING OF BOLLYWOOD. And I thought “gee, if he is the king I better watch some more.” And then I fell in love with him. I think I officially declared my love after watching Jab Harry Met Sejal.
So the book club member who wanted to go to India (vicariously) is Indian American. I went backpacking with her last weekend and she had never seen an SRK film. So I told her to watch DDLJ. AND SHE JUST DID with her family. And they thought it was hilarious.
So even though DDLLJ was perhaps the seventh SRK film I saw, I guess it is what I recommend to people first. It isn’t my favorite, I don’t have the nostalgia attached to it. But it is referenced EVERYWHERE.
But Margaret, you do are a film studies expert. If you could narrow SRK’s career to three movies, what movies would they be?
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If I were looking at SRK as a star studies subject, what 3 films describe his identity as an artist and movie star, I would do DDLJ, Om Shanti Om, and Fan. If you let me expand to 4 films, I’d do DDLJ, K3G, Om Shanti Om, and Fan. His fresh faced outsider start, his Full Stardom Confidence era, and his interrogating of that stardom as an artist. I almost want to drop DDLJ off the list because the K3G era is really more important in terms of his stardom, but then DDLJ is what made him what he is.
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If I’m being 100% honest, my first reaction to noticing that I was falling in love with him was “Wait, this guy? What?” and now it’s the opposite… I have an embarrassing number of pictures of him saved to a Pinterest board.
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Ditto! Short, big nose, a little chubby, really?
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