Shah Rukh Khan: A Story Of Continuing Relevance

I was just a little over 20 when economic liberation was announced in 1991, and like me, over the next few years, millions watched a certain Shah Rukh Khan take long strides in establishing himself by portraying a hunger we all resonated with. It is interesting to note that Shah Rukh’s characters portray a kind of hunger which we could and still resonate with.

There is always a context to the birth of a star. When the context and the individual’s stars perfectly align, a Superstar is born. Be it Rajesh Khanna, Amitabh Bachchan, Madhuri Dixit or Shah Rukh Khan, they were born out of a context where their talent matched the situation like no one else’s, and in a way compelled them to stay relevant by reinventing themselves.

As stars came and went, few like Shah Rukh Khan continue to stay supremely relevant. His contemporary films are not just mega hits; he remains as fresh in people’s memory as he was when he made it Big in the ‘90s. The ‘Baadshah’, as against the ‘Shahenshah’ Amitabh Bachchan, has had a different superstardom story than the Big B.

Though both are often compared, I feel a true comparison should be between Khan and Rajesh Khanna. India’s first commercial superstar and the reigning superstar rose on the back of great individual performances as well as making women feel supremely good in their films, whereas Bachchan at his peak made heroines and even comedians almost irrelevant to the films’ plots.

While Rajesh Khanna acted in various women-centric films, like Dushman, Aap Ki Kasam, etc, Shah Rukh has been the epitome of love and sensitivity in his various films, like Deewana, Dulwale Dulhaniya Le Jaayenge (DDLJ), Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, etc. In 1969, it was Aradhana which catapulted Rajesh Khanna to superstardom on the back of a story where the main protagonist is the leading lady Sharmila Tagore.

The foundation of your rise truly matters I suppose, as Bachchan rose on the back of his angry young man persona, where fighting the system was more critical than wooing women.

By the time Shah Rukh was knocking on Bollywood’s doors, India was on the cusp of a major transition. The economy was all set to open up, and we were moving from a professed socialist philosophy to a far more liberal outlook, compelled by economic circumstances and a mega shift in global geo-politics, as capitalism triumphed over communism, making the United States Of America (USA) the world’s sole super power.

Shah Rukh, from his television days, portrayed a sense of ‘anticipatory vulnerability’ which consciously or unconsciously resonated with the mental and emotional makeup of the masses.

I was just a little over 20 when economic liberation was announced in 1991, and like me, over the next few years, millions watched a certain Shah Rukh Khan take long strides in establishing himself by portraying a hunger we all resonated with. It is interesting to note that Shah Rukh’s characters portray a kind of hunger which we could and still resonate with.

Shah Rukh’s characters in films like Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman and DDLJ (just to name two) are about seeking and seeking without guilt, something our generation was beginning to transition into. In the India of pre-1991, steeped as it was in socialist philosophy, ambition was not seen as an honourable quality. Shah Rukh, through his characters, told us that it was not just okay to dream, but also to possessively pursue them.

Through his sensitive portrayal of a romantic and ambitious hero, Shah Rukh also endeared to the women folk. A must-read book in this regard is this classic by Shrayana Bhattacharya titled ‘Desperately Seeking Shah Rukh’, in which she explores in depth how the phenomenon Shah Rukh is viewed by women through a combination of his romantic characters and real-life persona.

Shah Rukh also endeared to the masses as he is seen as an outsider. He made it Big in the big, bad world in Bollywood, though his roots are in Delhi, a city many Mumbaikars love to hate, and vice versa. Even in a film like Baazigar, where Shah Rukh is on a killing spree, in the end walks away with the heroine’s sympathy. This is yet another film, like Darr, where Shah Rukh portrays a kind of naked obsession to get what he wants.

One of my favourite Shah Rukh films is Kabhi Haan, Kabhi Naa, where the sense of obsession which spreads across the vast canvas of his work, is at a nascent stage. It acquires dangerous and at times unpalatable proportions (like in Anjaam), but his characters somewhere stay rooted in wooing women respectfully and endearingly.

DDLJ (1995) is where the sense of vulnerability and charm acquires mature proportions and makes Shah Rukh and the film an epic which they are today. ?By the time he stars in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998), his anticipatory vulnerability has reached a kind of evolved culmination and his reinvention as an actor has already started, where he plays a father to a young daughter.

The new millennium witnessed Shah Rukh continue to capture the consciousness of his fans and grows in stature by leaps and bounds. Cut to 2024, Shah Rukh is a star bigger than mega stars and is also a highly successful businessman. In the Bachchan versus Shah Rukh debate, it is incredible that Khan has achieved the ‘impossible’ – that of being an equal Baadshah to the Shahenshah. It is undeniable though that Shah Rukh’s inspiration is also Amitabh Bachchan.

Actually, in many ways, Shah Rukh has perhaps raced ahead of Amitabh in the overall stardom story. Amitabh terribly failed in business, whereas Shah Rukh runs an expanding empire. Purely contextually, Amitabh, at his peak, made heroines in his films redundant. Shah Rukh, on the other hand, rode and rose on the back of respecting and loving women with sensitivity on screen.

While Bachchan sought justice through his characters, Shah Rukh made it more realistic and pleasing for his audience by trying to placate women and making acquiring their love his goal. No wonder, he is so popular with the women folk, as after all, in a strong male dominated society, there is one man whom they can look up to as somebody who provides them with an elevated status.

Connection to stars comes from an illusory space, but unlike Amitabh, the line between the reel and real in terms of how Shah Rukh is perceived is perhaps much thinner. Also, unlike Amitabh, who in his hey days was seen as a one-man industry, Shah Rukh has always been seen as a hard working team man who collaborates and makes others stars too through his associations. He knows he is watched constantly and comes across as endearing even in his interviews, where he extolls the virtues of success and also how women need to be treated.

The Shah Rukh magic is growing by the day. In his films today, female leads are growing bigger in their representation and sharing almost equal screen space at least in terms of impact, like in Pathan and Jawan.

There is much to learn from a management perspective too. Here is the KHAN Model of success, inspired by Shah Rukh Khan:

K: Killer Instinct

H: Hard Work

A: Attitude

N: Nuance