King Khan they call him: the man marked by unconventional beauty and dimples like moon craters, who swept the Hindi film industry clean away in the early nineties. Shahrukh Khan, whose name I’ve been dangling in front of you for weeks, is a New Delhi-born Bollywood outsider who became its golden boy.
Shahrukh is as often referred to as SRK by his fans, with Bollywood’s usual fondness for acronyms, as well as King Khan. While the “King” is a bit presumptuous and he does wear it with all the pride you’d expect, there’s something still humble and irresistibly lovable about him (he blushes in interviews if remarks are made about his good looks). His charisma is legendary; his costars are as enchanted by him as his audience, toward whom he seems to express a genuine compassion. With his personality and acting talent, it’s no mystery how he became the biggest star in India, despite having no advantages in an industry famous for nepotism. He credits his hard work to his parents’ early deaths, always expressing a longing for them to have seen what he’s accomplished, and he uses his fame now to launch new faces.
His career began in television, a move nearly unheard of in the Bollywood industry. He’s adorable as Abhimanyu Rai in the 1989 series “Fauji” (“Soldier”), which wasn’t his first role, but without doubt the one that launched his career. Three years later, he won the Filmfare for Best Debut Actor for his role in the film “Deewana” (“Love Crazy”). His career would really take off the next year with him portraying serial killers driven mad by love in three of the year’s films. His ability to endear such characters to the audience was incredible. The greatest of his early serial killer roles is without doubt “Baazigar,” in which he starred opposite Kajol.
He would transform his typecasting in 1995 when he played Raj in “Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge” (“The Brave-Hearted Will Take the Bride”), the movie that, you may remember, still runs in a theater in Mumbai. His charisma was put to full use in DDLJ. His energy was limitless, his smile heart-winning, his face endlessly emotive, and his penchant for sound effects endearing beyond words. The audience would demand that back from him time and time again and, time and time again, he would willingly deliver, his dimples only a smile away.
The nineties would come and go, but King Khan would remain. The twenty-first century has shown his talent to be constant and continuously versatile (though he does have a fondness for playing the Raj character type from DDLJ). He’s won half of his eight Filmfare Awards for Best Actor in the past thirteen years and his film “Chennai Express” was the highest grossing Bollywood film of this year.
If I were to talk about all of his filmic successes, I would need the entire arts section (and my editor would not be very pleased about that), so I’m going to send you off with some personal recommendations, Millikids. In addition to the three films named above, try “Koyla”, a strange but gripping tale of a mute, mistreated slave; and don’t miss “Kuch Kuch Hota Hai” (“Something Happens”) whatever you do. “Kal Ho Naa Ho” (“Tomorrow May Not Be”) and “Main Hoon Na” (“I’m Here”) are unbeatable and “Dil Se…” (“From the Heart…”) will make you think. if it suits you, give the rest of his seventy-five film filmography a go. It’ll at least be as good a time as homework.