"Let life enchant you again." - Fernando Gros
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Blog // Thoughts
August 4, 2006

Meet The World’s Biggest Film Star

Not Tom Cruise, but Shah Rukh Khan; the biggest thing in Bollywood (Indian Cinema). As The Guardian puts it in a feature on him, “Shah Rukh Khan (also known as “King Khan”) has been in more than 50 Hindi films and has won 13 Filmfare awards, regarded as the “Bollywood Oscars”. He is the biggest […]

Not Tom Cruise, but Shah Rukh Khan; the biggest thing in Bollywood (Indian Cinema). As The Guardian puts it in a feature on him,

“Shah Rukh Khan (also known as “King Khan”) has been in more than 50 Hindi films and has won 13 Filmfare awards, regarded as the “Bollywood Oscars”. He is the biggest star in Hindi cinema and this means billions of fans (Bollywood has a global audience of 3.6 billion; Hollywood has 2.5 billion).”

Having lived in India, I’m somewhat biased towards the creativity, pleasure and cultural insight to be had from Bollywood movies. Like any national cinema, there is good and bad. However, the best films are really something special and no longer confined to their region. Many films are set outside India and as a result are interesting explorations of the cross-cultural and cosmopolitan experience. I’m not sure it is possible to take someone writing in Theology, Religion and Film seriously if they are not commenting on Bollywood.

Moreover, for those interested in film and the study of the human experience, the nature of Bollywood films are often quite revealing treatments of the human condition, particulary of human relationships (often in all their absurdity and discontinuity). Not just lover’s triangles, but also family relationships, friendships and even working environments. If you don’t believe me, then go now and watch Lagaan.

If you want to check out some Shah Rukh films, I’d suggest starting with the Devdas and Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham (both widely available in the west in subtitled editions) and keep an eye out for the upcoming Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (on my must see list).

[tags] Shah Rukh Khan, Bollywood [/tags]

Responses
Donkhan 18 years ago

When asked about the “Khai ke paan banaras wala” sequence he told, “It’s one of the big USPs of “Don”. To recreate it would be impossible. I’ll therefore make Shahrukh Khan do “Khai ke paan banaras wala”. It’s left too strong an impression on me to be tampered with. As a viewer, I’d feel cheated if I didn’t see Shahrukh doing “Khai ke paan”. It’s like re-doing “Qurbani” without “Aap jaisa koi”. “Khai ke paan…” is the highlight of the film. Why remove it? The rest of the songs are being done by my favorites Shankar-Ehsan-Loy

Fernando Gros 18 years ago

OK, I’ve let through this comment, which is essentially spam (quotiing from an interview with the director of an upcoming SRK film). Put simply, I just liked the idea of some real “Hinglish” on this post!

shog 17 years ago

^-^ luv him

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