By Hindustan Times
Dilip Kumar, Rajesh Khanna and Amitabh Bachchan. It is only Shahrukh Khan who, within the true sense of the word, has come close enough to be included on this hallowed pack of stars. There's hardly any doubt in regards to the membership credentials of Aamir and Salman Khans but theirs wasn't ever as meteoric an increase like Shahrukh Khan. And in contrast to the 2 Shahrukh was the outsider who broke through but despite it all, the weight of being the outsider weighs Shahrukh down.
Try to seem as hard and much possible but you'd never discover a world packed tighter than the one who operates Hindi cinema. It is a place where everything can also be justified within the name of familial familiarity. Not a single moment can be wasted to defend someone who publically could be a happily married man but behind closed doors is a wife beater or someone who doesn't consider carefully before forcing a filmmaker to cast his son's sweetheart in a romantic role opposite him, who incidentally happens to be the estranged wife of his one time close friend so long as they're a part of the tribe. They won't stop at anything to maintain their very own and they'll visit any lengths to forestall the outsiders from getting too close. Somewhere Dilip Kumar, Rajesh Khanna, and Amitabh Bachchan, the so called outsiders who like Shahrukh Khan were the most important stars in their times, transformed into the insiders but Shahrukh still finds himself to be the outsider he started off as. Unlike those before him Shahrukh feted the outsider tag and used it whenever possible to turn that he was different. He made it his calling card and on every possible occasion suggested that the shortage of luggage and tradition that accompanied an insider made him better than everyone else. He sparked off one million dreams and his stories of walking along Marine Drive promising to be the king of town sooner or later became folklore. King he became, and yet the dominion was never his to call.
Rumors of the old guard joining arms to maintain immigrants like Bachchan or even Dharmendra from 'entering' Malabar Hill don't just make for interesting party tales. So, at what point in their journey did Bachchan, Khanna and Dharmendra become insiders? Raj Kapoor barely looked beyond his family when it came to films- Rishi Kapoor argued his father into sticking with Uncle Shashi Kapoor for Satyam, Shivam Sundaram (1978) over Rajesh Khanna; Manmohan Desai couldn't imagine anyone but Bachchan in his films but Shahrukh hasn't enjoyed this. Even Chopras whom he considers 'family' are happily bending backwards to woo Aamir and Salman with dream deals while Shahrukh is suddenly dispensable. Till his films were bigger than everyone else's, till he his successes were more than his peers everything that Shahrukh did was tolerated, even acceptable. More importantly it isn't like he was unaware concerning the temporary nature of 'all access card' but as long he had the liberty along side the wherewithal to do what his heart desired he lived with the small pay off.
Why is Shahrukh Khan still an intruder is not the real question up to why was he never certainly one of the pack. He lived by the foundations that he had made and one at a time his 'fights' with the insiders just like the Bachchans, and Salman Khan has alienated him. It isn't like everything's over for some of the biggest success stories of Hindi cinema however the signs are ominous. The loneliness of being SRK is finally catching up and the cracks are starting to show. His recent brawls with Shirish Kunder and the Maharashtra Cricket Association could have been the actions of somebody pushed right into a corner nevertheless it was suggested that Shahrukh was inebriated on both occasions. These incidents aren't as unique as they'd has been in someone else's case. Without or with a cause SRK has always been the rebel and old habits diehard however the lack of his trademark dignity in defiance is what makes these incidents pedestrian. Whoever said it was lonely on the top didn't know SRK; ironically that was the one time he wasn't alone.
Gautam Chintamani is an award-winning writer/filmmaker with over a decade of expertise across print and electronic mediums.
