Shah Rukh Khan
Bollywood's Brightest Star
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| HARRY BORDEN / IPG FOR TIME |
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By Alex Perry
Posted Monday, October 4, 2004; 21:00 HKT
Pity Shah Rukh Khan's bodyguard. The king of Bollywood is a week into a two-month song-and-dance tour of Europe and North America, and Jitu has already had so many offers of sex in exchange for access to Khan that as a father to two teenaged daughters of his own, it's become "disturbing." A great bald bear with a goatee and camel's eyes, he rubs the nail marks covering his arms as he describes the first skirmish, opening night in Amsterdam, with the rueful air of a wounded soldier remembering a long battle. "Even little old ladies were grabbing and scratching, pulling at [Khan's] clothes and hair," sighs Jitu. "It's crazy. Scary."
For Jitu, the madness ended when Khan took his final bow on Oct. 3 in Vancouver. For Khan, this is life. "I get people who fall sick and think I can cure them," he says in London before two August nights at Wembley Arena. "I get people who leave their houses in different states of undress and stand outside mine. I get people who write in blood. Normally very short letters like 'I love you.'" At 38, Khan has reached a level of hero worship attained by few actors in history. Every film he graces—no matter how bad—is a surefire smash, every product he endorses is a best seller, and there are so many shrines to him across India that he could launch a new religion. A run of hits since 1995 has raked in about a quarter of a billion dollars, mostly from 20¢ tickets. And he's almost as popular overseas: the 2002 historical romance Devdas took in twice as much abroad as in India, while his world tour is a sellout at up to $300 a seat. In fact, with Bollywood's global audience running to 3.6 billion against Hollywood's 2.6 billion, Khan is—in terms of recognition—the world's biggest movie star. "No one holds a candle to him," says director and friend Karan Johar, who insists on casting Khan as lead in all his films. "Forget the top 10. He's one-to-50 by himself."
Quite how Khan became a superstar is hard to say. He began his film career as a wannabe director who drifted into soap-opera acting and only moved to Bombay from New Delhi in 1991 to make a fresh start after his parents died. He had no obvious gift for Bollywood. By his own admission, he can't sing, can't dance particularly well and is "no Al Pacino" when it comes to acting. He's shy, and his looks—impish and dimpled—mean he's "no Brad Pitt," either. And then there are his movies: spectacular and exuberant, for sure, but generally nonsense. His latest, Main Hoon Na, features Khan as a secret agent who goes back to school to protect a general's daughter who is somehow vital to Indo-Pakistan peace. Besides accomplishing his mission, Khan must also contend with a beautiful chemistry (geddit?) teacher whose penchant for standing in front of fans makes Khan burst repeatedly into song. And yet Main Hoon Na—which means "I'm here now," the words Khan sings to his dying father, commander, long-lost brother, mother and lover—is the hit of the year.
His secret, says Khan, is always playing the coy, cheeky lead. As a result, film by film he has established himself as an eternal hero. Observes Johar: "Shah Rukh is everyone's perfect brother, son, lover and husband." But playing the good guy all the time can be a burden. Khan says he craves something different. "I want to beat people up. I tell them [directors], 'The next time I knock on a door and a girl opens it, can I slap her? Or shoot her?'" He's played the same part for so long that he worries it's followed him home. "I'm acting all the time. When I go on set, I don't have to prepare myself. And when I'm not on set, I'm still acting." To Khan's millions of fans worldwide, that's precisely what makes him real.
With reporting by Jumana Farouky/London
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