The Big B –Shah Rukh tussle: KBC has the answers


I am no fan of SRK, with hardly a good word to say for the roles he has enacted in various films, save the earliest, and some honest attempts in between to act ‘normal’. Otherwise, the guy is far too aware if his stardom when he acts, helped no doubt by the fact that recently, he has been directed by admirers and good friends too frequently.

But the media war that seems to pit SRK against the Big B, does seem a little unfair on him. Picture this:

You are 25, just at the beginning of your career, and a man twice your age is the ruling deity in your industry. Chances are, you would give the man credit for being what he is, and get on with making your own life. 15 years on, you have won virtually every possible award, broken most box office records, and among people from your generation, clearly done enough to ensure you are considered the biggest thing to have happened in 15 years in the industry. And what do you see? The twice your age star, who is now only 25 years older than you, is still doing his darndest to rule. Apart from a superb reinvention on the small screen, which has also acquired it’s own power in the intervening years, the old fogey has also done everything possible to outflank you, outsmart you and eventually, seemingly prepare the ground to continue the ‘ruling dynasty’ with son Abhishek finally coming good.

Shahrukh has good reasons to feel aggrieved at the Big B for taking the sheen away from what should have come naturally to him.

Which to me, explains his drive to better the Big B on not just his endorsements (ie, get the same endorsemens at a higher price), but even his most famous roles (Don) and finally, the TV show that gave the Big B the second lease of life, KBC. Here, we have had two guys going about surviving and protecting turf in the most interestingly different ways.
While SRK goes about chasing down every possible achievement the Big B had, and trying to better it in the simplest currency people understand, ie, more hard currency for the same thing, the Big B has made a virtue of the opposite and ‘convenient’ values of simplicity, humility and more recently, a show of being above it all. All the time, fighting hard to protect his turf. I mean, who would have thought a celebrity would get away with endorsing over 25 brands?

I feel KBC will finally have the answers. The amazingly popular programme was that, simply because it’s appeal cut across the spectrum, from the youth to their parents. The youth bedazzled by the money it offered, while the older lot liked the money as well as the Big B’s superb understatedness while dispensing it at most times. By quite simply, making the event bigger than the outcome for a majority of the participants. He could carry it off, thanks to his age, and the well cultivated image described above.

Shah Rukh will need to change the rules again. And this time, to by far the largest audience in his life. For one, he cannot quite downplay the financial size of the awards, thanks t his own reputation for valuing it mightily, with the many comments attributed to him justifying his dancing at parties, shows etc for the money. Secondly, the image of a man who has been there, done it all, and has no reason to need to talk about his achievements will not go with him. After all, Shah Rukh possibly has a serious reason to make sure he lasts for another 10 years or so at least, son Aryan’s future in the industry might be at stake.

So will the mighty SRK pull it off in KBC? If he does, it will be a true triumph of his magnetism and derring do, in the face of difficult odds. If he doesn’t, a lot of his supporters will have to live with the “I told you so’ of Big B fans for some time to come. And like a Tendulkar ‘ choke’, the stigma of the KBC misadventure will sully a carefully and well burnished career.