Shah Rukh Khan has three releases lined up for 2023. Pathaan, a larger-than-life action entertainer has already set the box-office on fire with people from Gurgaon to Germany shaking a leg inside movie theatres when the movie’s catchy numbers hit the silver screen.
Then there are Atlees ‘Jawan’ and a first time collaboration with Bollywood’s own Midas Rajkumar Hirani called ‘Dunki.’
Shah Rukh himself has predicted in a recent interview that all three films are going to be successful, staging a comeback befitting a ‘superstar’ after his last releases failed to win audience favour. Khan has now set the wheels in motion for a storied comeback, after many wrote him off after the failure of his last few releases.
With Pathaan getting the opening it did, on course to enter the INR 300 crore club in just three days, he is one-for-one. That’s for sure.
He also may be right on another of his predictions, once famously saying that he is the ‘last of the stars.’
The last ten years have been the longest for Hindi cinema to go without a reigning champion of the box-office.
Khan himself ruled the mid-1990s to the late 2000s, taking over the mantle from Amitabh Bachchan, going all the way back to Dilip Kumar in the golden 40s and 50s period.
While Akshay Kumar, Hrithik Roshan, Aamir Khan and Salman Khan all staked their claims to the top spot, with even Ranveer Singh touted to be the nex SRK, none dominated like King Khan himself.
With social media penetrating into the landscape of the Hindi film industry, with its own ecosystem and assortment of stars, it is safe to say, as Khan did, that there will never be another superstar.
With heightened social media visibility come fatigue and saturation. Always active, always around, the next generation of actors stay in the public eye 24×7 to appear as ‘relatable’ and ‘human’ to their insta-legions.
Unfortunately, this has made them ‘too human’ and all but completely dissolved any movie star magic a la Daniel-Day-Lewis.
Fans know about everything about their stars now and actors are a dime-a-dozen sharpened by the PR machine and honed by ready media bytes with not a hair out of place.
SRK’s relatability came from the unique combination of movie star mystique and relatability, which might never be replicated.
The man himself may just be right, the kingdom has risen again owing to the last king, but there might never be another one.