Shah Rukh Khan and SS Rajamouli featured in Time 100, with similar citations by Deepika and Alia
Time 100, the annual list by Times Magazine highlighting the top 100 artists, innovators and icons on the global stage is out now. Actor Shah Rukh Khan and director SS Rajamouli are (unsurprisingly) on the list.
Fresh off the record-breaking success of Pathaan, Khan has anyway been no less of a global icon. Just last year alone, Khan was voted as one of the 50 greatest actors in a readers' poll by Empire. Even Time 100 is ultimately decided from a readers' poll, who vote their picks on the most influential people of the year. Rajamouli's spot also seems obvious given how his 2022 feature RRR made both domestic and international territories go gaga over him (or "Naatu Naatu" over him in this case).
A classic and integral part of every Time 100 is the citation mentioned for every entrant to this list. This 150-word-long citation is often written by a person close to the person involved or a creative collaborator.
While Khan's Pathaan co-star Deepika Padukone authored his citation, RRR actress Alia Bhatt wrote the note for Rajamouli. However, both citations seem to start off with an almost similar opening line as if both Padukone and Bhatt asked ChatGPT to write the citations!
Padukone's statement reads, "I'll never forget the first time I met Shah Rukh Khan." while Bhatt writes, "The first time I met SS Rajamouli was at the preview of Baahubali 2."
What Deepika had to say for Shah Rukh
Padukone made her big-screen debut alongside SRK in Om Shanti Om and even starred alongside him in the blockbusters Chennai Express and Happy New Year. 2023 was a major highlight for their creative partnership, with Pathaan.
Describing her first meeting with Khan in Mumbai, Padukone said that she had moved from Bengaluru with "one suitcase and a dream". What followed was a visit to Khan's famed Mumbai house Mannat, with Padukone bagging the lead role in Om Shanti Om.
She goes on to praise Khan for "his mind, his chivalry, his generosity" and concludes the citation by saying that 150 words won't be enough to describe the "phenomenon that is Shah Rukh Khan".
What Alia had to say for Rajamouli
Even though Rajamouli kickstarted the pan-Indian blockbuster phenomenon with Baahubali, the RRR hitmaker is essentially a Telugu director. So, it's surprising that TIME reached out to a Bollywood star like Alia Bhatt (who had a brief supporting appearance in RRR) to write his citation instead of Telugu superstars like Ram Charan or Junior NTR.
Bhatt writes about how she has been starstruck by Rajamouli ever since she saw him at a Baahubali 2 preview. She calls her on-set experience at RRR as "going to school all over again".
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And when it comes to any advice that Rajamouli gave her, she quotes the man behind India's biggest massy blockbusters as,
Who else made it to the list?
When it comes to Indian-origin people in the list, author-model-TV host Padma Lakshmi was also featured. Other top names included Lakshmi's ex-husband and author Salman Rushdie, footballers Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappé, supermodel Bella Hadid, Elvis actor Austin Butler, Black Panther's Angela Bassett, singer Doja Cat, fantasy author Neil Gaiman, The Last of Us star and "Internet daddy" Pedro Pascal, King Charles and many others.