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India owes an apology to Shah Rukh Khan

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Ananya Bhattacharya
Ananya BhattacharyaNov 04, 2015 | 12:28

India owes an apology to Shah Rukh Khan

  • "Give up this medical concern, / buttoned, attentive,
  • permit yourself anger / and permit me mine
  • which needs neither / your approval nor your surprise
  • which does not need to be made legal / which is not against a disease
  • but against you, / which does not need to be understood
  • or washed or cauterized, / which needs instead
  • to be said and said and said.
  • Permit me the present tense."
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- Margaret Atwood, "Is/Not".

A lot of us, who have had the (mis)fortune of interviewing film stars during the course of our work, have lamented the lack of "openness", "honesty" and "frankness" in a lot of them. Many a time, we've had debates and discussions on who should interview a specific film star, and ended up sulking over the result. Reason? "But is SO BORING! Speaking to him/her is a task. He/she's SO not a conversationalist. Apna film chhorke aur kuch nahi baat nahi karte hai! Please, I can't speak to him/her." Every single time one of my teammates ends up interviewing an actor, who can put someone on ten double-espresso shots to sleep, there's but one refrain: "Yaar, why can't they speak the way Shah Rukh does!"

Over the period of years, this is someone from the Hindi film industry who has received the unanimous vote of being one of the best minds around. We don't need rocket science to figure that out. If one has followed his trajectory - or his films, interactions, interviews, damn-you-even-a-promotional-event-which-he-was-just-waving-at - you'd know what a magician this Khan is with words. People pine - and I'm not exaggerating even a teeny-tiny bit here - to speak to Shah Rukh, because he can speak. Not merely say, "Oh, this is what we did for the film, this is where we shot, this is who cried on the sets," ... this is who fell asleep listening to my tale. And over the years, it just pains to see how tight-lipped he has turned; how quiet and careful-with-words all our big stars are these days. Ask them the questions, they answer in monosyllables - or a few words, if you're lucky - and not for a moment do they veer off course.

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Shah Rukh Khan gave a couple of interviews (including one to us) on November 2, on his 50th birthday. "People will throw stones at my house if I take a stand": Thus spake the soothsayer. And guess what? That is precisely what has happened. From a Sadhvi Prachi (good for you, if you don't remember her) calling Shah Rukh a "Pakistani agent" to the BJP leader Vijayvargiya saying "Shah Rukh's heart is in Pakistan" , we've had the comments coming for a while now. Because - a) Shah Rukh Khan is a superstar; and b) he spells his surname K-H-A-N. Oh, and c) He had the guts to say on air that "religious intolerance is growing in India".

And here's the best of the lot. Hours after Pakistan banned the media coverage of Jama'at-ud-Dawah, its chief Hafiz Saeed posted the following message for Shah Rukh Khan on Twitter: "Discrimination against minorities in India particular Muslims are proof enough that Modi's India is no more secular. Its fascist Hindu state. We welcome Indian intellectuals raising voice against intolerance inflicted by Hindu extremists if & whenever they come to Pakistan. We would be pleased to demonstrate to them JuD's ongoing relief and rehabilitation efforts for minorities living in Pakistan. Even the renowned Indian Muslims in the field of sports, academia, arts & culture are fighting a constant battle for identity inside India. Any such Muslim, even Shahrukh who is facing difficulty and discrimination in India because of Islam are invited to stay in Pakistan (sic)."

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"Difficulty and discrimination". Sweet, coming from a terrorist who has a bounty of ten million US dollars on his head for his role in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks. Wonder if Shah Rukh Khan will even stoop to respond to that. As for Hafiz Saeed, remember Phantom? Two Indian Khans - Kabir and Saif Ali - had gunned his fictional avatar down in that film. Some semblance of shame in the Lashkar chief might have kept him from making a fool of himself, but well.

In most of his interviews, whenever Shah Rukh has spoken on "serious" topics (the ones which film stars are not supposed to speak on, you know), he's had only one thing to say. That he is an Indian first, anything else thereafter. In an interview, he had also been quoted as saying, "The person who is anti a religion or community not only does not understand that community, he does not understand his own." But that, goes without saying, will be drowned in the cacophony of these idiots calling Khan a Pakistani agent and what not.

As a normal person, a non-star, we are permitted the present tense. Why then isn't the same true for the unarguably-most-popular star in the country? A normal person in India is allowed his or her fair share of freedom to at least speak, if not anything else. Don't like what I say? You're welcome to shut your ears. But what happens when we ask a superstar to speak about "his views on the rising intolerance in the country"? Why do we flinch in utter disbelief when we hear the same words from his mouth - sans the question mark?

Maybe we just don't deserve a Shah Rukh Khan. Or maybe... We should "give up this medical concern" to have the anger washed or cauterised before being able to accept it.

Last updated: November 04, 2015 | 21:02
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