“Lightning makes no sound until it strikes.” Well, it seems like these golden lines by legendary Martin Luther King Jr. fit in perfectly for Bollywood’s beloved Badshah, Shah Rukh Khan. The man has an indomitable spirit and has worked his way up in the industry after a lot of hard work and effort. We all know for a fact that King Khan has today reached that level of superstardom where his box office results don’t play a role by even an iota when it comes to regulating his stardom. Well, what better instance than the last 5 years? This was the longest when Badshah Khan had no movie release in his entire career till now. While the Covid-19 pandemic too had a role to play in terms of delay of releases, we can’t overlook the fact that SRK wanted a break to rejuvenate and think afresh after the disaster of ‘Zero’. If one takes a close look at King Khan’s movies after My Name Is Khan, a lot of them earned great numbers at the box office because of his stardom. However, most of the movies like Chennai Express, Happy New Year, Dilwale, Raees, Fan, and Zero didn’t get the critical acclaim that he perhaps thought he would.
Movie experts all over the globe always wanted SRK to shed the image of a stereotypical romantic hero to try something new. Well, he did that to the best of his efforts in ‘Fan’ and ‘Zero’ where he did push his boundaries. However, perhaps to explore ‘Shah Rukh Khan: The Performing Artiste’, fans missed seeing ‘SRK: The Superstar’. Well, not an ideal situation for a superstar ever where you got critics bashing you for literally everything. If you do what works for you, you get called repetitive and on the other hand, when you attempt the unthinkable, the audience rejects it because they can’t relate. Well, in a situation like this, SRK perhaps took the best decision of his life to take a hiatus from movies.
The fact that an SRK movie hasn’t been released for a long time certainly has created good enough buzz to ensure that when movies like Pathaan, Jawan and Dunki are released, the audience keeps the cinemas housefull for several days. So far, King Khan has released the first look at two of his upcoming movies, Pathaan and Jawan. Both of their first looks and teasers are enough for fans to get a glimpse of the fact that there will be many ‘seeti maar’ moments to enjoy on the big screen. However, folks, have you all figured out what has been his biggest masterstroke so far? Well, it has to be a collaboration with someone like Rajkumar Hirani. Raju Hirani, as we all know, is best known for exploring subjects beyond the imagination of the ordinary while keeping the aesthetics of the project intact. King Khan’s collaboration with Rajkumar Hirani has to be his biggest masterstroke right now at this point. And hey, how can we forget Atlee? During his entire lifetime, King Khan has mostly preferred working with his selective core group. The likes of Karan Johar, the late Yash Chopra, and Farah Khan are some of the directors you would normally associate with whenever it’s an SRK movie.
10 years back, it was perhaps impossible for us to imagine that he would collaborate with a director who’s known for his expertise in the South industry. However, the marketing genius inside SRK certainly knows for a fact that the mass frenzy that South directors bring to the table now is certainly worthy of capitalising. Well, movies like Bahubali, RRR, KGF, KGF 2 and Pushpa are big enough examples to prove the fact that the National audience is totally in awe of the work being done by individuals hailing from the South. At a crucial time like this, someone like SRK coming with Atlee gives it a Pan-India appeal with a guaranteed audience from the Deccan part of the country.
Call it good luck, fortune or a blessing in disguise, the way 2023’s schedule looks for Shah Rukh Khan, we can say it loud and clear that ‘King Khan’ is all set to rule B-Town like never before. If you want to see the typical SRK who’s known for his commercial masala flicks, you have Pathaan and Jawan to enjoy on the 70mm big screen. On the other hand, when it comes to doing what he has never done, trusting someone like Rajkumar Hirani will certainly prove wonders for the superstar. Well, as they say, life is all about the art of balancing and seems like King Khan looks pretty balanced and sorted when it comes to presenting content that would fetch him critical acclaim as well as hoots and whistles inside the cinema screens during action entertainers. For as long as four years, he had been absolutely mum about his upcoming projects without giving a damn to multiple media speculations about him doing different projects. Well, finally, the lion of the ‘jungle’ called ‘Bollywood’ has roared and how.
Remember his famous dialogue, ‘Haar kar jeetne waale ko baazigar kehte hai?’ Well, after a spree of box office failures, King Khan certainly has a spree of blockbuster movies coming forward to make this line seem real in this life once again. ‘Badshah Khan, take a bow, sir! All hail your ability to foresee trends and make the most of them. 2023 is your year. Rule it like a king just like how you always wanted to ‘rule’ the ‘City Of Dreams’ when you first came here to be an actor. You can and you will.