A notable thing about time is that it truly flies. Wasn’t it just yesterday that a bunch of us would hire a VCR (video cassette recorder, for those born after its demise) during summer vacations to organise a watch-party for the très à la mode tragic-romantic musical Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak (1988)? Its boy-next-door lead found a way to our youthful hearts by strumming the guitar and singing ‘Papa kehte hain bada naam karega’. This March 14, I found myself wishing him good health and happiness on his 60th birthday while ruminating on how far we—an entire generation of artistes, viewers and scribes—have come.
Along with Aamir Khan, the other two members of Bollywood Khandom—Shahrukh and Salman, who also endeared themselves to the audience around the same time, one with Fauji (1989), a charming TV series on young army commandoes, and the other with the wholesome family blockbuster Maine Pyar Kiya (1989)—will also be celebrating their 60th birthdays this year, on November 2 and December 27, respectively. But the milepost appears to be more of an arrival into the next fecund phase of life.
Along with Big B, the Khans continue to be the last great superstars of Hindi cinema, their popularity sustaining and growing now for more than 35 years. What’s more, it has been a shared reign, one in which they have created their own distinct niches, more in complement than be competition.
If Salman has been speaking to the masses, Aamir has catered to the middle class and its expectations of “issue-based, quality commercial cinema”. If SRK opened the floodgates of NRI nostalgia to consolidate an overseas box office territory for Bollywood, Aamir took India close to the Oscars with Lagaan and later, with 3 Idiots, helped build fandom for the industry in a country like China.
This personal distinctness holds true not just for the characters they have played, but their off-screen personae as well. Even for a journalist like yours truly, they have brought their own unique touch to the several interactions and interviews—be it a spontaneous, charming and flamboyant SRK, or a studied, earnest and methodical Aamir. However, a one-on-one with Salman has eluded me, the closest to it being a 3 am phone call to catch him in America.
Filmmaker Karan Johar once told me he found the individual trajectories of the Khans very illuminating. While SRK started with a clutch of arthouse films to move into playing characters with shades of villainy, to eventually cross over to and embrace the feel-good, romantic and family fantasies, Aamir has been trying to create alternative narratives within the confines of the mainstream. Salman has and will always be a star towering way above the actor—one who made a whole generation of young men take to body building.
But the 35 years haven’t just been a bed of roses; there has been a fair share of thorns as well. The brash but supposedly sensitive and generous Salman has been at the receiving end for his alleged involvement in a hit-and-run case in Mumbai, and hunting for blackbucks in Rajasthan.
SRK son’s Aryan got embroiled in an investigation into an alleged international drug racket. And Aamir had to face a backlash over a statement on the growing intolerance. Some of the films of the three have also encountered the threat of boycotts.
This despite the fact that their stardom is often seen as emblematic of the idea of India. All of them have multicultural families. Unlike Dilip Kumar and Meena Kumari in the past, they didn’t adopt Hindu screen names, but wielded their surnames with pride.
However, in the last few years, when polarization has been growing the world over, Bollywood hasn’t been left untainted. For a while, it seemed that the Khans would fall prey to the antagonism too, added to which were the flop shows—Laal Singh Chaddha, Thugs of Hindostan, Fan, Dilwale, Zero, Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan. But they seem to have a way of rising from the ashes with the success of Pathaan, Tiger 3, Jawan and Laapataa Ladies. Each peak makes you certain that a trough shall follow, but the lows have often led to newer highs.
Much of it is because they have channelled their stardom into business and philanthropy—branching into producing films, SRK owning an IPL team Kolkata Knight Riders, Salman starting Being Human, and Aamir backing Paani Foundation in rural Maharashtra.
The three refuse to get off the news cycle, or rather, news refuses to let go of them. As I write this piece, SRK’s red passport, Aamir’s new YouTube channel and Salman sporting a Ram Janmabhoomi edition watch are grabbing headlines.
So, what lies ahead for them? In ageist, sexist Bollywood, the Khans’ staying power is linked to the privilege of being men, while the contemporary heroines their age—be it Madhuri Dixit or Juhi Chawla—have faded into character roles, that too few and far between. It’s also interesting to figure what turn they will take now that their own kids—Aamir’s son Junaid, and SRK’s son Aryan and daughter Suhana—are also trying to make a strike at the marquee. Will the new generation of Khans complement as their parents did? As we ponder that, the dream of seeing them together in a film also waits to get realised.
Consulting Editor
Consulting Editor
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