This post was originally published on our partner website India.com.
Yash Raj Films latest venture “Fan,” which released on April 15, has met with rave reviews from audiences and critics alike. The movie stars Shah Rukh Khan in a dual role—as superstar Aryan Khanna and as Gaurav, Khanna’s self-acclaimed biggest fan who also looks freakishly like him. The movie explores the dangerous results of fawning and worshipping a celebrity and how the obsessions take over a person, in this case, Gaurav.
While hopefully not as delusional as Gaurav, several of us know what it’s like to be in love with and be a fan of someone like Shah Rukh Khan. It is easy because he makes it that way. Khan has a charming personality off-screen and immense talent when he is on-screen.
We made a list of 10 movies, as tough as it was to pick so few, where he rightfully earned the superhero title and won all of our hearts.
“Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge” (1995)
Of course, this movie tops the list. It was his brilliant performance as the charming, sweet, flirtatious Raj Malhotra which proved to be a game-changer for him. As an actor, he was known more for being the villain and less as the romantic lead. However, his legendary pairing with Kajol, one-liners like ‘palat,’ and ‘bade bade deshon main aisi chhoti chhoti baatein hoti rehti hai,’ which remain epic even today, wonderful locations and delightful songs, along with the main essence of the film—how the guy fought against everything to get his girl—transformed him into the hero overnight.
“Chak De! India” (2007)
With this movie, Khan once again broke all norms and changed the perception of being Bollywood’s chocolate boy. In his role as the coach of the Indian Women’s Hockey team, Khan brought depth and soul to this character that no one ever could. His delivery of tough dialogues, rare but warm smiles and facial expressions did the trick. The film’s appeal lay in the emotional, patriotic journey that the coach and players of the team went through and took us, the viewers, along with it. Having SRK delivering one of his best performances was just a really great bonus.
“Swades” (2004)
https://youtu.be/HSNypuXqa1s
In this beautiful Ashutosh Gowariker movie, Khan played NASA scientist Mohan Bhargava who travels to India to bring his caretaker Kaveri amma back to the U.S. with him. He is met with several surprises when he learns she has moved to a village with his childhood friend Gita and her brother Chikku. In the village, not only does he fall for the righteous, hard-working Gita but also falls for the simplicity of life. He struggles to decipher how the villagers live with poverty, caste distinction, and politics. SRK delivered a very moving, very real performance that struck all the right chords with “Swades.”
“Darr” (1993)
Khan’s journey to stardom started with him being known for his negative roles. Obviously, “Darr” tops that list. In the psychological thriller, he plays an obsessed lover named Rahul and will go to unprecedented levels to get the woman he wants, his college classmate Kiran (Juhi Chawla) who is engaged to his father’s employee Sunil (Sunny Deal). On one hand, he pursues her by stalking her and on the other, he pretends to be a family friend to get close to his ‘love!’ Khan’s portrayal of a deranged psycho not only showed off his acting prowess and made this film a thrilling ride, but it also gave us the epic, unforgettable dialogue, ‘I love you kkkkk-kiran.’
“Kal Ho Naa Ho” (2003)
This one is definitely one of his most emotional, heart-warming movies and for very good reason. He plays do-gooder Aman Verma, who moves to New York with his mother and befriends his neighbors Naina (Preity Zinta), her mother Jennifer (Jaya Bachchan), and her college friend Rohit (Saif Ali Khan). As much as he loves Naina, due to his fatal cardiac disease, he cannot let her know and decides that he will do everything to bring her and Rohit together. This movie has some powerful dialogues and sentimental moments, but it is Khan’s very visceral display of emotions which leaves the audience gutted.
“My Name is Khan” (2010)
Set in San Francisco, this movie tackles the issues of terrorism, racism, Islamophobia, and diseases like Asperger’s syndrome. Add a hint of the famous SRK-Kajol-Karan Johar trifecta and you have a successful Bollywood movie on your hands. Khan plays Rizwan, a very good-natured man who moves to the U.S. to live and work with his brother after their mother dies and that’s when his brother’s wife diagnoses him with Asperger’s syndrome. Through work, he also meets and falls for Mandira, a Hindu woman who runs a salon and has a kid from a previous marriage, Sameer. They are blissfully married until the 9/11 attacks, following which they fall victim to racism. The story takes dark turns from her and Rizwan sets on a mission to inform the President that ‘his name is Khan, and he is not a terrorist.’ The movie hits on some hard experience several immigrants, especially Muslims, must have faced here post the attacks. Khan’s acting reached a benchmark in his career with this film—it was complex, layered, and full of heart.
“Devdas” (2002)
https://youtu.be/QHdU-aewldc
The third Hindi version of the Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay novel, this one saw Khan play the role of the suffering, heartbroken alcoholic Devdas. After returning from England, he rekindles his relationship with his childhood friend Paro (Aishwarya Rai) and they wish to be married. However, Devdas’ mother forbids this due to Paro’s lower class status. Her family, to prove that she deserves better, marry her off to a wealthy but older man. This drives a depressed Devdas to alcoholism and into a brothel, where he meets Chandramukhi (Madhuri Dixit), who also falls for him. Eventually, and sadly, his vices take control of his life. A tough role to live up to, Khan actually played the character with great depth and ease. His dialogue delivery, quivering voice and movements, and obvious emotions made this a great film for him.
“Don” (2006/2011)
https://youtu.be/3T60U1mx4os
Khan mastered another remake when he took to play one of Amitabh Bachchan’s greatest roles for contemporary cinema. In the Farhan Akhtar directed movie, Khan played the super-cool gangster Don, and also a simpleton from Mumbai named Vijay, and he also plays Vijay playing Don! Khan has really mastered the art of playing double roles, so this one is no different. He is very nuanced and flexible while pulling off both the personas. In the sequel, he pulls off being the bad guy with even more ease than he did in the first one. Something about a negative Shahrukh Khan character is very appealing!
“Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa” (1994)
One of Khan’s first films, this one is special not only for its cloying storyline or realistic characters but also because it was one of our first glimpses into the romantic hero that Khan would grow into being. His performance as the sweet, beloved, but non-serious hero Sunil was applauded by everyone. In fact, Khan has stated several times that this is one of the best films he has done. It was the first time a hero was shown as a ‘loser’ – he didn’t get the girl, he didn’t get the job, but in the end, he lived the best life he could.
“Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna” (2006)
This star-studded emotional drama rocked the box office when it released because it looked at infidelity in Indian marriages like no other film ever had. However, Khan still delivered one of his best performances in this movie because it was a role, unlike anything he has ever done before, especially in a Karan Johar film. He wasn’t a die-hard romantic who was singing several songs with his beloved. He was bitter, angry, sarcastic and trapped in a marriage he didn’t believe in anymore. With actors like Rani Mukherjee, Preity Zinta, Amitabh Bachchan and Abhishek Bachchan in his corner, Khan still managed to shine amongst them.
Bollywood Funk NYC took over Times Square toperform to “Jabra Fan” in collaboration with the New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF), which will take place from May 7-14.
Saloni Gajjar is a recent alum of NYU’s Magazine Writing Program. Her passion lies in pop culture writing, as is evident in her work with magazines like Marie Claire, Interview, and Complex. Her goal is to show the arts as a medium and mirror of the society, much beyond just entertainment.
July 24, 2023August 21, 2023 3min readBy Dana Mathura
“How could the British bring the Indians without the cows?”That’s one of the jokes you’re very likely to hear at comedian Priya Guyadeen’s show. In fact, the 53-year-old just wrapped up a set of shows with her troupe: Cougar Comedy Collective. The Guyanese-born comic spearheads the group of mostly women of “a certain age,” as she puts it.
She says the group was formed in 2021 but she started dishing out jokes back in 2020 during the pandemic, over Zoom. She was always labeled the “funny one” in her family and decided to take her jokes to a virtual open mic, hosted by her friend, where she says failure was less daunting.
Cut to 2023, and the comic was able to take her show on the road. Guyadeen and her fellow performers recently hit the East coast for a set of shows called “Cougars on the Loose!” The shows even featured two male comics.
Guyadeen’s comedy routines touch on her Indo Guyanese background, highlighting stereotypes and a clash of cultures. In one of her jokes, she tells her audience that her Guyanese mom is bad with names when she introduces her white boyfriend, Randy, and he gets called Ramesh.
Out in the Bay Area — where she spends her days now — she tries to connect the sparsely Caribbean population to her jokes.
That includes talking about the 1978 Jonestown Massacre which had ties to San Francisco and ended in Guyana. She uses this as a reference point — trying to connect her audience to her background with historical context. She says this does come with its challenges, though.
The single mom also practices clean jokes. Once she finishes up her daily routine with her eight-year-old son and day job as a project manager for a biotechnology company, she tries to find time to write her material.
It’s a balancing act. I’m like the day job-Priya for a few hours or for a chunk of time. And then I’ve got to put on my comedian hat and do that for a period of time because with comedy, I’m not just performing. I’m also producing, managing the shows, booking talent, seeking venues.
Though it’s not easy, she says she’s learning through it all — the business side of comedy and discipline.
Guyadeen, who’s lived in Brazil and Canada, says her young son really contributes to her comedy. A lot of her material focuses on jokes for parents, and single parents like herself, because she feels:
[We live] in a society that doesn’t really create a support system for single parents.
Her nonprofit, Cougar Comedy Collective, was born out of all the great reception she received. She noticed a “niche market” of women in their 50s who loved to get dressed up and come out to the shows to hear jokes that related to their own lives that aren’t typically touched on. These were jokes about menopause, aging and being an empty nester. Guyadeen says her nonprofit,
…bring[s] talent together in our age group to celebrate this time of life; celebrate this particular juncture in a person’s life.
As Guyadeen continues her comedic journey, she says she hopes she’ll be a role model for other Caribbean women to follow their dreams despite their age. She also hopes to see more Caribbean people carving out their space in the entertainment industry.
Featured Image of Priya Guyadeen taken by Elisa Cicinelli Photography
March 20, 2023March 29, 2023 3min readBy Rasha Goel
Award-winning commercial real estate and land consultant in Arizona, Anita Verma-Lallian, is venturing into the world of entertainment with her newfound production house, Camelback Productions, making her the first South Asian female in the state to do so. Verma-Lallian is a woman used to paving her own way, and now she’s committed to doing it for future generations.
Through her production company, she aims to contribute towards greater South Asian representation in mainstream media with a focus on storytelling that’s relevant to the community. In a conversation with Brown Girl Magazine, the real estate maven spoke about what inspired her to shift from investing in land to investing in creative dreams.
Tell us more about Camelback Productions and what your hopes are for the company?
The intention is to help communities that are not being represented in the media. As you know, there are a lot more streamers looking for content so that presents an interesting opportunity for people to tell stories that are otherwise not being told.
For us it’s important to tell these stories that aren’t being told, and tell them in the way that we want them to be told. With South Asians, for instance, the roles typically given are stereotypical. There are only four or five roles we are playing repeatedly. I want to show the South Asian community and culture in a different way.
You come from a business and investor background. I am curious to know what catapulted your interest towards establishing a production company?
Good question. There were a few things that inspired my interest. I was looking to diversify the different opportunities we offered our investors. We’ve done a lot of real estate, so we were overall looking for different investment opportunities. And then, at the time when I started exploring this, the real estate market was in this wait-and-see for many people.
Everyone was sitting on the sidelines waiting to see what happens next. There was a slowdown at the end of 2022 which is when I started looking into this more. Film seemed like it was kind of recession-proof and not really tied to what’s happening in the economy, which I thought was refreshing and exciting.
Also, overall, I observed what was happening in the industry with there being a push to see more South Asians in the media. The timing felt right, and I think we’re moving in the right direction.
Good stories and good quality scripts. We are looking at all types of content — movies, docu-series, comedy shows, and reality shows. We’re open to anything that has a good message.
On a personal level, what hits home for you with this production company?
Growing up I always loved film and TV. We watched a lot of Bollywood movies because that’s what we related to and I always loved that. But I did feel there wasn’t a lot of representation of people that looked like me. Being able to change that — especially after having kids, and a daughter who wants to go into film — is important for. It’s a contribution for future generations. It’s important to me that as they grow up, they see people that look just like them.
Is there a significance to the name Camelback?
Yes! Camelback Mountain is a very iconic mountain in Phoenix.It’s one of the most famous hikes we have here and a relatively challenging one.
The significance is being able to overcome challenges and barriers. I have a nice view of Camelback Mountain and it’s something I look at every day, when I’m stressed and overwhelmed. It has a very calming and grounding presence.
To me the mountains signify being grounded and not being able to be moved by external factors. That’s what I want this production company to be!
What would you advise people interested in entering the entertainment industry?
The best advice I would give someone is to align yourself with people that you know are experts in the industry; that have a good track record. Learn from as many people as you can.I learn as much as I can, talk to as many people as I can, and I study different things to understand what was and wasn’t successful.
Rasha Goel is a 2X Emmy-nominated television host/producer and international correspondent. Her talent has led to opportunities such as giving … Read more ›
“Ghoomer,” R. Balki’s latest directorial venture, had its world premiere at the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne 2023 (IFFM), earlier this month, and the moment was nothing short of memorable. Lead actors Abhishek Bachchan, Saiyami Kher, and Angad Bedi, were present to unveil their labor of love to the world, and all three were left speechless at the reaction of the global audience; the film received a standing ovation on opening night, leaving the team extremely emotional — a feeling that Bachchan tells Brown Girl is one he cannot put into words.
“Ghoomer,” tells the story of Anina (played by Kher), an exceptional cricket player who loses her right hand in an accident. Downtrodden and with no will to live, Anina finds a mentor and coach in Padam Singh Sodhi (played by Bachchan), an insensitive and brash failed cricketer who helps her turn her life and career around; Anina also has the unwavering support of her husband, Jeet (played by Bedi). Sodhi teaches Anina unorthodox techniques to make her mark on the cricket ground once again. Enter, ghoomer, a new style of bowling.
Balki checks all the boxes with this feature — his protagonist is a female athlete, the film is his way of giving back to cricket (a new form of delivery), and he highlights the idea that nothing is impossible for paraplegic athletes. The heart of Balki’s film is in the right place — Kher mentions that the film is meant to be more of an inspirational movie and less of a sports-based movie. One can only imagine the impact that a film like this would have on an audience that’s hungry for meaningful cinema.
And, to chat more about “Ghoomer,” Brown Girl Magazine sat down with the stars of the show. Bachchan, Bedi, and Kher came together to talk about their inspiring characters, the filming journey, and how their film aspires to change the landscape of cricket and paraplegic athletes in the country. It was all that, with a side of samosas.
Take a look!
The featured image is courtesy of Sterling Global.
Saloni Gajjar is a recent alum of NYU’s Magazine Writing Program. Her passion lies in pop culture writing, as is evident in her work with magazines like Marie Claire, Interview, and Complex. Her goal is to show the arts as a medium and mirror of the society, much beyond just entertainment.
