Thespian Dilip Kumar hasn't given it a thought. Evergreen Dev Anand is still making his notes. Screen siren Rekha only talks about it.
Superstar of the millennium, Amitabh Bachchan, can't dream of doing it. But superstar of the 90's, Shah Rukh Khan, has actually gone and done it. He has started working on his autobi-ography!
But then, that was a predictable eventuality. Shah Rukh has always made all the right sounds, done all the necessary things, and always lived
with the thought of immortalising himself. As an actor. Correction, as a celebrated personality, as an icon. Therefore, if you've studied his
every move, heard every word he has uttered, peeped into his cluttered mind, you can come to only one conclusion. Shah Rukh Khan has always but always, right from the word go, wanted not only to be larger-than-life on screen, but off it as well. He set out to be different - that's why he never followed the bandwagon. He was determined to be in a league of his own. That's why he always loved making a statement, always loved making a point - he took up modelling assignments by the dozen for astro-nomical fees and gave greed a new image, he turned into a self-admitted "bhaand" dancing at weddings for a price, thus rubbish-ing the concept of star mystique which till then was the preroga-tive of the screen gods and goddesses. He dared to
live life Kingsize. He bought the much-covetted heritage villa at Bandra Bandstand, the Beverly Hills of Bollywood, and made his point, loud
and clear. That he was no longer an outsider, that he had conquered both Bombay and Bollywood. |
