From enemies who couldn’t stand each other, and indeed who used to create schedules such that they wouldn’t run into each other, how the relationship between Salman Khan and Shah Rukh Khan has changed.
Over the last few years, ever since they made that famous peace at a party thrown by a politician, the two seem to be increasingly friendly. And the latest on that front is that Shah Rukh is going to appear in a Salman movie. Sure, it is only going to be a cameo but that the two should share a screen is in itself quite a leap.
The last time Shah Rukh and Salman appeared in the same movie was in 2002 in Hum Tumhare Hain Sanam, a movie which sank without a trace despite their presence. But that wasn’t really the reason for the rift. When people get the kind of fame that the Khans have got, they are bound to have egos the size of dinosaurs and so they brook no slights.
Twice, Shah Rukh and Salman fell out – first time over the latter disrupting a shoot of the former because Aishwarya Rai was there. The second time at a party when Salman jibed about Shah Rukh’s flop television show and in reply Shah Rukh is said to have made an allusion to Aishwarya, almost leading to a physical fight.
But that is in the past. Now Shah Rukh will be seen in Tubelight, Salman’s next movie. It is not just a rumour, because the movie’s director Kabir Khan has confirmed it. Though he has not spelt out what role Shah Rukh will be doing, there are rumours that he might be playing a magician. Salman incidentally is supposed to be playing a person with mental disability in it.
While the two superstars show their closeness by appearing in Tubelight, Kabir himself is said to be drifting away from Salman. For many years now he has been Salman’s favourite director; but the two have had creative differences during the shooting of Tubelight. Salman is a difficult person to work with and it is no surprise that such a fallout should happen. That is also perhaps a reason why the sequel of Ek Tha Tiger, which was directed by Kabir and went on to be a big hit, is being made by Ali Abbas Zafar, who had directed Salman in Sultan. Kabir, on the other hand, is making his next movie with Hrithik Roshan.
Sarkar returns
March will see the return of Ram Gopal Varma with a movie that will hopefully not be the usual half-baked fare that he has been dealing the audience over the last few years. Sarkar 3, the third in the series of Varma’s Indianised Godfather, will hit the screen with Amitabh Bachchan in it.
The actor who will not be seen in it is Abhishek Bachchan since his character had been killed off in Sarkar 2. That could be either a good thing or a bad thing depending on how you look at it. Good, because given Varma’s recent destructive self-indulgence, there is no saying how Sarkar 3 might be, and if past performance is any indication it could be a big dud. Bad, because Abhishek doesn’t have too many options now anyway. He is under threat of being zoned into character artiste territory, a far cry from when movies with him as the solo lead used to be made.
The movie that he is said to be doing is one that he is co-producing. But putting money on oneself is somewhat risky when the market is not so enamoured by you.
No going west
Kangana Ranaut will be seen in Rangoon towards the end of this month. The Vishal Bharadwaj movie might not become a huge hit going by how his movies fare, but what it will get is critical acclaim and for the actors in it who are not doing that well, new leases of life.
There is Saif Ali Khan and Shahid Kapoor, both of whom could do with some help in their careers. Even Kangana Ranaut, after the 2015 superhit Tanu Weds Manu Returns, has done nothing to make any waves and while she might have been the new age pioneer of heroine-oriented movies, these trends can dissipate unless reinforced with commercial success.
Rangoon might just be the booster for her too. Recently, she commented on working in Hollywood as Priyanka Chopra and Deepika Padukone have successfully done and didn’t come across as too enamoured by the idea. It could be because she has not gotten the kind of opportunity that the two have got but Kangana’s argument in the interview that she gave to a tabloid was that the business of movies is crashing there because of the digital wave and so, ergo, it is a spent place while Bollywood is a sunrise industry!
Hit combo
Varun Dhawan and Alia Bhatt will soon be seen in their third movie together. They started off their careers with Student of the Year, which was a huge hit, in 2012. Then it was followed by Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania, another big one two years later. And now there will be its sequel, Badrinath Ki Dulhania.
Both their careers are going well. Alia seems to be at her peak. She was last year seen in Udta Punjab, where she played a rural Bihari migrant and, as usual, the critics couldn’t stop raving about how great she was. After that there was Dear Zindagi, which also got the same reception. Varun’s career is somewhat tepid at present. His last movie, Dishoom, along with John Abraham wasn’t a hit but recovered its costs, so he has not had a flop yet.
Before that there was Dilwale with Shah Rukh Khan, another average performer in relation to what it was expected to do. One of things that is being talked about Varun is how sculpted his physique is looking. It is no doubt the time he puts into the gym daily. He made news some time back when the day after an eye surgery he was working out and put his photo on Instagram. What is responsible for the success of Varun and Alia, even though they are star children, is the commitment and hard work they put in.
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CAMEO: Tubelight director Kabir Khan has confirmed that Shahrukh Khan will be appearing in the film.
