To me, SRK is more like a rock star than an actor. He is incredibly charming and has great screen presence. He mesmerizes his audience with his charm and has undoubtedly been the most successful performer in recent times. His movies have done incredibly well at the box office. To some people the box office result is the bottom line. But in my opinion, box office isn’t everything. To me, SRK has really not evolved as an ’actor’. If you look at his graph as an actor, I think it has been a bit ’up and down’. So at times you get the feeling that he is back where he started.
On the other hand, Aamir has evolved amazingly as an actor from the chocolate-faced lover boy to the fine actor he is today. He has almost graduated as an actor and that has not happened overnight. His choice of movies and characters and his constant endeavours to experiment have helped him evolve into a fine actor. That is why even though Aamir is easily more good looking than SRK, it is the latter who still has this lover boy image while Aamir has left that image far behind. As far as popularity is concerned, I think SRK is the winner.
The media in India can also take a lot of credit for SRK’s superstardom. They have always glorified him by highlighting his strengths and conveniently ignoring his shortcomings. He has always been the media’s blue eyed boy and that has got more to do with his good relations with the media rather than his virtues. Everyone knows about his close relations with Khaled Mohammed and Co. Whose face do we see splashed on newspapers, magazines, and websites all year round? A superstar who never lets people forget for a moment that he’s the King of Bollywood.
You got me right. SRK it is not a single newspaper or TV channel dares to say anything negative about SRK and his films. That’s the kind of media control the actor’s got. SRK would have to be the world’s worst (which explains why he is India’s BIGGEST superstar) ACTOR! The man is an insult upon his craft and displays the finesse and panache of an elephant attempting a ballet often times. However as India is by a large a ’’celebration of mediocrity’’ he is the Bad OOOPS Baadshah of Bollywood. This is going to ruffle feathers of many a SRK fan.
Our man continues to find himself in blockbuster films despite very mediocre performances. He has stammered his way (remember kkkiran) to stardom. It is hard to differentiate any of his performances. whether he is drowning his sorrows in a bottle of whiskey in Devdas or acting like a shifty cool guy. I hate to come down so heavily on him. But he really needs to get more versatile and show more shades in his character portrayal. According to me, SRK does not have any acting abilities. He definitely has the screen presence and also does exude confidence.
He is popular because of these qualities and not because of his acting skills. So, I feel that SRK may be a superstar, he may have won the Padmashree and many other awards, but he is not an actor. For me, actors rely on their acting abilities and not some silly stunt like stammering on screen. Such stunts may be necessary in portraying certain character; however it shows your weakness as an actor if you have to rely on them for popularity. There were many other stars who are actors in the true sense of the word (like Ajay Devgan, Anil Kapoor etc.) that deserved the Padmashree.
It is for this reason that I feel that such awards have lost their respect. It is clear from this that lobbying works to get you an award of the calibre of the Padmashree. It is a shame that an undeserving actor like SRK got the Padmashree. I was a SRK fan in the 90’s and I still feel he is one of the best ENTERTAINERS in the Industry but as far acting is concerned. Aamir rocks!!! Aamir is a very versatile actor. Films like Devdas are pain. SRK insults the character created by Mr. Sarat Chandra.
SRK has looked good in selective movies like Swades, DDLJ, Kabhi Haa Kabhi Na, etc. He does similar roles and acting in all movies. But Aamir performs in every role. From a young lover in Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak to ACP Ajay to Bhuvan to DJ. Instead of arguing lets see discuss some facts. Let’s compare period roles: Who is better SRK as Asoka or Aamir as Mangal Pandey? Despite of so much literature available about Asoka, SRK was SRK as Asoka: Where as Aamir looked like Mangal Pandey despite of so much less literature available about the revolutionary.
Compare Aamir as a Policeman in Sarfarosh and SRK as a police in One Two Ka Four. One can’t imagine SRK playing a Bhuvan or DJ but Aamir has played lover boy roles successfully earlier in his movie career and was also Ashutosh Gowartikar’s 1st choice for Swades. With due respect to SRK and his fans. Aamir is a far better actor and a learner of cinema. Apart from Aamir, actors like Ajay Devgan and Anil Kapoor are far better and natural actors than SRK. SRK is obviously an extremely talented actor and of course, he’s done some marvellous work.
A few years before Dil Se. He did a film called Baazigar and ushered in a revolution as the anti-hero. Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa, Dil Se, Swades are brilliant performances. It’s just that he’s stagnated as an actor for the last 2-3 years or so. He did different movies like Asoka, Devdas but IMO, he wasn’t convinving enough in either of them. Not to mention the crap that he does for his friends K3G, Kal Ho Naa Ho, Main Hoon Na, Veer-Zaara, Chalte Chalte agreed they were all hits, but as an actor, he proved nothing with these films.
In fact, he plainly irritated in some of them (like Chalte Chalte and K3G). But yeah, Swades redeemed him as an actor. In fact, he publicly stated that he would have been more happy if he’d got the Best Actor award for Swades beacause that was the best performance of his career. But he got it for Veer-Zaara. While SRK needs a Yash Chopra or Karan Johar production to rope in the crowds, Aamir can do that with any damn filmmaker and any damn production house.
The Rising’s opening crowds for 4 days surpassed that of Veer Zaara’s weekly audience. Lagaan (an unknown filmmaker) and Dil Chahta Hai ( debutant director) had incredible openings. But then why dosen’t that happen with SRK, if his fan base is indeed as great as it seems (and if his fans have so much faith in him)? What happened with Swades, which was such an anticipated movie (Ashutosh Gowariker is a famous man after Lagaan)? Despite being such a brilliant movie, it didn’t get half the expected opening crowd.
Paheli had an even worse opening then Mela. SRK is far ahead of Aamir, be it : superstardom, popularity, dynamism, spontaneity, natural charisma, appeal, audience appeal, screen-presence, PR, awards (in loads), rappo with people like Karan Johar, Farah Khan etc. Swades is better than Mangal Pandey as a movie ) resonance with his colleagues including Aamir. SRK is far away from Aamir Khan, ( mind 1 thing - am not saying ’’far behind’’ the phrase is ’’far away’’ ) when it comes to one thing for which both got into Bollywood at the very first place: ACTING.