For last 20 years plus,trio of three Khans ruling Bollywood box office.Shah Rukh,a middle class guy from Delhi,stormed the box office with one blockbuster after another and Salman Khan,son of famous script writer Salim Khan,churned money spinners at will in his illustrious career.But the third Khan,Aamir,tried his best to be different from the lot for last 15 years.He claimed many times that he is there with a mission charting his own path.Majority of fans following Aamir believed that he is perfectionist and way above others.
But is this a myth created by Aamir himself,PR agencies,media and his fans or there is some truth behind it,let's figure out.
First of all,have a look at start of his career.He started his career as main lead ('worked as child artist in 'Yaadon Ki Baraat' and 'Madhosh',in 'Holi' as supporting actor) with 'Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak' in 1988.Film was a surprise hit and it's success made Aamir Khan new heartthrob of the nation.But after that in next couple of years,he had
5-6 flops in a row('Raakh','Awwal Number','Love Love Love','Tum Mere Ho','Jawani Zindabad','Deewana Mujh Sa Nahin','Afsaana Pyaar Ka','Daulat Ki Jung','Issi Ka Naam Zindagi','Parmpara') with the exception of tow hits in 'Dil' and 'Dil Hai Ki Manta Nahin'.But it was the success of 'Rangeela' and 'Raja Hindustani' which frustrated him deep inside.
Even after delivering such mega hits,Aamir failed to overshadow Salman and Shah Rukh as their movies like
'DDLJ','HAHAK','Baazigar' etc. found more universal appeal and SRK became the favorite of top banner Yash Raj (with whom Aamir worked in flop 'Parampara' and rejected their next two projects 'Darr' and 'DDLJ' but both were box office success with SRK) and unanimous King of overseas.This forced Aamir to take an alternative route which was to do few films at a time but that too didn' work commercially as he starred subsequently in minor hits like 'Ghulam' and 'Sarfarosh' but still gave miserable mediocre films
'1947 Earth','Mann' and 'Mela'.On contrary,Shah Rukh continued to dominate box office.
So let's list down major contradictions in professional life of Aamir Khan-
- He can go and lobby for Oscar but didn' find awards in his country 'fair' enough as he was more than one on losing side.He can also praise any award given to him by any organization.It means-
is he really a bad loser?
- Aamir belongs to the family of successful producer Naasir Hussain and Mansoor Khan but he started his own production house in 2001 exactly 2 years after Shah Rukh Khan,
is he really different?
- Aamir appeared in few advertisements with brands like Pepsi in 90's but later announced that he is not into this 'showy' business as he is only an artist.But after Amitabh and SRK made mega bucks in endorsements,he jumped back in 2007 with umpteen brands.
Is this not too fickle?
- Aamir said that he might never do Television but last month he announced Television show produced by his production house,
exactly after 2 years SRK ventured in production of programmes for small screen.
Is he really thinks out of the box?
- Aamir supposed to own the release dates of Christmas after his 3 back to back successes in 'Taare Zameen Par','Ghajini' and '3 Idiots'.He said that he might release his next film 'Talaash'(which is currently under production) on Christmas 2011 but retracted after Christmas release announced for 'Don 2'.Aftewardshe stated that 'Talaash' will release in Jan-Feb 2012 but with humongous response for the trailer of Hrithik starrer 'Agneepath',he again backed out with further delay.Then announcement came that film will be released in June 2012 as Salman's 'Ek Tha Tiger' is postponed for Eid which was earlier scheduled for June.Then Aamir's next 'Dhoom 3' got postponed from 2012 Christmas to 2013 and now Salman's 'Dabangg 2' will release on Christmas 2012'.One wonders that Aamir is forced to do all this groupism with Salman as Salman is going through unbelievable high in his career and Aamir can not afford to spoil relationship with him or his crazy fans.
Ironically this groupism is somewhat similar to what SRK was blamed for ages.
- Aamir launched his nephew Imran as actor and his wife Kiran as director furthering the nepotism in Bollywood( he never gave any newcomer a central role in any his production's big films unlike SRK's 'Always Kabhi Kabhi' and Salman's 'Chillar Party').
Is this right?
- Aamir acted in 'Ghajini',third grade 'masala' remake of south indian blockbuster 'Ghajini' which was in itself was the poor remake of hollywood cult 'Memento',he took a great script from Amol Gupte(he wrote it after 5 years of research and wanted to direct it)and made 'TaareZameen Par' which made Amol so furious that he walked out of the film.
Is this is called perfectionism?
- Now Aamir is doing a sequel too in 'Dhoom 3' and he said so many times that he will never do a remake or sequel when SRK's 'Don' released.
Is this is not too typical of Mr. Perfectionist?
Aamir is a great actor and there is no two ways about it but his claims and counter claims show him in poor light.After all the struggle at box office, he found that elusive dominance with 'ghajini' and '3 Idiots' but Salman again took the limelight away with series of blockbusters.
Now it is up to audience to decide whether Aamir is the great actor or superstar or Salman is the real star at the moment as Shah Rukh was in 90's?But i know as a matter of fact that this debate is endless.
THE HELP (a must watch)
DAM 999 (disastrous disaster flick )
