Why Bollywood may never see Aamir, Shahrukh and Salman in the same film…
For nearly two decades, they have virtually ruled Bollywood. Their ever-increasing fan base has no age bar and crosses boundaries and cultures.
Aamir, Shah Rukh and Salman (not necessarily in that order) have been the stalwarts in an industry that has seen actors come and go before you could say box-office!
What is it about the troika that has audiences gasping for more? After all, they are hardly good lookers when compared to their Hollywood counterparts. All reigning current heroines tower above them. And two out of the three are repetitive in their acting.
Perhaps it is Salman’s irresistibility that endears or Shah Rukh’s indefatigability that never ends. Or Aamir being completely against all appeals. Whatever it is, we just can’t seem to have enough of them.
And yet, after almost twenty odd years, nearly 150 films between the three of them, we still haven’t seen them together on screen.
Even the London Dreams script was reportedly written for them. Eventually Salman and Ajay Devgan played the lead roles.
The truth is, there is no script for supercilious stars. Salman and Shah Rukh are perhaps constantly at war every two years. Shah Rukh and Aamir continue to take digs at each other, with Aamir even going on Twitter and telling his fans that his dog is called “Shah Rukh.”
While in London to promote a film, Aamir saw a film magazine which carried an advertisement of Shah Rukh endorsing a South London restaurant. Aamir, who does not believe in endorsing everything and anything, was quick to spot it. He looked up and asked the reporter interviewing him, “What is this (about)?”
When he got his answer, Aamir rolled his eyes to the heavens, took a deep breath, shook his head and continued to stare at the page. Enough said.
Of course, it didn’t stop him sending Gajini lookalikes to theatres screening a Shah Rukh film as part of his promotion strategy years ago.
Shah Rukh shrugged off the stunt, but not before a slight dig at his mate: “It’s a good strategy. You take the biggest brand in the country that is SRK and then use that platform yourself. The problem is I cannot use another brand because there is no one bigger than me,” quipped Shah Rukh.
Aamir, of course, had the final word: “For me, Amitabh is number one. No one who sits on the top needs to say he is number one. Others keep claiming to be there.”
However, the chances of seeing Aamir and Shah Rukh in a movie together are still higher than working Shah Rukh working with Salman. Post Dabangg those chances may recede even further as Salman may stake claim to the throne which Shah Rukh believes is his.
Both try their best to avoid each other. Aboard a BA flight from Mumbai to London earlier this summer, both of them sat a few rows apart in the first-class cabin. Salman was apparently as vocal as he could be throughout the flight, fully aware that Shah Rukh was within earshot. Shah Rukh put on his ear plugs and chose to ignore him throughout the nine hours.
And even the sight of Shah Rukh posters in a room is enough to upset him as it happened recently during a TV promotion show at Yash Raj Studios.
What is lamentable is that all three of them are forty-somethings at their peak. In a few years (a little more than that) there will be a descent. At fifty years, surely they cannot continue playing characters who attend lectures at a university. Sooner or later, character roles will beckon.
Sylvester Stallone in a recent interview said that Arnold Schwarzenegger hardly spoke to him when the two of them were at their peak.
So when he went to ask him to play a small role in The Expendables, he was pleasantly surprised when the Governator said yes. Then quickly, he added that maybe the timing was right. The Expendables is loved by a cast all yesteryear stars.
Closer home, there’s precedent. Raj Kapoor, Dilip Kumar and Dev Anand – the famous troika in Bollywood in the 50s and 60s – never starred in a movie together.
One hopes that Shah Rukh, Aamir and Salman will not be seen together in a movie with their salt-and-pepper hair and aged looks. Or perhaps we may never ever see them together in a movie. But rest assured that it would never be because of the want of a good script. Rather the juvenile petulance of three of India’s greatest stars of their generation.
– Kevin Rego