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| Struggling actors and the fight of King Khan |
Want To Be An Actor? Are You Ready For a Prolonged Struggle Like SRK?
Shah Rukh Khan known as SRK, is an Indian film actor, producer and television personality. Referred to in the media as the "Baadshah of Bollywood", "King of Bollywood" or "King Khan", he has appeared in more than 100 Bollywood films and earned numerous accolades, including 14 Filmfare Awards. Khan has a significant following in whole of Asia and the Indian diaspora worldwide. In terms of audience size and income, he has been described as one of the most successful film stars in the world. Source
A boy from a middle-class family whose parents did not have enough money to take him to the movies has become “King Khan”. Shah Rukh khan, who has seen endless struggles in his life – he has slept on streets, struggled to support himself and his sister at a very young age. He even lost his parents very early which led to his sister seeking mental health support. Between all the chaos and challenges, he kept pushing himself, and today he stands tall as the ‘Badshah of Bollywood’. Certainly, those years weren’t easy for him. Success doesn’t come easy, what made him a star was his acceptance of failure and the urge to improve. (Manohar, 2012)
From His Early Days
He not only saw failure but poverty too, especially after his parents’ demise. He vocally admits that he took on less creative work to overcome poverty. Some of the films which he accepted were rejected by big stars, but he took them on to avoid unemployment. Shah Rukh strongly believes that failure is a part of life, he believes that the true road to success is not just the desire for success but fear of failure and that if you don’t enjoy and be scared of your failure you will never succeed.
According to him, one needs to pass through some stages of failure in order to succeed. We might whimper about a successful superstar and his genuine tussle with failure. We believe that only a person who has been through adversity has all the rights to voice it out.
He believes it’s not the absence of failure that makes one successful, but it’s one response to it, (AIMA speech, 2014).
Which is actually so real for e.g. If we keep on thinking that nothing can be done, or ask why did it happen to me? Then surely we are falling into the trap of failure, while on the other hand if we learn from our failure, and accept it as a part of life and move on, we become strong individuals. We chase success and we want to live successful lives.
His Career
Khan began his career with appearances in the several television series in the late 1980s. Then joined Bollywood. His first hit was Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995), after a struggle period of 15 years. Source
Here is what Shah Rukh Khan told to Avijit Ghosh of Times Of India long back in an interview
Question by Avijit Ghosh:
Real stardom takes about 10 years to achieve?
Answer:
"Minimum!
Yeh mujhe Amitji (Amitabh Bachchan) ne bataya tha. "Aatth (8) saal tak tum Hindustan mein star nahi ban sakte. Ab to thoda jaldi ho jata hai, kyunki reach zyada ho gayi hai'. He had further told me- "Shah Rukh, desh ko aath saal lagte hain tumko jaanne mein.
Let me elaborate on a small incident. I had gone to meet a friend in south Delhi. He wasn't there. I wrote a small note saying, I came, and gave it to the watchman. The watchman looked at me and said,
'have you written your name on it?'
I looked at him and said, 'yes'.
Then he said, 'have you written the address?' .
I said, ji.
He said, 'also write what is it that you do'.
And I stood there and thought there is still one man, a security guard in a posh Delhi locality, who does not know me. So I still have to work. It's been 20 years but there's still one man in this country who doesn't know me. So I need to work harder". Source
