I just heard an interview with Farooq Khan, who has been described as "the biggest movie star in the world." For the last 20 years, this guy has been the biggest star in Bollywood. It was a fantastic interview overall, but a couple of things really stood out for me. The first was that he is a Muslim. I am impressed that in a country which is mostly Hindu and with such a history of inter-religious conflict is able to elevate a Muslim to such heights of stardom. It is a particular characteristic of democracies that such things are possible. Hunkiness transcends all boundaries. The second thing about the interview which stood out for me was the comments he made about Bollywood films. I will transcribe his comments from memory as best I can.
"Western people always tell me that Bollywood films are so fantastical. That always makes me laugh. I think that it is Hollywood films that are fantastical. In Hollywood films there are superheroes, or races of blue aliens living on another planet. In Bollywood, yeah, we do a lot of singing and dancing, but at their core the films are about people falling in love. The most fantastic films are the ones where the characters go to America, make a nice wage, own a car and send their kids to school. Indian fantasies are very attainable. America is our Pandora."
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," said the stunning hunk of a man, as he drove away in his limousine made of chocolate and untouchables.
ReplyDeleteactually, this is pretty amazing.
That's a good point. I haven't heard the criticism turned on its side before.
ReplyDeleteAs for Khan's religion, some of the highest profile actors in Bollywood are Muslim. However, Bollywood actors' "immunity" to religious polarization is, at least in part, the product of very careful effort by the industry to downplay Muslim actors' religious beliefs. On screen, Khan plays as convincing a Hindu as I've ever seen, and, although he acknowledges beings a Muslim in real life, his wife is a practicing Hindu. I'm not deriding him. I think he's a badass independent of his religious beliefs. It's just a political and social reality in India.
Amar
P.S. I think the actor you're thinking of is actually Shahrukh Khan. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123589668.
India may be able to get past his religion, but America's a work in progress. SRK was detained for two hours in a Chicago airport last fall.
Yeah, sorry about mixing up the name. I was in the car when I heard the interview, so I couldn't write it down. But yeah, that's the guy. He talked about being detained and frisked in the airport. That was another good moment in the interview. He was asked if he was offended. He said:
ReplyDelete"I think everyone back home was actually more upset than I was. I am pretty used to it. The Indian foreign minister told me that he would see to it that American stars got the same treatment when they came to India. I told him, 'well if Angelina Jolie ever comes to India, I want to be the one that frisks her!'"