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| War of words spices up Bollywood’s rivalry | | War of words spices up Bollywood’s rivalry | | BL KAK
NEW DELHI, FEB 13
Mediapersons here, there and almost everywhere across the country as well as in several places outside the territory of India are busy churning out stories, one after another, as the war of words spices up Bollywood's rivalry. Two of India's biggest film stars seem to have been projected as fighters in a battle for popularity.
One is ageing icon, Amitabh Bachhan, while the other is Shahrukh Khan, the heart throb of a young generation. Interestingly, subtle digs have revealed their rivalry. Amitabh Bachchan is 64, a veteran who has ruled the Indian box office for decades and is still hugely popular.
Shah Rukh Khan, 41, is the reigning star and believed to be Bollywood’s highest-paid actor with a massive fan following. For years, India’s celebrity-obsessed media has compared their acting, star power, fan following and box office fortunes but Bachchan and Khan avoided commenting on each other, cloaking their rivalry behind studied sophistication.
But that seems to be history after Shahrukh Khan took over a popular television quiz show in January that Bachchan once hosted with unprecedented success. Since then, the two are taking veiled potshots at each other but, at the same time, attributing talk of their competition to the fertile imagination of a ravenous media.
“That was your generation, this is mine”, Shahrukh Khan said in a TV interview when asked about Amitabh Bachchan and the rivalry. “I am quite good at what I do”, added Khan, whose boyish charm and screen energy has won him millions of fans, especially among teenagers and children. “I am cool, hip, sexy and wonderful”.
Khan was apparently retorting to a remark by Bachchan that comparisons with a younger star only inspired him to act better so that Khan could imitate him. Bachchan says comparisons are unfair as he is much older. “If you want to do an honest comparison, you should wait for him to get to 65 and then see how he fares with the box office king at that point in time”, Bachchan told Times Now television. Amitabh Bachchan, married to former actor Jaya Bhaduri and father of Bollywood actor Abhishek Bachchan, still wows women of all ages with his baritone voice and compelling screen presence.
Debate rages over whether Shahrukh Khan — these days called “King Khan” for his box-office clout — has managed to fill the shoes of Bachchan on the quiz show with his energetic, light-hearted antics against the dignified, gravitas of the older host. While fans appear divided on who is a better host of the show, viewership ratings after a week of the quiz indicate audience interest in watching Khan may just be flagging.
Last year, the media got another opportunity to whip up the rivalry debate when Khan starred in a remake of a 1978 Bachchan film. “Don”, in which Shahrukh Khan portrayed a Mumbai crime boss three decades after Bachchan did the same, was a moderate success that could not replicate the cult status of the older version.
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