{"id":520,"date":"2012-06-23T07:10:32","date_gmt":"2012-06-23T07:10:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/teekhapan.wordpress.com\/?p=520"},"modified":"2012-06-23T07:10:32","modified_gmt":"2012-06-23T07:10:32","slug":"why-aamir-khan-and-satyamev-jayate-are-made-for-each-other","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vivekkaul.com\/2012\/06\/23\/why-aamir-khan-and-satyamev-jayate-are-made-for-each-other\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Aamir Khan and Satyamev Jayate are made for each other"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>
\nVivek Kaul
\n<\/strong>
\nSome eleven years back I happened to be at an event where Sri Sri Ravi Shankar was the main guest. Since he was in a hurry he came in dancing into the hall and immediately asked the audience to ask him some questions.
\nAfter a few questions came this gem \u201cSwami ji, jeevan ka matlab kya hai?<\/em>“. To which he replied \u201cjisne jeevan ka matlab bataya usne samjha nahi, aur jisne samjha usne bataya nahi<\/em>.\u201d
\nThis philosophical gobbledygook or to use a simpler term mumbo-jumbo, left the audience impressed, and they kept talking about for some days to come. Ravi Shankar was an upcoming guru back then who was trying to find his audience and we all know he has done rather well since then.
\nOver the years I have thought a lot about the statement that he made on that given day. Why did he say what he did? I guess those were the days when he was trying to build a story around what he stood for. He was trying to create an image of himself in the minds of people, which was significantly different from the gurus already present and doing roaring business in the market for \u2018spirituality\u2019. And his story had to be different from them.
\nThe story that Ravi Shankar perfected and spread over years is that of spreading happiness and peace, targeted at the upper middle class segment of the society with a dash of yoga and music thrown in for good measure. He supports this story with a bit of philosophical gobbledygook at times. The fact that his rise coincided with the so called India growth story is no coincidence. People worked longer hours under a whole lot more stress. They also made a lot of money, something which they could use to be spiritual on weekends and seek peace, a few times a year.
\nRavi Shankar is not a mass market guru like Sai Baba of Puttparthi was or Baba Ramdev is, these days. He does not hold his sessions in open grounds like Baba Ramdev does. He holds them in air-conditioned halls. And he makes sure that he stays true to the story he stands for. Recently when Baba Ramdev went on a fast against corruption in the country, Ravi Shankar was asked, why doesn\u2019t he go on a fast like Ramdev had? To which his reply was \u201cI have so many followers outside the country. If I go on a fast, it will become an international issue. This is our problem and it should remain in India.<\/em>\u201d
\nSo even though Sri Sri thinly associated himself with Ramdev\u2019s campaign against corruption, he didn\u2019t go all the way with it. Associating himself with a mass market guru on a mass market issue would have spoilt his story of being an international guru promoting peace and happiness through yoga, music and mumbo-jumbo, to the upper middle class. He had modeled himself along the lines of Osho Rajneesh (though Ravi Shankar is nowhere as radical as Rajneesh was), who was also a rich man\u2019s international guru and he stayed that way till his death.
\nSpiritual gurus in India are big brands and big brands over a period time build stories around them. These are stories that help the mass market to relate to them. And when it comes to big brands, they don\u2019t make bigger brands than film stars.
\nDilip Kumar was the brooding lover. Raj Kapoor was the Indian Charlie Chaplin who got lost in the big bad city. Dev Anand was the gunda with a noble heart. Rajesh Khanna was the boy next door who got the girl in the end with some hiccups thrown in between for good measure.
\nAs times changed, people forgot Khanna rather quickly, and Amitabh Bachchan became the angry young man. Bachchan tried to do something different now and then, but was unsuccessful at it during his hey days. Chupke Chupke<\/em> and Alaap<\/em>, two of his best performances during his hey days didn\u2019t set the box office on fire. In the late 1980s he played the man with no name in the superb Main Azad Hoon<\/em> (inspired by the great Hollywood flick Meet John Doe) directed by Tinnu Anand, who had also directed the Bachchan comeback movie Shahenshah<\/em>. Main Azad Hoon<\/em> tanked at the box office.
\nIn the next generation, Salman Khan became the bhai next door. Shahrukh Khan became the new Rajesh Khanna, the sophisticated guy next door, who gets the girl in the end, after singing a few songs in between. This story became attached to Shahrukh Khan since Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge<\/em>(DDLJ) released in October 1995. His anti hero movies of Darr<\/em>, Anjam<\/em> and Ram Jaane<\/em> all came before DDLJ.
\n Almost all of his biggest hits after DDLJ have had Shahrukh playing the sophisticated guy next door, who usually gets the girl in the end. Be it Kuch Kuch Hota Hai<\/em>, Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gum<\/em>, Dil to Pagal Hai<\/em>, Chalte Chalte<\/em>, Main Hoon Na<\/em>, Veer Zaara <\/em>etc
\nWhenever he is tried to go against this, be it Swades<\/em>, Paheli<\/em>, Kabhi Alvida Na Kahna<\/em> or for that matter My Name is Khan <\/em>it hasn\u2019t worked for him. And most recently that assault on the senses called Ra.One<\/em>.
\nIn the recent past Chak De India<\/em> has been the only Shahrukh movie that has worked where Shahrukh did not play the guy next door. The reason the movie worked was that it had a strong story line, which isn\u2019t a characteristic of most Shahrukh movies, and had a fairly limited budget.
\nSo that leaves us with Aamir Khan the other big star of the generation. What is his story? His story can be expressed in that old Maggi Tomato Ketchup line \u201cIt\u2019s Different\u201d. Aamir Khan over the last ten to twelve years has been associated with movies which do not fall under the ambit of conventional Bollywood cinema. Be it as an actor or even as a producer.
\nAs an actor he has done movies like Lagaan<\/em>, Dil Chahta Hai<\/em>, Mangal Pande<\/em>, Rang De Basanti<\/em>, Taare Zameen Par<\/em>, 3 Idiots<\/em> and Dhobi Ghat \u2013 Mumbai Diaries<\/em>. These are movies which would be categorized as \u201cdifferent\u201d in the scheme of Hindi cinema. Almost all of these movies come with an overt social message as well, something that Bollywood isn\u2019t really known for. His next release Talaash<\/em>, looks like what crime writers call a \u201cpolice-procedural\u201d. It is a sub-genre of detective novels where a murder or murders for that matter, are investigated painstakingly by normal police detectives, who are not as smart as Arthur Conan Doyle\u2019s Sherlock Holmes or Agatha Christie\u2019s Hercule Poirot.
\nGetting back to the point, during this period Aamir has also done an out an out masala flick like Ghajini<\/em>, where his role required him to shave off his hair, something that no other Hindi film super start would have agreed to do. The only normal masala film that he has done in the last few years is Fanaa<\/em>. And that is the exception that proves the rule. Aamir Khan likes to do movies that are different from the usual and have an overt social message.
\nEven his films as a producer, Lagaan<\/em>, Taare Zameen Par<\/em>, Peepli Live<\/em>, Dhobi Ghat<\/em> and Delhi Belly<\/em>, fall into the \u201cit\u2019s different\u201d category. And other than Delhi Belly<\/em> which was an out and out zany adult comedy, the other movies had an overt social message.
\nSo that brings us to Satyamev Jayate<\/em>, Aamir Khan\u2019s latest big hit. As Aamir has repeated in many interviews around four years back he was approached by Uday Shankar, CEO of Star India, with an idea of doing a game show. This Aamir rejected, as the Open<\/em> magazine reports, saying \u201cI don\u2019t want to do a game show. I want to do something dynamically different<\/em>\u201d.
\nThere you have it from the star\u2019s mouth himself. He wanted to do something that was \u201cdifferent\u201d. Aamir Khan probably understood much better than the people who wanted him to do a game show that the image he had built over the years wouldn\u2019t allow him to do a game show. A game show required a star who didn\u2019t really have a \u201cserious-thinking\u201d sort of an image that Aamir has. A Salman Khan could pull off a Dus Ka Dum<\/em>. But an Aamir couldn\u2019t. A Shahrukh could do Zor Ka Jhatka<\/em> in his informal sort of way. But couldn\u2019t pull off a Kaun Banega Crorepati<\/em> which required the gravitas of an Amitabh Bachchan.
\nMedia reports suggest that Aamir Khan and Star TV\u2019s CEO Uday Shankar did not leave it at that. As Business Standard <\/em>reports \u201cIt started some sort of engagement between the two to leverage the power of television. After over one-and-a-half years Khan, who undertook extensive research with his creative team, hit upon the idea of Satyamev Jayate<\/em>.\u201d
\n So convinced was Aamir about the idea that other than hosting the show he even decided to produce it under his banner Aamir Khan Productions, which will get paid a whopping Rs 45 crore for the 13episodes planned.
\nThe entire concept of the show jelled with Aamir Khan\u2019s image of being associated with work that is \u201cdifferent\u201d and has an overt social message to it, though the social message in Satyamev Jayate<\/em> is much more than any of his movies.
\nAamir Khan went looking for an idea like Satyamev Jayate<\/em> and found it. But it can also be safely said that an idea like Satyamev Jayate<\/em> needed a presenter like Aamir Khan. They are \u201cmade for each other\u201d, as the old Wills cigarette ad went.
\n(The article originally appeared on www.firstpost.com on June 23,2012. http:\/\/www.firstpost.com\/living\/why-aamir-khan-and-sj-were-made-for-each-other-354892.html<\/a>)
\n(Vivek Kaul is a writer and can be reached at vivek.kaul@gmail.com)
\n<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vivek Kaul Some eleven years back I happened to be at an event where Sri Sri Ravi Shankar was the main guest. Since he was in a hurry he came in dancing into the hall and immediately asked the audience to ask him some questions. After a few questions came this gem \u201cSwami ji, jeevan … <\/p>\n

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