AGOMONI
I have never been one for celebrity worship, a stance born not from contrarianism but from a constitutional inability to see a famous person as anything more than a beautifully wrapped, single-skilled parcel. Sachin Tendulkar is a god with a bat and a mere mortal in all other departments. For me, the curious exception has always been Shah Rukh Khan. My admiration is not for the actor, but for the man off-screen—specifically, for his unvarnished, almost mathematical, acknowledgment of his own success. He can state, “ I am the biggest movie star in India, ” with the dispassionate certainty of a scientist reading a thermometer. It is a hard-hitting realism entirely devoid of the need for faux humility, a quality as rare as a quiet moment in a Bollywood potboiler. This SRK Principle of owning one’s space stands in stark contrast to the industry’s other favourite trope: the heir apparent. Consider the Abhishek Bachchans and the Rohan Gavaskars of the world. No matter their effo...