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‘Shah Rukh Khan came with a golden spoon, was treated like a king’: Viveck Vaswani slams Aryan’s show for ‘evil’ Bollywood portrayal
Viveck Vaswani, one of Shah Rukh Khan’s earliest friends in the film industry, questioned why Aryan Khan’s show portrays the entire industry as evil.
Shah Rukh Khan (Photo: Netflix, YouTube)
Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan made his first foray into the world of filmmaking with his Netflix series The Ba***ds of Bollywood. The show quickly became a talking point, dominating online discourse for days. As with most popular releases, reactions were polarising, while some viewers embraced it, others were far less impressed. Among its more vocal critics is Viveck Vaswani, one of Shah Rukh Khan’s earliest and closest associates from his early days in the film industry in the 1990s.
‘SRK was treated like a king’
Talking to Vickey Lalwani on his YouTube channel, Vaswani expressed his displeasure with the show’s portrayal of the film industry in a negative light. “Shah Rukh was treated like a king in my house, my mother, my father, and I, we all looked after him. We used to eat dinner together, watch films together, and often go on sets together. Aziz Mirza (filmmaker) gave him a place to stay, and Aziz’s wife Nirmala Mirza was like his mother, just as my mother was. Saeed Mirza, Renu Saluja, and everyone associated with Circus (one of Shah Rukh’s early TV outings) as well as Karan Johar’s father Yash Johar, and Aditya Chopra’s father Yash Chopra, all of them, without exception, treated him like a king. He came into the industry with a golden spoon. So why does he think it’s a bad industry?”
Vaswani also pointed to a specific scene that did not sit well with him. “You are showing a woman being kicked to the ground by a director. I have never seen anything like this in the industry. I have not encountered such evil people here,” he said. He added, “Whatever dirt or supposed ‘evil side’ of Bollywood people talk about, I have never seen it. Even Shah Rukh, who lived with me, never saw it.”
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‘Why paint everyone black?’
He conceded that such depictions might stem from second-hand accounts rather than personal experience, but questioned the show’s broad portrayal. “Why paint everyone black? There are decent people in the industry. If you are making something called The Ba***ds of Bollywood and want to show the darker side, that’s fair, but let there be a Yash Chopra, who has been decent. Let there be a Yash Johar, or let there be a Viveck Vaswani who has always helped people. Let there be good people too.”
Another sharp critic of the series has been British-Pakistani actor Alyy Khan, who previously worked with SRK in Don 2. Speaking on the ARY Podcast last year, Khan shared his candid views on Aryan’s work. “Recently, I watched Aryan’s work in The Ba***ds of Bollywood, and I found it very strange. You cannot watch it with family because the language is so unusual. At the level of the people being portrayed in the show, do they actually use such street-level language? Sometimes it feels like such decisions are made just for eyeballs, for ratings. There are many ways to convey the same thing. And if you want to use expletives, use them sparingly, like a close-up, say it when it matters. That’s when it has impact. If every sentence has it, it becomes cringe-worthy and boring.”
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DISCLAIMER: The views expressed in this article reflect personal opinions and critiques regarding the entertainment industry and its fictional portrayals; they do not constitute factual claims or professional advice.
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