Opinion Why we need to listen to Shah Rukh Khan

Insights, when they are repeated for long enough, become cliches and lose their power to provide perspective. But context and creativity can rescue them. So, when Shah Rukh Khan spoke about social media being driven by a “narrowness of view” on December 15 at the Kolkata International Film Festival (KIFF) he was, in a sense, merely rephrasing a theme social scientists have long studied. But in the current moment, his words have a larger resonance — both for the film industry of which he is a champion and society at large.

In the days before his comments at KIFF, there were calls for Khan’s upcoming film Pathaan to be boycotted. The stated reasons for taking offence seem terribly contrived — from objections to the orange colour of actor Deepika Padukone’s clothing to “hurt sentiments” of the majority. More striking was the predictability of this controversy. Padukone has been painted as a “supporter” of the “tukde tukde gang” ever since she showed up at JNU in 2020 to extend solidarity to agitating students amid protests against the CAA-NRC. In a polarised climate that is increasingly infecting the worlds of art and cinema too, Khan has also been a regular target of vicious trolling.

Advertisement

Khan is right when he says that “negativity increases social media consumption, and thereby increases its commercial value as well. Such pursuits enclose the collective narrative, making it divisive and destructive”. Divisiveness is indeed rewarded on the internet. But, unlike so many of his colleagues, Khan is not despondent nor does he give in to cliché or abdicate responsibility. “Cinema has an even more important role to play now…Cinema exposes the vulnerability of human nature”, says Khan. If only the trolls and those certain of the righteousness of their prejudice could hear him.