Vir Das Tells Whitney Cummings All About Shah Rukh Khan And His Stardom
Living in India, I always assumed everyone knows who Shah Rukh Khan is. Like, can you blame me for assuming that everyone knows who ‘King Khan’ and the ‘Baadshah of Bollywood’ is? He has been in this industry for decades and is the classic example of rags to riches story, in real life. However, SRK is very popular outside of India too considering that he was spoken about by former US President Barack Obama as well! So consider my surprise when I watched comedian Whitney Cummings’ podcast called ‘Good For You’ where the guest for November 18 was our very own Vir Das and she apparently wasn’t aware of Shah Rukh Khan and Das had to introduce her to SRK and his stardom!
Vir Das schooled Whitney on her podcast talking about the influence Shah Rukh Khan has had on India and Bollywood. He said, “In Mumbai, if Shah Rukh Khan, who is the biggest Bollywood star, stepped out for like 30 seconds, there’d be a stampede. There’d be 5,000 people on the street. And that’s like Bollywood fame.” Whiney Cummings seemed intrigued because she started googling Shah Rukh Khan as Vir continued, “That’s the biggest star in the world, pretty much. Like in terms of everything. In terms of fan-base, in terms of reach, in terms of everything. Like every Sunday, he will have 10,000 people waiting outside his house.”
Also Read: Shah Rukh Khan Receives Birthday Wishes From ‘Fangirl’ Malaika Arora And His Peers From Bollywood
Vir continued praising SRK as he said that his story is “really great” and that it is a “became ‘King Of The World’ story.” Vir Das then said, “I think people relate to that, aspire to that.” Vir Das remembers the days when he had to write jokes for Shah Rukh Khan and how he would make the jokes better. “Our version of the Oscars – I used to write jokes for that and he used to host it. Like you’d be up in his house and just like pitching jokes to the guy. And then he’d never listen to you. He’d go on and do his version of the joke and it would always be better. Nobody’s ever done that.” Lastly, he said, “So in backstage, you’re just like ‘that was good.’ You know he’s that good. He’s that smart.”
I could not agree more with Vir Das’ perception of SRK. That man completely changed the course of Bollywood while inspiring 1000s to pursue their dreams.
