Party Time For The Three Khans

Politics and Bollywood are spectacular miscast and there are tons of examples to prove it. Right from the evergreen Dev Anand, who started his own party sometime in the late 1970s, which bombed in no time, to Amitabh Bachchan, Dharmendra, Hema Malini, Vinod Khanna, Rajesh Khanna, Govinda, Jaya Prada, Arun Govil, Nitish Bharadwaj, Deepika Padukone, Sanjay Dutt … it’s been a flop show, all the way. Most of the stars later admitted that despite their good intentions of “serving the people in another capacity,” they found themselves hopelessly inadequate and begged off. Some — Sunil Dutt, Raj Babbar & Shatrughan Sinha — did however manage to hang on, but made little impact.

In year 2014, the buzz is that the three trail-blazing musketeers of B-town, the Khans, are going political.

Aamir Khan (seen here with the british PM David Cameron) is playing his political preferences close to his chest.Shah Rukh Khan is known to be a “Congressi,” because of his family loyalties. Also he is a great admirer of Sonia Gandhi and a buddy of both Rahul and Priyanka, who with hubby Robert Vadra, landed up at Kolkata’s Eden Gardens to cheer for his Kolkata Knightriders in 2008. The “Perfectionist” Khan, cool, calm and collected, is known to do his own number. Aamir’s presence at the Anna Hazare meet in year 2012 at the Jan Lok Pal fast is well remembered. His open admiration of Arvind Kejriwal too hasn’t gone un-noticed and rumors ran thick and fast about his aligning with the AAP, specially after he went on record to state that “We had lost hope in political thinking and now suddenly we have this tidal wave that promises to be revolutionary. I am glad more and more people want to be a part of that wave.”

However, Aamir Khan has always categorically stated that it’s the cause and not the party that drives his sense of choice and approval and if he ever endorses, it will only be when action speak louder than words.

Dabangg Khan however is a different creature altogether. Salman is as comfy dancing and entertaining the freaked-out crowds at Saifi Mahotsav while cozying up to the Samajwadi Chiefs as he is flying kites with BJP Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi and calling him “a good man” and categorically supporting him in a breaking News TV interview with a prominent channel. But he diplomatically refrained from articulating his political color. However, for a hi-profile politician like Modi to be seen in the company of — not Captains of business and industry or heads of state — flamboyant, colorful Superstar Salman Khan and enjoying every moment, does send out interesting signals, right?

Salman Khan and Shahrukh KhanSocial media – especially on Twitter — is exploding with each Khan’s fan-following going through the roof. Shahrukh Khan leads the way with a fan-base of 6.7 million with Salman following with 6.1 million and Aamir with 5.8 million. Critics however dismiss these numbers and insist Salman rules the popularity polls among the zillions who don’t have access to the digital wave. Be that as it may, the differing storylines and screenplay of the 3 Khans in a potentially hot political narrative could well be the blockbuster of 2014.