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‘You Were My First Email ID Password’: A Fan’s Letter To SRK After Having Watched ‘Fan’

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By Aditi Parashar:

433728-fan-new-poster

Dear SRK,

I’m one among the millions of fans you have and I’m not writing this letter to seek recognition. All I claim is ‘5 minutes’ of your life. I know, I know, aapki life hai, aap 5-second bhi kyu do (It’s your life, why would you spare 5 seconds right?), but Alas! I’m a Fan. I can’t help but try.

After movies like Happy New Year and Dilwale, I couldn’t help but think that Fan would be the end of the SRK era. Come to think of it, wasn’t it us, the fans, who decided not to watch Swades? Who wanted more? More drama, more entertainment, more tainted comedy? We did! Oh yes, we did. Your fans. Sorry, SRK, for we failed you and we made you do those movies. But what was the need for another movie to highlight your stardom, yet again?

I remember reading in the newspaper about a movie called Fan that my beloved Shah Rukh Khan was working on a few months ago and boy! Was I taken aback. ‘Another film to cash in on your Stardom?’, I thought to myself and almost cringed. ‘What’s wrong with you, SRK!’

Cut to 29th February 2016, the day I watched the trailer of Fan! Sir, dil mei jaise phir ek ummeed jaagi! (My heart found new hope). Anjaam and Darr were movies where you proved your finesse as an actor. But Bollywood has failed us enough times in the past few years, and I still couldn’t help but fear for Fan.

I remember watching Dil Toh Pagal Hai when I was about 6 or 7 and deciding that you’re the greatest actor I’ve ever seen. You were my first crush, my email ID password, the first poster in my room, the reference point for all my love interests and everything in between. You still are.

Listening to that particular line in the trailer – ‘Door se toh kache wale Fan milte hain, mai toh pass jaake jhappi deke milunga.’ (Fake fans wave from afar, I will say hello with a hug) – I thought someone had spied on me through my teen years and had plagiarised my words and feelings into your film. Unlike Gaurav, I don’t know how to show my madness but Sir, you are my madness.

Like a loyal fan, I booked the first day, first show ticket for Fan and prayed each day for its success. I spent sleepless nights thinking about your upcoming movie, about you, praying for your family, career and everything else.

Yes! I have been disappointed by your movies in the past, dissed by my friends for loving you unconditionally and made fun of incessantly. So, I prayed.

Dear SRK, today, I walked out of the theater with my head held high and with tears of victory in my eyes. I felt like that 8-year-old who came out of the theater after watching K3G; that 9-year-old who cried watching Kal Ho Na Ho; that DU girl who would look for reasons to go to Hansraj because you did. I felt like that 10-year-old who had watched Main Hoon Na a billion times and could narrate all your movie dialogues.

I felt like your Fan, again!

Yes, the direction could’ve been better, I won’t give it 5 stars, but nothing less than 4 stars would do either. Your acting was unparalleled! Because, after a long time, the script you chose to work with, demanded acting! The characters you portrayed had a story to tell; the movie had a plot! The movie had a story that had the audience engaged and left them confused because they couldn’t pick a side. Yes! It was that good!

Dear SRK, fans like me are plenty. We will love you for your acting, your brilliance and though we will stand by and defend you even when you make ‘typical commercial movies’, we’d like you to make more such films that make us fall in love with you, just like before. We will be inspired by what you do and pray for you irrespective of what you stand for because we’ve fallen in love with everything you stand for. So, dear SRK, please don’t give in to box office pressure, instead, try to be everything you are!

Because we know who you are. For only fans like us share that connection with you.

Always looking up to you.

Your Fan

This piece was originally published on the author’s blog. 

You must be to comment.

  1. DEBMALYA BANERJEE

    yeh yash raj films bad guys ko end mein maar kyun dete hain….. ????Didn’t want the movie to have such an ending…

  2. Prasoon

    The post is beautiful.
    Couldn’t stop myself from giving a humble suggestion to a comment to this post.
    If you are writing something about the movie story like u have mentioned what happens in the end here, it is considered as a spoiler. not everyone goes to see the movie in the first 2-3 days like you. Have the courtesy to not to spoil the story to them it gives a really really bad taste.
    Still if u can’t stop yourself from writing, put a “SPOILER AHEAD” warning as the first line.

  3. sweta agrawal

    Hi, I could totally and completely relate to this post, it felt like someone os listening to every word that comes out of my heart and penning it down. Have had the same experiences of being teased down by friends for few of the stupid movies SRK did. But as u said the love for SRK is un-ending. Thanks again for penning down the thoughts of u, me and many many other FANs all around 🙂

  4. SRKForever

    its a nice piece aditi. but u got the age and years all wrong for srk movies. if u were 6 or 7 when dtph came then u were definitely not in college when main hoon na came.
    also k3g and kal ho naa ho are not one year apart. pls correct this before someone mocks you and your love for srk.

  5. Sidharth Kapur

    This website is “Youth Ki Awaaz”, not “Juvenile Ki Awaaz”. We should leave celebrities for juveniles. There are better things to focus on in life which are more invigorating. Focus on srk or any other junkie is a waste.

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An ambassador and trained facilitator under Eco Femme (a social enterprise working towards menstrual health in south India), Sanjina is also an active member of the MHM Collective- India and Menstrual Health Alliance- India. She has conducted Menstrual Health sessions in multiple government schools adopted by Rotary District 3240 as part of their WinS project in rural Bengal. She has also delivered training of trainers on SRHR, gender, sexuality and Menstruation for Tomorrow’s Foundation, Vikramshila Education Resource Society, Nirdhan trust and Micro Finance, Tollygunj Women In Need, Paint It Red in Kolkata.

Now as an MH Fellow with YKA, she’s expanding her impressive scope of work further by launching a campaign to facilitate the process of ensuring better menstrual health and SRH services for women residing in correctional homes in West Bengal. The campaign will entail an independent study to take stalk of the present conditions of MHM in correctional homes across the state and use its findings to build public support and political will to take the necessary action.

Saurabh has been associated with YKA as a user and has consistently been writing on the issue MHM and its intersectionality with other issues in the society. Now as an MHM Fellow with YKA, he’s launched the Right to Period campaign, which aims to ensure proper execution of MHM guidelines in Delhi’s schools.

The long-term aim of the campaign is to develop an open culture where menstruation is not treated as a taboo. The campaign also seeks to hold the schools accountable for their responsibilities as an important component in the implementation of MHM policies by making adequate sanitation infrastructure and knowledge of MHM available in school premises.

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Harshita is a psychologist and works to support people with mental health issues, particularly adolescents who are survivors of violence. Associated with the Azadi Foundation in UP, Harshita became an MHM Fellow with YKA, with the aim of promoting better menstrual health.

Her campaign #MeriMarzi aims to promote menstrual health and wellness, hygiene and facilities for female sex workers in UP. She says, “Knowledge about natural body processes is a very basic human right. And for individuals whose occupation is providing sexual services, it becomes even more important.”

Meri Marzi aims to ensure sensitised, non-discriminatory health workers for the needs of female sex workers in the Suraksha Clinics under the UPSACS (Uttar Pradesh State AIDS Control Society) program by creating more dialogues and garnering public support for the cause of sex workers’ menstrual rights. The campaign will also ensure interventions with sex workers to clear misconceptions around overall hygiene management to ensure that results flow both ways.

Read more about her campaign.

MH Fellow Sabna comes with significant experience working with a range of development issues. A co-founder of Project Sakhi Saheli, which aims to combat period poverty and break menstrual taboos, Sabna has, in the past, worked on the issue of menstruation in urban slums of Delhi with women and adolescent girls. She and her team also released MenstraBook, with menstrastories and organised Menstra Tlk in the Delhi School of Social Work to create more conversations on menstruation.

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A student from Delhi School of Social work, Vineet is a part of Project Sakhi Saheli, an initiative by the students of Delhi school of Social Work to create awareness on Menstrual Health and combat Period Poverty. Along with MHM Action Fellow Sabna, Vineet launched Menstratalk, a campaign that aims to put an end to period poverty and smash menstrual taboos in society.

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A native of Bhagalpur district – Bihar, Shalini Jha believes in equal rights for all genders and wants to work for a gender-equal and just society. In the past she’s had a year-long association as a community leader with Haiyya: Organise for Action’s Health Over Stigma campaign. She’s pursuing a Master’s in Literature with Ambedkar University, Delhi and as an MHM Fellow with YKA, recently launched ‘Project अल्हड़ (Alharh)’.

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A Computer Science engineer by education, Nitisha started her career in the corporate sector, before realising she wanted to work in the development and social justice space. Since then, she has worked with Teach For India and Care India and is from the founding batch of Indian School of Development Management (ISDM), a one of its kind organisation creating leaders for the development sector through its experiential learning post graduate program.

As a Youth Ki Awaaz Menstrual Health Fellow, Nitisha has started Let’s Talk Period, a campaign to mobilise young people to switch to sustainable period products. She says, “80 lakh women in Delhi use non-biodegradable sanitary products, generate 3000 tonnes of menstrual waste, that takes 500-800 years to decompose; which in turn contributes to the health issues of all menstruators, increased burden of waste management on the city and harmful living environment for all citizens.

Let’s Talk Period aims to change this by

Find out more about her campaign here.

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A former Assistant Secretary with the Ministry of Women and Child Development in West Bengal for three months, Lakshmi Bhavya has been championing the cause of menstrual hygiene in her district. By associating herself with the Lalana Campaign, a holistic menstrual hygiene awareness campaign which is conducted by the Anahat NGO, Lakshmi has been slowly breaking taboos when it comes to periods and menstrual hygiene.

A Gender Rights Activist working with the tribal and marginalized communities in india, Srilekha is a PhD scholar working on understanding body and sexuality among tribal girls, to fill the gaps in research around indigenous women and their stories. Srilekha has worked extensively at the grassroots level with community based organisations, through several advocacy initiatives around Gender, Mental Health, Menstrual Hygiene and Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR) for the indigenous in Jharkhand, over the last 6 years.

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A Guwahati-based college student pursuing her Masters in Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Bidisha started the #BleedwithDignity campaign on the technology platform Change.org, demanding that the Government of Assam install
biodegradable sanitary pad vending machines in all government schools across the state. Her petition on Change.org has already gathered support from over 90000 people and continues to grow.

Bidisha was selected in Change.org’s flagship program ‘She Creates Change’ having run successful online advocacy
campaigns, which were widely recognised. Through the #BleedwithDignity campaign; she organised and celebrated World Menstrual Hygiene Day, 2019 in Guwahati, Assam by hosting a wall mural by collaborating with local organisations. The initiative was widely covered by national and local media, and the mural was later inaugurated by the event’s chief guest Commissioner of Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) Debeswar Malakar, IAS.

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