SRK delivering a speech... (what ceremony is this?)

If you care to notice... the last few sentences of the speech were given without looking at the script (which I suspect he wrote himself). This is the kind of thing that got me thinking how Shah Rukh might have played quite a major role behind the scene in changing the landscape of Bollywood.

And on screen too. Don't forget, the two films that broke international barrier have him as lead: DDLJ and KKHH. For western countries, DDLJ did it for them and in Malaysia, it was KKHH that got Hindi films back on our interest radar. Even the films associated with Amitabh Bacchan's successful comeback are Mohabbatein and KKKG, which also have him as part of the cast ensemble.

He is always steps away from everyone else in terms of awareness, esp when it has to do with commercial values, and what the next step should be. His views are not only based on what's currently popular, and most times he says things that are just common sense but can still make people go... 'hey, I never thought of it that way'. And he has no qualm about working extra hard to make a non-popular concept work in his favour, in his filmi or non-filmi ventures.

Fans, non-fans and critics can bitch and whine about him and his works all they want if that's what gets them on, but that's because there're so many things they can bitch and whine about as he's got his fingers in too many pots. Shah Rukh is the one person in Bollywood who has never failed to raise our interest level a tad pitchier, whether by himself or by his association with the other stars. Heck, he is the only reason why I'm interested in Bollywood in the first place. If he were to disappear from Indian cinema for whatever reason... then I'm outta here in a jiff, man.

He may have failed in some of his enterprises due to God knows what reasons, but he has always believed passionately about where he (and everyone else, really) should go next. And I think it's really keren (this is a fun Indonesian word, which means 'cool' ..I don't even know how to pronounce it but I think it rocks).