Srk Is Grateful To Television

Ali Peter John

He is known as the ‘King Of Romance', the‘Badshah of entertainment'and the‘Emperor of Hearts', but above all what not many know is that he is a very simple man who doesn't believe in hiding the truths about life and the various forces and mediums which have led him to where he stands today.

And if there is one medium he believes has played the biggest role in grooming him has been television. He remembers the early days of television when there were only four popular programmes on Doordarshan, Krishi Darshan, Khel Darshan,a black and white cartoon film, Salma Sultan (the name of a very popular female news reader) and Chitrahaar.

He fondly recalls the days when he and his friends from the poorer sections of society would barge into the homes of the rich and sit on ‘chataais'(coir mats) and watch Hindi films on Sundays at eight pm.

He also has memories about the changing formats of presenting the news and how with the coming of the corporate sector, the pattern of entertainment on television changed and became more modern in contents and technique.

But he feels the real revolution in Indian TV came with the grand popularity of the two epics, Ramanand Sagar's ‘Ramayan' and B.R Chopra's ‘Mahabharat'. He says,“my generation would not know anything about Indian culture, Indian ethos and Indian rituals and traditions without television".

Needless to say now that Shah Rukh Khan, the admirer of television ultimately played the television hero in three major serials made in the eighties, ‘Dil Darya',‘Fauji'and ‘Circus', the one serial in which his character as the son of the owner of the circus was noticed by the entire country and Hema Malini saw in him the romantic hero of her first film as a director,‘Dil Aashna Hai'and called him to Bombay and signed him for the film, after which there has been no looking back for the boy from the gullies of Delhi to the King he is today.

Even now when he is fighting for time, if he is needed for anything to do with television, he makes time to give television his best.

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