THE SECRET BEHIND THE SUCCESS OF SHAHRUKH KHAN

Now that I am officially in the fourth decade of my life, I think I can take the liberty of writing things which tend to border on the verge of critical analysis with a dash of aged wisdom.

So I guess the appropriate start to any of such ruminations would be with the following phrase…

Over the years, I have realized…that successful people can be broadly classified in two categories.

First are the people who have the appropriate mix of talent, ambition, hard work and humility which propels them to struggle against the sands of time and succeed in terms of goals they set out for themselves. This category thus conforms to the stereotype of the successful persons.

The second but more pervasive category is comprised of individuals who lack the substance and qualities associated with the stereotypical definition of success but manage to achieve the pinnacle of success by sheer public relations and media management. They manage to shroud themselves with the appropriate dose of interspersed publicity and hype so as to be perceived as a ‘newsmaker’ on account of their achievements.

No prizes for guessing… I believe Shahrukh Khan to be the brand ambassador (more publicity intended) of the second category of people.

Shahrukh Khan is so amazing (pun intended) that he has managed to proclaim himself as the SUPERSTAR of this generation, with the help of media which lends itself to propaganda and manipulation. Over the two decades that he has been in the film industry, he has shelled out few hits and even fewer movies which can be considered qualitative in any respect other than packaging and marketing. A Shahrukh Khan starrer is polished, packaged, branded and marketed with panache much like a Mercedes sans the engine. For each movie when considered from a perspective of substance, falls miserably short of sensibility quotient. The performance of Shahrukh in his movies is just that…a performance. Acting would be the wrong word to describe such performances, as what you see in each movie, is not the character depicted, but Shahrukh himself. With his trademark smile, dialogue delivery and expressions, he has the knack to carve characters like Ashoka, Devdas and others into the unmistakable mould of SRK. I guess it is this reverse characterization which is applauded in the form of the umpteen awards vested on him…or maybe it’s just good PR which fetches him the awards (after all they are also doled out by the same media).

Either way, it cannot be disputed that he is successful. And that brings me back to my categorization of successful people. As compared to an Aamir Khan who has a much higher hit percentage and does excel in the true form of acting, it is Shahrukh who is considered more successful and bestowed recognitions. So it could be said that hype trumps over substance.

Needless to say, that sensible people like yours truly may find this inherently disconcerting, but that’s life. You need to just look around you to find multitude examples of such fallacies.

Another glaring example is that of Anil & Mukesh.

While the elder brother is substance, having successfully extended the father’s heritage by conceptualizing and implementing not only the world’s biggest single location refining hub with an aggregate capacity of nearly 60 MMTPA, he has also smartly focused efforts on developing KG Basin, knowing fully well the potential it holds. He will soon be supplying almost 40% of the country’s natural gas requirement and generating more annual cash flow than the GDP of some of the countries in CIS. He has not wasted efforts in dabbling in politics, scoring high profile acquisitions or gone to the capital markets to raise monies under any ponzi scheme. Instead he has put his head down and focused on building brick and mortar companies translating internal accruals into shareholder wealth.

His brother on the other hand, falls in the second category. All hype, no substance. He does not have, to his credit, even a single project successfully completed since inheriting his father’s empire (after lot of sulking and much public disgrace). He has however, akin to Shahrukh, built up a good PR campaign, aiding him in fund raising from the capital markets, done high profile acquisitions (such as FLAG and Adlabs) and also publicized all his business moves much like Shahrukh’s next blockbuster.  It is stated by some of the highly placed sources, that some of his projects, which are slated to be commissioned in the next 24 months, haven’t even had the boundary walls completed around the sites!!! The commencement of construction is a far cry.

But then again, does it matter? After all he can run marathons, enjoys good face time with politicians and can raise money in the capital markets at his whims, so much so, that he figures prominently in the Forbes list just a shade lower than his brother. So I guess he is successful, albeit in the second category.

So the moral of the story, or should I say, my wisdom to share with all you youngsters (now that I am in the fourth decade of my life), is that if you do not have substance, don’t fret it. Emulate SRK or Anil and you will find yourself at the top of the pyramid of success. All it takes is good publicity, hype and marketing. You will leave the talented rascals far behind in quick time, though not necessarily for the long run!!!