Guess Who: Superstar Approached For Superhero Project

Rajeev Masand has published a blind item in Open The Magazine about a superstar who has been approached by an NRI filmmaker for a superhero project.

The failure of his previous film hit him hard. While he never missed a chance to remind the media & the audiences of his box office “king” status, he has been forced to mellow down. Since the last decade, his competitors have trumped him at the box office. While his movies were succeeding, they were not the biggest hits in the industry anymore. But since the past few years, forget becoming the biggest hits of the year, they have not even been succeeding. A big reason has been that his previous films have been romantic films. He is 50+ & his face is that of a 60+ year old. Many attribute this to his incessant smoking. While his competitors too have their indulgences, their faces haven’t failed them yet.

He is taking his time before signing any new projects & rightly so. We hope he doesn’t associate himself with movies from the romance genre anymore. If he does, he better play his age & not try to pass of as a 35 or 40 yr old. We think a drama or rather a social drama/biopic will be the best bet. A few more flops & he risks being out of the A-list & forced into an early retirement. While we doubt a man with his talent might meet that fate, he cannot risk taking this phase lightly.

Blind Item

It’s no secret that several filmmakers have been seeking an appointment with this superstar who has been on a sabbatical for close to a year now. The superstar has also himself reached out to writers and directors whose recent works he has enjoyed, curious to know if they might have something he would be interested in. Sources confirm he’s met more than two dozen filmmakers in the past few months—some more than once—but hasn’t committed to anything; not even the scripts he was clearly impressed by.

One such team he sat down with is a respected non-resident Indian filmmaker who made the stop at his home the past weekend with a writing partner. The filmmaker is a well-known name globally having made mostly films about the experiences of Indian immigrants overseas. A few of those projects, including the filmmaker’s latest, have broken out and done respectable business.

According to those in the know, the filmmaker pitched a superhero project to the superstar during the meeting—but not your typical Marvel-style comic-book superhero. “It’s something unique and specific and distinct,” a source reveals, and one closer to the filmmaker’s preferred ‘world’: steeped in the immigrant culture and experience. The source also says the superstar was “definitely all ears” but has asked for more time to think about it. The project, if it fructifies, could be the superstar’s first international film, one that straddles global appeal but has a sensibility that doesn’t alienate the superstar’s loyal Indian audience.

Our Guess

Filmmaker: Gurinder Chadha

Superstar: Shahrukh Khan