Dear Zindagi is a movie we are dying to watch ever since we came to know Shah Rukh Khan and Alia Bhatt are cast as the main leads. We are curious as to how this pair would work out, considering the huge gap between SRK and Alia (He is 51, she is 23…but not that it matters much in our movie industry). However the makers have insisted that they will not be having a romantic equation in the film. Instead, Alia Bhatt will be the main lead of the movie, while Shah Rukh Khan, in an extended guest appearance, will be playing her life coach. Apart from these two, the movie will also star Aditya Roy Kapur, Ali Zafar, Kunal Kapoor and Angad Bedi. Dear Zindagi is directed by Gauri Shinde and jointly produced by Karan Johar and Shah Rukh Khan.
An interesting fact about Alia Bhatt is that she made her debut with Student of The Year, which also was a co-production between Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions and Shah Rukh Khan’s Red Chillies Entertainment. However this is the first time she will be acting with Shah Rukh Khan. Forget Shah Rukh, this is the first time she is acting with any major superstar of Bollywood, The Khans, the Kumars and the Roshans. So will acting with such a big ticket name prove beneficial for a young star like Alia Bhatt?
Now Alia Bhatt is already an established actress with successes under kitty, like Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania, Udta Punjab, Kapoor & Sons etc. Shah Rukh Khan had already labelled her ‘the greatest actor of her generation’. However she is yet to be a part of a proper blockbuster, something unfortunately that is still in the power of the big league stars. So can Shah Rukh Khan give her that blockbuster? Going by his previous record of working with young actress, he does have the potential to give her that much needed 100 crore success, like the below actresses…
Deepika Padukone
At the age of 21, Deepika Padukone made her BIG debut opposite a two decades older Shah Rukh Khan in Farah Khan’s Om Shanti Om. Even with that huge age difference, her pairing with SRK was much liked by the audience. They worked together again as a pair in Chennai Express , which was one of the biggest hits of all time and Happy New Year, which despite the bad reviews, was a huge hit.
Anushka Sharma
Lika Deepika Padukone, even Anushka Sharma made her debut in a movie opposite Shah Rukh Khan in Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi. She is younger to him by more than twenty years, and the movie even acknowledges the age difference. Despite Ghajini latter toppling it at the box office, RNBDJ was still one of the biggest hits of the year. She was also a part of Jab Tak Hai Jaan, that again was a hit.
Katrina Kaif
Compared to other girls in the list, Katrina is just 18 years younger to King Khan when she acted opposite him in late Yash Chopra’s flawed swansong, Jab Tak Hai Jaan. Though it may not be a romantic drama that you want Shah Rukh Khan to be in, the movie was a huge money spinner, especially in the overseas, grossing Rs 2.11 billion worldwide.
Kriti Sanon
Even though Kriti Sanon is paired with Varun Dhawan in the movie, Dilwale is still a Shah Rukh Khan starrer, and she gets to share screen with him. Though the movie got average reviews and, by SRK’s own admission, disappointing domestic box office returns, Dilwale got a HUGE box office opening and it worked very well overseas, earning more that Rs 300 crores worldwide.
So what do you think – will Shah Rukh Khan be lucky enough Alia Bhatt to give her a blockbuster?