Kajol and Shah Rukh Khan in Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge
A distance of 1,314 kilometres separates Chennai from Mumbai’s iconic old-world theatre Maratha Mandir, where Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol’s Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (DDLJ) turned 30 on Monday (October 20, 2025). While the romantic blockbuster is on a seemingly eternal run, it is also time to look at Shah Rukh’s celluloid links with the Madras of the past.
It is a bond further strengthened recently as Shah Rukh’s maiden national award for best actor was garnered for his role in Jawan, a movie directed by Chennai-based Atlee. Back in 1993, Baazigar was quite the rage in Madras, and the film catapulted Shah Rukh towards stardom.
He immediately followed it up with Darr, and in this too, the actor donned a role with a negative shade, and movie halls erupted with cheers when he appeared on screen. There were some theories about the Shah Rukh phenomenon at the Madras box office, and inputs were drawn from the Tamil audience’s soft-corner for villains-turned-heroes.
Shah Rukh Khan in ‘Darr’
In some of those features back then, references were made to the evolution of Rajinikanth and even Sathyaraj — actors who started out as the anti-hero and then became the main star. Seen in that light, Shah Rukh’s popularity was not a surprise. It also fitted into the template of Bollywood actors causing a churn every decade in the southern metro’s cinema halls.
Shah Rukh Khan in Jawan
Shah Rukh’s success was preceded by what Anil Kapoor (Tezaab) and Jackie Shroff (Hero) achieved individually and together in Ram Lakhan. Magazine articles delved into the fact that both these stars sported moustaches, unlike their other northern counterparts. It was deemed that this attribute found a mark in the southern market where heroes generally had a moustache!
Shah Rukh, though, like Amitabh Bachchan and Aamir Khan, had a clean-shaven look, and it still worked for him while he evolved from being a stalker on screen to someone oozing love with outstretched arms. Aamir too had a bull run on Mount Road in 1988 when his Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak ran long at the Safire complex. And as the Shah Rukh fever took over, corporates did bulk bookings for their employees. This was on par with what they did with the movies of Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan.
A still from Chennai Express
When DDLJ was released in Madras, crowds thronged, and Shah Rukh’s appearance was greeted with the same delirious joy often reserved for home-grown talent. In the climax, when Kajol ran towards him, there were screams of delight. It now seems inevitable that at some point, he had to do a movie titled Chennai Express. And as Chennai moves on, Shah Rukh continues to pull in an audience, one that has accepted him in all shades of the acting spectrum.
Published – October 23, 2025 06:00 am IST
