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Shah Rukh Khan was seen at Ambani’s grand pre-wedding celebrations in Jamnagar in full swing, having fun. When the three Khans, Shah Rukh, Aamir Khan and Salman Khan, came on stage to dance to RRR’s hit song Naatu Naatu, the guests went crazy. However, what came next was not just an insult, but also showed how the Hindi film industry has inherent biases towards those who come from the South. Shah Rukh called Telugu film star Ram Charan, whom he was seen in RRR, on stage to dance with them and uttered some random phrases in Tamil – yes, Tamil, not Telugu – and ended with ‘idli Ram Charan’. This has not gone down well with South Indians and the actor has faced a lot of backlash on social media. (Also Read: Ram Charan’s Makeup Artist Says She Left Ambani’s Party After Shah Rukh Khan’s ‘Empty’ Comment: ‘Disrespectful’)
Bollywood loves to stereotype
The Hindi film industry and Hindi cinema itself have always maintained a stereotypical image of South Indians beating everyone in the southern states (Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Tamil Nadu) under the term ‘Madrasi’. It was Mehmood, as a Carnatic music teacher in the 1968 film Padosan, who made this stereotype of South Indians famous (or infamous), in a way of adding humor to the film. While the North Indians may have laughed at this description, it was a completely inaccurate, incorrect, and racist description of the South Indians. However, the Hindi film industry continued to capitalize on this stereotype because it found it “funny”.
It’s not the first time SRK has done it
Today, Shah Rukh Khan, who is an extremely influential figure in the country and a global icon, has unfortunately been at the center of this trend of mocking South Indians in recent years and unfortunately continues to perpetuate this stereotype. Show this. In 2011’s Ra One, we saw SRK play a Tamilian who couldn’t speak English properly and kept mouthing words like ‘Aiaio’, ‘mind it’ and ‘enna rascala’ every two seconds. And he eats noodles with yogurt (curd). In 2013, it was his Chennai Express that described South Indians as dark-skinned, unable to speak English, men as unruly and rude, and also a ‘Dance Lungi’. And this attitude extended to Ambani’s pre-wedding celebrations in Jamnagar.
Perhaps Shah Rukh Khan has conveniently forgotten that he has worked with numerous talented South Indian directors and technicians throughout his career. He collaborated with Tamil director Mani Ratnam in 1998 on Dil Se, which won two National Awards. He worked with Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan-winning Tamil star Kamal Haasan in Hey Ram in 2000. Director Priyadarshan’s Billu and cinematographer Santosh Sivan’s Asoka, both from the Malayalam film industry, were also deleted from the memory, perhaps because they failed. His last release, the 2023 blockbuster Jawan, which minted over $600 crores in India, was directed by noted Tamil director Atlee. Having worked closely with many people in the South film industry and considering some of them to be good friends of him, the South Indian audience is left wondering why SRK still thinks it is funny to harp on this silly stereotype.
SRK’s disappointed fans
In fact, SRK has a huge fan following in South India and his films do well in states like Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Both Pathaan and Jawan did good business in these states and even when he faced personal problems in 2021, the audience across India supported him. But this latest incident of Ram Charan has deteriorated this support. An X user called out SRK and wrote, “This is absolute disrespect from someone like #ShahRukhKhan. Still making fun of southern languages and calling #RamCharan with utmost gibberish and idli vada for good measure. No, #srk! It’s not funny anymore!! Grow!”
Another social media user wrote: “Why SRK? Why gibberish followed by idli vada while addressing a colleague, a fellow actor from the Telugu industry whose pan-Indian film won an Oscar last year? Anyone from South India does not equate to idli vada gibberish at all. (facepalm) As if Chennai Express wasn’t enough.” Another SRK has not even apologized for it. Will SRK fans also start calling every South Indian as Idli Vada?
Zeba Hassan, makeup artist for Tollywood star Ram Charan, who was at Ambani’s event with Ram and his wife Uapasana, was reportedly so upset with SRK that she walked out. She put up a post on Instagram saying, “I am a big fan of SRK but I really didn’t like the way he called Ram Charan on stage. What a lack of respect for a star like @alwaysramcharan.”
South Indian audience and SRK’s fans are now waiting to see what he does amidst this outrage as his PR cannot put any spin on this given that the video of this incident has gone viral. One X user perhaps summed it up when he wrote, “As smart and funny as SRK is, his penchant for “idli vada” jokes doesn’t seem to have changed at all. He made quite the protagonist out of that in Ra One.”
in Hindustan Times.