Back in 2005, when actor Shah Rukh Khan released his documentary ‘The Inner And Outer World Of Shahrukh Khan’, for the first time the world came to know that despite being a devout Muslim, he used to have both, the Quran and the Hindu deities in his house. In the documentary when asked about the reason behind the same, he very casually opens up about how he wished his kids got the moral lessons that all religions are the same, and how they should respect every religion. That was the first time that his fans came to know that they were not just rooting for a good actor, but also a good human being, who was not just talking about secularism, but even practising it in his own life.
Over the years, Shah Rukh Khan has made a stature that can rarely be matched up to by any other star in Bollywood. He is one of the most followed actors on social media in India, and because of his secular ways of life, people love him a lot more. While he has been loved immensely by crores of people, the stardom has also brought along with it the hateful comments and the trolls. SRK does maintain a dignified silence every time such an incident of trolling happens, but it just makes one wonder – is Shah Rukh Khan becoming a soft target for trolls online?
Recently, at the cremation of singer Lata Mangeshkar at the Shivaji Park, Mumbai, Khan came in with his manager Pooja Dadlani. The two went up on stage and while Khan read a Kalma and offered prayers to the departed soul, Dadlani was standing by his side and praying with folded hands. It was quite a powerful image depicting secularism in India. The image went viral on social media within minutes. While there were people who were praising SRK for coming forward as a symbol of secularism, there were also numerous trolls who started trolling him for allegedly spitting on the mortal remains of Lata Mangeshkar. A video showing the same started getting shared on social media and on WhatsApp groups.
While there was no statement from Khan or his team, soon enough varied ‘Fact-Checker’ websites and news channels broke the myth and reported the truth. Reportedly, as per Islamic customs, after one says a prayer, they blow out air to ward off the evil spirits. But, somehow trolls started putting this out as SRK spitting on Lata Mangeshkar’s mortal remains. These trolls didn’t even bother to check the facts and just started targeting Khan and started labelling him as disrespectful towards the legendary singer.
Pondering over this made me recall, this isn’t the first time something like this has happened to Shah Rukh Khan. He has been made a soft target on numerous occasions.
Another recent example was the case where his son, Aryan Khan was arrested by the police and kept in custody for 3 weeks, and he was accused of allegedly carrying drugs on a cruise ship. The moment this piece of information came out in the news, trolls online went ahead and started slamming the actor and started using terms like ‘bad father’ and ‘bad influence for kids’ for him, which was absolutely uncalled for.
A few years back after Shah Rukh Khan had made a passing statement about the then political situation in the country, detractors labelled him as intolerant. The term became a catchphrase, and people from all over the country started talking about intolerance. There were heated debates happening on popular news channels over whether or not Shah Rukh Khan was intolerant. There were protest marches in various cities asking Shah Rukh Khan to go to Pakistan if he felt that India wasn’t tolerant enough. To be fair, the entire thing was taken out of context, and even to date, if one sees the original footage, there was never a mention where he said that he wanted to leave India because the country had grown intolerant.
Then there is the case of Shah Rukh Khan getting trolled every year whenever he shares a picture or video of celebrating the festivities of Ganapati at his Mumbai residence. Trolls invariably bring in the topic of his religion, and the message of secularism that SRK tries to spread among his fans, somehow just gets lost amidst the millions of troll comments.
To be fair, Shah Rukh Khan isn’t the only actor facing the wrath of social media trolling. The entire film industry has been targeted quite often. If an actor/actress doesn’t comment on a certain political issue that becomes a burning topic of discussion on social media, and on varied news channels. Just because they’re celebrities, it’s not compulsory that they will always be aware of every piece of information, and it’s not correct to troll them by taking things out of context on most occasions.
Looking at what’s been frequently happening with Shah Rukh Khan, it reminds me of the adage that we used to read in our childhood, ‘A little knowledge is a dangerous thing’. It’s high time that these trolls check the facts before they post an abusive comment about SRK or any other celebrity. Just a simple google search is more than enough to check what the truth is.
Read before you troll, think before you forward!
