Shah Rukh Khan is irreplaceable, says Karan Johar

Filmmaker Karan Johar declared the concept of superstardom will cease to exist in the generations that have followed that of the three Khans: Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan and Aamir Khan. He said in an interview that he is biased towards his old friend Shah Rukh, as he described his ‘irreplaceable’ personality. Shah Rukh delivered the three biggest hits of his career in the same calendar year in 2023, reclaiming his position as the country’s biggest star.

Karan has often spoken about the kind of allure that movie stars used to have and told ‘Forbes’ that he finds this quality lacking in the actors that have followed. He said, “There is no concept, according to me, of superstardom post the era of Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan. I feel now there’ll be the age of the actors.”

Karan said that the idea of celebrity has also evolved because there are so many ways in which one can become popular these days. “At one point, celebrity meant a movie star or cricketer. But today, a celebrity can be an Instagrammer or a food vlogger, a fashion influencer or a great author. The lines have blurred. But the nation’s crazy love for Shah Rukh, Salman Aamir, Hrithik Roshan, Akshay Kumar, Ajay Devgn, even Kareena Kapoor, Rani Mukerji, Kajol… When Rani and Kajol came on ‘Koffee with Karan’, I could tell the equity they carried because they come from a legacy of 25 years.”

Karan added, “Even now when Rekha walks into an event, heads turn. That’s a movie star. When Aishwarya walks the red carpet at Cannes and when Amitabh Bachchan is anywhere, they’re movie stars. That mania, that magic is very tough to create in this generation of noise.” Highlighting Shah Rukh, Karan declared, “I don’t think there’s a better conversationalist, a more intelligent mind, a more charming and arresting persona and an aura that is inexplicable than Shah Rukh Khan. That majestic magnetism only he has. He’s irreplaceable.”

Karan said that there will be ‘many actors’ in the future, but ‘there never was and never will be a personality like Shah Rukh Khan’.