'Fan' Tales: This open letter to Shah Rukh Khan from an ardent fan will make you smile!

Shah Rukh Khan is busy promoting his film Fan which hit theatres this Friday. With critics and audiences liking the film, there's good news for SRK and the Fan team. Box office wise too, the film looks like an interesting proposition. 

Amid all this, we have Justin Rao, an ardent SRK fan who's lived, breathed, eaten, loved Shah Rukh's films. Given that this film is made by a fan for all the fans, here's an interesting open letter which he has penned for us. 

Shah Rukh, you have to read this. Take a look:

SHAH RUKH WALA LOVE:

Dear Shah Rukh Khan, 

Let me tell you a story. A real life story which began from what I saw on reel. Where a man dressed in a jacket, wearing a charming smile slowly raised his arms in a mustard field. For a young child aged five, I still vividly remember the entire theatre erupt into whistles and claps when the girl on screen came running and hugged him. I had never seen anything like that before. I sat there quietly with a huge smile on my face, looked at you—the man with open arms--wiped my tears and hushed, "I have found my hero."

That scene from Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayege—which was also the first movie I saw in a theatre—changed everything what was to follow. As a single child with working parents, I found company in you and your films. You became my brother, friend, companion and a part of my life which I could never take apart. During summers, I would spend hours standing in front of a cooler pretending to be in Switzerland, as the cold winds blew my hair. I would bend my knees, spread my arms and give out your trademark sheepish smile. Because in that moment, for those fleeting seconds, I believed I was you. 

Here, I would perhaps want to bring in my parents and thank them too. There was not a single trip we made to Mumbai without visiting your house, from outside of course. It was almost a routine for us to pray at mount Mary and then proceed to Mannat. I would look at your house with starry eyed trying to search you as intently as I would close my eyes in the church, praying for you. I was so fascinated by you that one day I declared in school that I will become a journalist and interview you someday. You would be happy to know, I did become a journalist, but more on that later. 

During English papers in school, I would always write your residential address while writing a letter. I always passed with great marks. I honestly don't know what my growing up years would've turned out had it not been for you. Like how, that one time, I tested if the girl I had a crush on loved me by becoming Raj from DDLJ and saying, "Palat... Palat." How I became Rahul from Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and preached, "Pyaar dosti hai." Or that time when I thought I was Aman and wrote letters to girls, professing my love claiming that I won’t live long in the world, because, Kal Ho Na Ho. 
With every film, every character, I started believing that if Shah Rukh can, I can too. 

It is amazing how one can have immense love and admiration for a person he or she has never even met. So much, that it pushes you to do great in your life. I owe you a lot, Shah Rukh, for making me who I am. I passed my college vivas talking about you; I got my first permanent column-writing job after I wrote an article about you in a newspaper. I posed like you and got myself clicked on every important occasion of my life- when I graduated, my first foreign trip (including Switzerland, where I posed without a cooler in front of me), when I danced for a large gathering and also, when I came for a job interview in Mumbai. I got myself clicked, posing outside your house. I did get the job, eventually, and I have to thank you for that too. 

Because in all my admiration for you, I thought to myself, 'What am I giving him back?' And I knew what I had to do. As you were part of my growing up, my school and college education, I thought it was my time to give it back, to put you into academics. So, to get myself my dream journalism degree, I wrote an 8000-word dissertation on you. From writing your address in school exams, talking about you in college vivas, I penned the almost-book-like research paper so that young students could get to know a little more insight about the man the world adores. As it happened, I got to meet a lot of people in the process, one such being a group of students in Thullur village in Telangana, who didn't know Hindi but knew Shah Rukh Khan. 

So here I am today, writing on behalf of all those millions of Raj, Rahul and Aman who you have inspired time and again. To live like there is no tomorrow, to love like it is the first and last time and more importantly, to dream like a King. I haven't met you yet, but believe me you, when the day will come, I'll quietly walk up to you, with a huge smile on my face, wipe the tears rolling down my cheeks, look into your eyes and hush, "Thank you, Shah Rukh. Thank you for being my hero."

Regards,
Justin Rao.