“I Owe My Life To Shahrukh Khan”- Says His Duplicate

The Bollywood's King Khan, when entered this industry would have never thought that he would become the reason for the survival of many. Raju Rahikwar is one such artist who makes the audience feel the presence of their most beloved superstar, whom they infatuate meeting in real. For his earning Raju tries to imitate Khan and impress the audience. He considers himself as the junior SRK as he has achieved success in imitating the prime mannerism and behavioral characteristics, from waving his arms in the air on the tune of Khan's songs to the accurateness in the curve of his lips when he smiles. But being honest, Raju does not have looks any close to that of Shahrukh. Although his appearance can lie in the time zone when Khan had those messy hairs scattered around the forehead, a chubby yet cute round face with a charming smile. A typical 90s get up. But duplication is not all that matters. If anyone would listen Raju from behind the stage, has 99% chances of misconceptualizing him as Shahrukh Khan because of the style of speaking, the diction, the pauses, the breathing gaps, the utterance of the dialogues from Khan's movies, everything can be termed as perfect except the fact that he has a slightly heavier voice. Raju feels that he is more apt while imitating the angry, frustrated and pissed off Shahrukh rather than that sweet, flirty, lover boy who is no less than a Casanova. The most demanded and appreciated performances of Raju has those intense and heart grabbing dialogues from the early movies like 'Darr' and "Baazigar'. His personal favorite dialogues are of the 90s, from the movie 'Ram Jaane'. Although the movie could not do great for SRK but helped Raju achieved what he has today. He is very much personally attached to Shahrukh Khan. he wants every of his movie to hit the charts and break all the records after all, it is him and his movies that help Raju buy meal for his family, twice a day. Raju basically hails from Balharshah, a town in Chardapur district in Maharashtra. Hardly anybody knows him by his birth name Durga. After the release of the movie 'Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman', he adopted the name Raju and earned fame and respect later. When asked about his journey,Raju told that it began after the movie 'Deewana' got released. people began remarking him as a lookalike of SRK. Passers by began commenting him that he resembles Khan a lot very much. later he received a letter of his brother from Nagpur telling him the same about his appearance His first encounter with SRK was when Raju came to Mumbai in 1995 and saw SRK shooting for the movie 'Chamatkar'. He had no idea till then that the actor infront would be the sole reason behind the success in his carrier. As told by him the current objective in Raju's life is to get two minutes from his Idol's life. He got to meet him quite a few times which undoubtedly he loved because of the warm and down to earth approach of this mega star. Raju reported that SRK had even invited him to visit his office but due to unexpected circumstances he could not. The day they were supposed to catch up, Khan had to leave to Delhi to join the lunch party with Kapil Dev, Sunil Gavasker and other big names of cricket. Raju is so eager to meet his God-father because of one specific reason. A documentary made by journalist S. Ramachandran on the life of Raju is waiting to get released but the artist has restricted him from doing so until King Khan makes a 2 minute appearance in the movie. It has been almost 5 years for Raju to make this wish fulfilled and he is still struggling for it. He has also starred in another film 'Aamir Salman Shahrukh' that is all about the duplicates of these actors of Bollywood. He feels happy to receive so much applause and appreciation from the fans of SRK who do not get tired in thanking this artist for making them happy in whatever way possible. He delivers their favorite dialogues from Khan's movies. They love him like Shahrukh himself, they ask him for autographs and photographs. He feels happy about the fact that he can reach to places where Khan himself fails to go and tries to do everything to make the fans satisfied. He says that " People watch me and feel that had the real SRK been here, he would have done something similar" "I am not Shahrukh Khan rather I work for Shahrukh Khan"-says Raju. Looks, appearance and resemblance with SRK can never be enough to judge him. It is the inner qualities that he possesses. Raju is as honest and dedicated towards his work as Khan himself. Neither he cares about what people think about his work. Whatever he is doing is worship for him. One can spot all these characteristics in SRK. These features cannot be copied or imitated howsoever good an artist is. He does not feel ashamed in accepting that he just follows SRK without putting anything original into his work. An inside source reports that recently he was asked to play a role in a Bhojpuri film but even after various attempts the director could not get over the feeling of spotting a recognizable tinge of Khan. The best quality about him is that he never considers him perfect in his skills."I am still trying to perfect my craft"-says he. Still he is confident enough that he better than those 100 other lookalikes of Khan. He never wants to lower down the standards of SRK by some substandard imitation. He feels responsible for maintaining his idol's image. He wish that "the level of mimicry should rise to the point that in case Shahrukh himself watches the performance, he should feel proud of the work that he did in the past which is capable of inspiring people to do even better." He respects the fact that Shahrukh khan is busy in his life. He appreciates the struggle Khan did to get to the top of the world but he feels that "I have also dedicated 20 years of my life to Shahrukh". He does not desire to compare his life with the star but once in life wants him to appreciate and recognize his work. "I have inherited Mumbai from him" said he. Every time he sits with his family to eat, they remember him. It is all because of Shahrukh that Raju is earning his living and able to combat with the hardships of life.

Syeda Eba

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