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Mumbai, May 17: Rani Mukerji and a moustache. These are the two things that currently bond the three Khans.
Aamir Khan’s handlebar in The Rising was the most photographed moustache in recent times.
While the actor has now gone back to his clean days for Rakyesh Mehra’s Rang De Basanti, Shah Rukh and Salman are following his lead and indulging in some soup-straining of their own. Perfectionist Aamir actually grew a moonch, but the other two superstars are happy to glue on one for Paheli (SRK) and Bajirao Mastani (Salman).
Anil Kapoor, who for more than a decade has been regarded as Bollywood’s lone champion of the have-it-so-what, jokes, ‘‘Fifteen years back, a top director told me that moonchonwaale hero nahin chalte. I am glad I proved him wrong,’’ he says.
Aamir’s ’tache became a style statement when he greeted Prince Charles at the mahurat of Ketan Mehta’s Mangal Pandey saga. For more than two years, Khan wore the accessory with great elan. ‘‘He made it look very hot, and it wasn’t out of place at all,’’ says film stylist Anaita Shroff Adajania. But a statement was the last thing on the actor’s mind. ‘‘The film demanded it so I grew one,’’ he says.
SRK agrees on this count. ‘‘Paheli is set in a particular period in rural Rajasthan. In order to make the character realistic, a moustache was needed,’’ affirms SRK. Ironically, despite the hoopla around Aamir’s moonch, SRK’s film will release first.
As for Salman, till the fate of Bajirao Mastan is decided, his moustachioed visage is happily plastered on the walls of Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s study.
A hirsute Sallu has kohl-eyed Kareena Kapoor for company.
Interestingly, the fuzz frat comes about as all three films are period sagas (Paheli is set in the 1970s). ‘‘You can’t imagine a Shah Rukh of Kal Ho Naa Ho sporting a moustache. It’s not cool,’’ says Adajania. ‘‘Actors go for one when they want to be perceived as a character and don’t want their larger than life image to pose as a hindrance.’’
And Mukerji? She coincidentally plays the lead opposite each of the actors in the said films. In The Rising, she plays Aamir’s love interest. In Paheli, she is Lachchi, a married woman in love with a ghost. As for Bhansali’s magnum opus in limbo, she plays the Peshwa queen Kashibai, who was married to Bajirao.
