SRK & SRK: Shah Rukh Khan's Jawan marks return of the double role in Bollywood

With Jawan, Shah Rukh Khan gets the double role act just right. His father and son avatars as Vikram and Azad Rathore are raking it in for the stylish action thriller and the film has already amassed a blockbuster global intake of over Rs 858 crore (and counting) so far. The all-out entertainer toplined by SRK and SRK has been smashing a new record almost every other day, and trade experts aver they would not be surprised if Jawan emerges the biggest Hindi film ever.

Jawan directed by Atlee is Shah Rukh Khan’s eighth attempt at playing more than one character in a film, certainly his most popular one yet. He struck gold the very first time he essayed two characters, in Rakesh Roshan’s 1995 film Karan Arjun. The film, a reincarnation saga had SRK and co-star Salman Khan playing two sets of characters from two lifetimes. The audience lapped up every bit of drama woven around the Khans, their charisma and double roles, and Karan Arjun was a superhit. However, a year later when Khan attempted a triple role in English Babu Desi Mem, the botched-up rom-com failed to fire.

Shah Rukh Khan would try a dual performance again in 1998, playing a bumbling wannabe chef and a notorious gangster in Mahesh Bhatt’s Duplicate, but the film fared below expectations. His next double role was in Don (2006), but the film was more about his antihero act than the impact of a dual performance. He would go on score big with his next double role, though, in Farah Khan’s spectacular Diwali release of 2007, Om Shanti Om, a reincarnation story tailormade for the superstar to flaunt his glamour opposite debutant Deepika Padukone. SRK went back to the double role formula with Anubhav Sinha’s sci-fi drama Ra.One in 2010, but the film seemed too outlandish on Bollywood turf. His next attempt at a double role was the 2016 thriller, Fan. Although an interesting concept around a superstar and his obsessed lookalike fan, both played by Shah Rukh Khan, the film struggled owing to weak writing and slow pace.

With Jawan, Shah Rukh Khan’s romancing of the double role as an actor’s medium to explore and excel comes a full circle. He is in fiery form as ex-commando Captain Vikram Rathore, a role that lets him play the gallery as a traditional ‘hero’. On the other hand, he brings alive Vikram’s son Azad Rathore, a jailer in a woman’s prison, with an irreverent edge toplined with wicked wit. For his fans, Jawan is surely the superstar’s most impactful double role act yet.

For Bollywood, the popularity of SRK’s dual act in Jawan has brought back to spotlight the filmi double role as a formula. Several upcoming projects speculated to have stars essaying more than one role are back in the news, and Bollywood, always on the lookout for a formula to cash in on larger-than-life storytelling, would love it if the traditionally popular device of the double role begins to click once again, as it did in the seventies and the eighties. Many of the upcoming films said to have double roles were announced before Jawan but the success of the Shah Rukh Khan-starrer would seem crucial for the return of the double role as a winning formula in commercial Bollywood.

This, of course, would seem like the right time to revive the double role in Bollywood. Jawan follows Shah Rukh Khan’s earlier release Pathaan and the Sunny Deol starrer Gadar 2, and the cumulative success of these three films indicates that the days of the larger-than-life masala entertainment have returned in a big way. Coming in the wake of last year’s pan-India success of southern blockbusters such as KGF 2 and RRR, Bollywood’s three big hits of 2023 give out a clear signal: The Hindi film industry, which has been frequently working with interesting realistic themes on small budgets in recent years, cannot afford to overlook the fact that mass appeal is still the core area where the industry’s survival lies. And when it comes to mass appeal, double roles are an easy tool for stars to connect with fans.

Not surprisingly over the past weeks, big titles said to accommodate top stars such as Salman Khan and Hrithik Roshan in more than one role are suddenly back garnering buzz with their current status. To begin with, there’s Hrithik Roshan’s Krrish 4. Double roles have always proved winners for Roshan since his debut romantic blockbuster Kaho Naa… Pyaar Hai and over the years with his Krrish franchise of films. Reports suggest Hrithik is falling back on the dual act formula in the upcoming Krrish 4, too, to strike gold, this time as superhero and supervillain. “It has been Hrithik’s dream to play both the parts, black and white, in Krrish. The time has come now. You see, the franchise, in order to be continually exciting to its fans, must move forward. There must be some USP in Krrish 4 to make it unique,” a source said, according to a report in news18.com. Meanwhile, news also abounds about Anees Bazmee zeroing in on a new hero for his upcoming untitled double-role comedy, after Shahid Kapoor reportedly quit the project. Other double role films in the anvil include the ChaalBaaz In London, a remake of Pankaj Parashar’s 1989 comedy hit ChaalBaaz that starred superstar Sridevi in an unforgettable dual act. The sequel directed by Parashar hopes to recreate the magic of Sridevi with Shraddha Kapoor in a double role.

Times have changed since Dadasaheb Phalke adapted the epic Ramayan to make Lanka Dahan, the first Indian film to have an actor in a double role. In that silent film released in 1917, Anna Saheb Salunke played Bhagvan Ram as well as Sita. Budgetary restraints and curbs on women from working in films were reasons that might have driven Phalke to cast his lead star as hero as well as heroine in the film.

Over the years, particularly in the seventies and the eighties, reason for casting the same star in multiple roles became more commercial. It emerged as a saleable tool for producers to draw bigger crowds by casting a big star in multiple roles. Double or triple roles also became an easy way to set up the vintage masala package comprising every formula including comedy, action, melodrama, patriotism, romance and tragedy. Shah Rukh Khan’s Jawan has only proved that certain box office preferences never change in Bollywood.

Vinayak Chakravorty is a critic, columnist and journalist who loves to write on popular culture.