Shah Rukh Khan’s psychological thriller Fan gets some things right about the dangers of fandom.
I scrolled through my Instagram feed recently and found a reel about Shah Rukh Khan. While it was the familiar visage, something seemed off. It appeared as if someone had taken the SRK of current times, with the long hair, the chiseled frame, and long flowing locks, and transported him back to the past, where he looked much younger. Only when I clicked on the profile did I realize that it was someone making money off his similarity to the real Shah Rukh. I had to admit, though, the resemblance was uncanny. The same look, the same mannerisms, and he even had the same smirk.
And he isn’t a one-off or rarity. Just last week, I came across a Virat Kohli lookalike who, besides sporting the exact same beard, plays like the real deal, too. Then, the rest of the cricketing world is in for a lot of trouble.
There’s a famous line in The Usual Suspects in which the character Verbal, played by Kevin Spacey, says that the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world that he didn’t exist. While the actual quote was attributed to the French poet Charles Baudelaire, whoever you believe, the underlying theme of the message remains the same: that evil can be more effective when it is hidden or denied.
But what about the converse to that? What about the evil of stalking or fandom, and how does the phenomenon give rise to the evil within us all? How do ordinary people, through nature, surgeries, and makeup, turn themselves into doppelgangers of their ideals? And what does it say of the rest of us who popularise and follow these individuals? How can we allow ourselves to be tricked into believing that by following these fakes, we are, in some way, one step closer to our idols?
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This reminds me of Shah Rukh Khan’s Fan, a movie that came out during his lean phase. It’s a film that has stayed with me. In the movie, Shah Rukh Khan takes on dual roles in this captivating thriller, portraying both a fading movie star and his young doppelgänger fan. After clinching the top spot in a local talent contest for the third consecutive year by mimicking his hero, Aryan Khanna, young Gaurav sets off on a journey to Mumbai to meet his idol.
However, after being rejected at his hero’s residence, Gaurav’s admiration quickly morphs into hostility. His initial anger is aimed at a rival actor who publicly mocks Aryan, and soon, his wrath extends to Aryan himself.
Despite its bad reviews, I think Fan gets a lot of things right. When I went to get the DVD of the movie, the shop owner told me that while SRK was his usual self, it was the fan, the lookalike, who was the movie’s real star. I couldn’t decide whether he was just messing around with me or if he actually didn’t realize that the same person played both versions. While at first, the underlying message of that incident might go against the overarching message, if one looks closely, it doesn’t. We tend to accept what we’re told. In a movie that tells the story of a deranged fan who goes completely overboard in his love for the superstar, the audience fails to realize that both are the same. Now, some of it can be chalked down to good acting and CG, but still, if we can’t tell two versions of the same person apart, it’s not a stretch to believe that in today’s world, most of us are incapable of telling a fake impostor from the real person. And once you realize that, you almost feel sorry for the celebrity.
Even Sigmund Freud discussed it in his influential 1917 essay, “The Uncanny,” describing it as a harbinger of horror and dread.
The doppelgänger, or lookalike, is often portrayed as a menacing figure intent on usurping one’s identity, a concept examined in JC Doler’s debut film, The Fetch. More recently, the motif is also central to Coralie Fargeat’s film The Substance, where an aging Hollywood actress, played by Demi Moore, must confront a younger clone, portrayed by Margaret Qualley, who takes over the life she once led. The theme of replacement is a common one in science fiction, often featuring scenarios where a person is supplanted by an alien, robotic, or supernatural counterpart—an evil twin from another dimension, as Golub explains. In these narratives, the doppelgänger is typically portrayed as an unwelcome intruder.
There are many reasons why this phenomenon is gaining traction in an ‘increasingly isolated modern world’ where fellowship is not that common. The thing these people don’t realize is that in impersonating their idols, they’re locking themselves in a timezone. While the person they idolize will eventually move onto another look that aligns with another role they’re portraying, these people will forever be trapped within that character. It’s not like they don’t know this. For many, their existence’s reality and ordinariness pale compared to the adulation and attention they get by getting under the skin of their ideals. In a way, it lets them step inside the shoes of the stars.
But the real culprits are not these lookalikes. It’s all of us. We reinforce the belief that reality is overrated. By promoting these influencers and lookalikes, we do two things: We encourage a culture of stalking and deception and devalue the stars and celebrities we idealize. By accepting such norms, we allow lookalikes to don a cloak of invisibility through which whatever they do can not return to them.
When he was asked what he would do if he ever met SRK, the doppelganger said something that lies at the very heart of our need to imitate. He said he didn’t want to meet because the fantasy would die. It would be like obtaining a Ferrari and letting it sit idle in the garage while riding a bike instead.
