Name	In Which Annie Gives it Those Ones
Director	Pradip Krishen
Writer	Arundhati Roy Arjun Raina
Starring	Arundhati Roy
Released	1989
Runtime	112 Mins
Country	India
Language	English
Followed by	Electric Moon (1992)

In Which Annie Gives it Those Ones is a 1989 Indian TV film. Screenplay by Arundhati Roy (who also acts in the film), directed by Pradip Krishen, and starring Arjun Raina as the title character, along with Roshan Seth and Shahrukh Khan. This film was the recipient of two National Awards in 1989.

Set in the 1970s, In Which Annie Gives it Those Ones is a funny film of architecture students in their final year of college.

The film was part autobiographical with Roy recounting her own experiences of studying in the School of Planning and Architecture, a leading architecture institute in India.

Credits

Direction: Pradip Krishen

Story & Screenplay: Arundhati Roy

Cinematography: Rajesh Joshi

Audiography: Indrajit Neogi

Editing: A. Thyagaraju Art

Produced: Bobby Bedi

Cast

Arjun Raina: Annie

Arundhati Roy: Radha

Rituraj

Roshan Seth: Y.D. Billimoria/Yamdoot

Isaac Thomas

Divya Seth

Idries Malik

Moses Uboh: Kasozi

Jagan Shah: Medoo

Himani Shivpuri

Shahrukh Khan

Synopsis

Anand Grover, better known as Annie, is victimized for making fun of his principal Y.D. Billimoria (popularly known as Yamdoot or Hell's messenger) years ago. At the School of Architecture, New Delhi, Annie is repeating his fifth year for the fourth time. He spends his hours in the hostel which is the best part of his life, by 'giving it those ones' - indulging in daydreams of social upliftment. His latest idea is to plant fruit trees on either side of railway tracks, where rural India defecates daily. The fecal matter will provide the necessary compost for the trees, while the trains, with sprinklers attached, will automatically water the plants.

Annie also keeps two hens in his room and earns a modest sum by selling the eggs, till one day his friend, Mankind, and his Ugandan roommate, Kasozi, make a roasted meal out of them. Soon, however, hirsute Arjun and his girlfriend Radha, a non-conformist student who steals cigarettes from Yamdoot and talks back to the teachers, present Annie with a rabbit.

Many adventures later, the day to submit the thesis draws near, and Annie, urged by his friends, apologises to Yamdoot. A panel of judges call the students one by one for their final interviews and the tension mounts. Radha goes dressed in a saree but wears a man's hat to detract from her sober attire. To make sure that Annie gets a sympathetic hearing from the hostile panel, Radha and Arjun work out a plan. Just when Annie is called in, Yamdoot receives a phone call from his dominating deep-voiced mother, in actuality Mankind. The trick works and the weary panel gives Annie a good grade.

At the party after the graduation ceremony Annie arrives with heavy books under his arm, his hair shaved off and a butterfly painted on his head. He informs his friends that he has decided to study law and then sue Yamdoot. But subsequently, Annie joins the staff at the architecture school and, when Yamdoot retires, even becomes the Head of the Department of Design.

The movie also features Bollywood superstar Shahrukh Khan in one of his earliest roles, as an architecture student.

Awards

National Film Award: Best Screenplay: Arundhati Roy

References

External links

Category:1989 television films Category:Indian television films Category:English-language Indian films

Name	Arundhati Roy
Caption	Arundhati Roy speaking at Harvard University in April 2010.
Birthdate	November 24, 1961
Birthplace	Shillong, Meghalaya, India
Nationality	Indian
Religion	Atheist
Occupation	Novelist, essayist, activist
Period	1997–Present
Notableworks	The God of Small Things
Awards

Arundhati Roy (born 24 November 1961) is an Indian novelist. She won the Booker Prize in 1997 for her novel, The God of Small Things, and has also written two screenplays and several collections of essays. Her writings on various social, environmental and political issues have been a subject of major controversy in India.

Early life and background

Arundhati Roy was born in Shillong, Meghalaya, India, to a Keralite Syrian Christian mother, the women's rights activist Mary Roy, and a Bengali father, Ranjit Roy, a tea planter by profession.

She spent her childhood in Aymanam in Kerala, and went to school at Corpus Christi, Kottayam, followed by the Lawrence School, Lovedale, in Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu. She then studied architecture at the School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi, where she met her first husband, architect Gerard da Cunha.

Roy met her second husband, filmmaker Pradip Krishen, in 1984, and played a village girl in his award-winning movie Massey Sahib. Until made financially stable by the success of her novel The God of Small Things, she worked various jobs, including running aerobics classes at five-star hotels in New Delhi. Roy is a cousin of prominent media personality Prannoy Roy, the head of the leading Indian TV media group NDTV,. She lives in New Delhi.

Career

Literary career

Early career: screenplays

Early in her career, Roy worked for television and movies. She wrote the screenplays for In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones (1989), a movie based on her experiences as a student of architecture, directed by her current husband, and Electric Moon (1992); she also appeared as a performer in the first. Roy attracted attention in 1994, when she criticised Shekhar Kapur's film Bandit Queen, based on the life of Phoolan Devi. In her film review titled, 'The Great Indian Rape Trick', she questioned the right to "restage the rape of a living woman without her permission," and charged Kapur with exploiting Devi and misrepresenting both her life and its meaning.

The God of Small Things

Roy began writing her first novel, The God of Small Things, in 1992, completing it in 1996. The book is semi-autobiographical and a major part captures her childhood experiences in Aymanam. It reached fourth position on the New York Times Bestsellers list for Independent Fiction. From the beginning, the book was also a commercial success: Roy received half a million pounds as an advance; "extraordinary," "at once so morally strenuous and so imaginatively supple") and the Los Angeles Times ("a novel of poignancy and considerable sweep"), and in Canadian publications such as the Toronto Star ("a lush, magical novel"). By the end of the year, it had become one of the five best books of 1997 by TIME. Critical response in the United Kingdom was less positive, and that the novel was awarded the Booker Prize caused controversy; Carmen Callil, a 1996 Booker Prize judge, called the novel "execrable," and The Guardian called the contest "profoundly depressing." In India, the book was criticized especially for its unrestrained description of sexuality by E. K. Nayanar, then Chief Minister of Roy's homestate Kerala, where she had to answer charges of obscenity.

Later career

Since the success of her novel, Roy has been working as a screenplay writer again, writing a television serial, The Banyan Tree, and the documentary DAM/AGE: A Film with Arundhati Roy (2002).

In early 2007, Roy announced that she would begin work on a second novel.

Arundhati Roy was one of the contributors on the book We Are One: A Celebration of Tribal Peoples, released in October 2009. The book explores the culture of peoples around the world, portraying their diversity and the threats to their existence. The royalties from the sale of this book go to the indigenous rights organization Survival International.

Advocacy and controversy

Since The God of Small Things Roy has devoted herself mainly to nonfiction and politics, publishing two more collections of essays, as well as working for social causes. She is a spokesperson of the anti-globalization/alter-globalization movement and a vehement critic of neo-imperialism and of the global policies of the United States. She also criticizes India's nuclear weapons policies and the approach to industrialization and rapid development as currently being practiced in India, including the Narmada Dam project and the power company Enron's activities in India.

Support for Kashmiri separatism

In an interview with Times of India published in August 2008, Arundhati Roy expressed her support for the independence of Kashmir from India after massive demonstrations in favor of independence took place—some 500,000 separatists rallied in Srinagar in the Kashmir part of Jammu and Kashmir state of India for independence on 18 August 2008, following the Amarnath land transfer controversy. According to her, the rallies were a sign that Kashmiris desire secession from India, and not union with India. She was criticized by Indian National Congress (INC) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for her remarks.

In October 2010, at a seminar in Delhi named "Azadi – The only way" ("azadi" meaning "freedom"

Her remarks attracted criticism from the BJP leader Arun Jaitley that she was promoting secession of the Union of India, and that the central government was not acting on the issue and prosecuting Roy and others. Although it was widely speculated that she could potentially face sedition charges from the center for her remarks in Delhi, Indian Home Minister P Chidambaram said no action would be taken "unless there is direct incitement to violence".

A few days after the October, 2010, seminar, Roy traveled to Srinigar and Shopian and then reported on her visits, noting at the outset, though, U.S. President Obama's then-fresh visit to India. Roy contrasted the president's having said, a "week before he was elected in 2008 ... [that] Kashmir’s struggle for self-determination — which has led to three wars between India and Pakistan since 1947 — would be among his 'critical tasks' ..., remarks [which] were greeted with consternation in India," with his having "said almost nothing about Kashmir since then." She further noted that during his India visit, Obama "pleased his hosts immensely by saying the United States would not intervene in Kashmir," among other things. As to her own trip to Kashmir, Roy wrote that with what she saw and heard even before reaching Shopian, where she heard more of the 2009 rape and murder case, "I could not bring myself to regret what I had said in Delhi" despite the "bit of trouble" those remarks had caused. When Roy returned home from Kashmir, she reported, "in what is becoming a common political strategy, officials outsourced their displeasure to the mob; ... the women’s wing of the [BJP] staged a demonstration outside my house, calling for my arrest. Television vans arrived in advance to broadcast the event live. The murderous Bajrang Dal ... have announced that they are going to 'fix' me with all the means at their disposal, including by filing criminal charges against me in different courts across the country." Ending on a broader note, Roy wrote "Indian nationalists and the government seem to believe that they can fortify their idea of a resurgent India with a combination of bullying and Boeing airplanes. But they don’t understand the subversive strength of warm, boiled eggs." The C-17 Globemaster III aircraft were on the Obama agenda in Delhi; the eggs were a gift to Roy from the father of one of the Shopian victims in appreciation for Roy's efforts.

Sardar Sarovar Project

Roy has campaigned along with activist Medha Patkar against the Narmada dam project, saying that the dam will displace half a million people, with little or no compensation, and will not provide the projected irrigation, drinking water and other benefits. Roy donated her Booker prize money as well as royalties from her books on the project to the Narmada Bachao Andolan. Roy also appears in Franny Armstrong's Drowned Out, a 2002 documentary about the project. Roy's opposition to the Narmada Dam project was criticised as "maligning Gujarat" by Congress and BJP leaders in Gujarat.

In 2002, Roy responded to a contempt notice issued against her by the Indian Supreme Court with an affidavit saying the court's decision to initiate the contempt proceedings based on an unsubstantiated and flawed petition, while refusing to inquire into allegations of corruption in military contracting deals pleading an overload of cases, indicated a "disquieting inclination" by the court to silence criticism and dissent using the power of contempt. The court found Roy's statement, which she refused to disavow or apologize for, constituted criminal contempt and sentenced her to a "symbolic" one day's imprisonment and fined Roy Rs. 2500. Roy served the jail sentence for a single day and opted to pay the fine rather than serve an additional three months' imprisonment for default.

Environmental historian Ramachandra Guha has been critical of Roy's Narmada dam activism. While acknowledging her "courage and commitment" to the cause, Guha writes that her advocacy is hyperbolic and self-indulgent, "Ms. Roy's tendency to exaggerate and simplify, her Manichean view of the world, and her shrill hectoring tone, have given a bad name to environmental analysis". He faults Roy's criticism of Supreme Court judges who were hearing a petition brought by the Narmada Bachao Andolan as careless and irresponsible.

Roy counters that her writing is intentional in its passionate, hysterical tone: "I am hysterical. I'm screaming from the bloody rooftops. And he and his smug little club are going 'Shhhh... you'll wake the neighbours!' I want to wake the neighbours, that's my whole point. I want everybody to open their eyes".

Gail Omvedt and Roy have had fierce discussions, in open letters, on Roy's strategy for the Narmada Dam movement. Though the activists disagree on whether to demand stopping the dam building altogether (Roy) or searching for intermediate alternatives (Omvedt), the exchange has mostly been, though critical, constructive.

United States foreign policy, the War in Afghanistan

In a 2001 opinion piece in the British newspaper The Guardian, Arundhati Roy responded to the US military invasion of Afghanistan, finding fault with the argument that this war would be a retaliation for the September 11 attacks: "The bombing of Afghanistan is not revenge for New York and Washington. It is yet another act of terror against the people of the world." According to her, U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair were guilty of a Big Brother-kind of doublethink: "When he announced the air strikes, President George Bush said: 'We're a peaceful nation.' America's favourite ambassador, Tony Blair, (who also holds the portfolio of prime minister of the UK), echoed him: 'We're a peaceful people.' So now we know. Pigs are horses. Girls are boys. War is peace."

She disputes U.S. claims of being a peaceful and freedom-loving nation, listing China and nineteen 3rd World "countries that America has been at war with – and bombed – since the second world war", as well as previous U.S. support for the Taliban movement and support for the Northern Alliance (whose "track record is not very different from the Taliban's"). She does not spare the Taliban: "Now, as adults and rulers, the Taliban beat, stone, rape and brutalise women, they don't seem to know what else to do with them."

In the final analysis, Roy sees American-style capitalism as the culprit: "In America, the arms industry, the oil industry, the major media networks, and, indeed, US foreign policy, are all controlled by the same business combines." She puts the attacks on the World Trade Center and on Afghanistan on the same moral level, that of terrorism, and mourns the impossibility of imagining beauty after 2001: "Will it be possible ever again to watch the slow, amazed blink of a newborn gecko in the sun, or whisper back to the marmot who has just whispered in your ear – without thinking of the World Trade Centre and Afghanistan?"

In May 2003 she delivered a speech entitled "Instant-Mix Imperial Democracy (Buy One, Get One Free)" at the Riverside Church in New York City. In it she described the United States as a global empire that reserves the right to bomb any of its subjects at any time, deriving its legitimacy directly from God. The speech was an indictment of the U.S. actions relating to the Iraq War. In June 2005 she took part in the World Tribunal on Iraq. In March 2006, Roy criticized US President George W. Bush's visit to India, calling him a "war criminal".

India's nuclear weaponisation

In response to India's testing of nuclear weapons in Pokhran, Rajasthan, Roy wrote The End of Imagination (1998), a critique of the Indian government's nuclear policies. It was published in her collection The Cost of Living (1999), in which she also crusaded against India's massive hydroelectric dam projects in the central and western states of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat.

Criticism of Israel

In August 2006, Roy, along with Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, and others, signed a letter in The Guardian called the 2006 Lebanon War a "war crime" and accused Israel of "state terror." In 2007, Roy was one of more than 100 artists and writers who signed an open letter initiated by Queers Undermining Israeli Terrorism and the South West Asian, North African Bay Area Queers and calling on the San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival "to honor calls for an international boycott of Israeli political and cultural institutions, by discontinuing Israeli consulate sponsorship of the LGBT film festival and not cosponsoring events with the Israeli consulate."

2001 Indian Parliament attack

Roy has raised questions about the investigation into the 2001 Indian Parliament attack and the trial of the accused. She has called for the death sentence of Mohammad Afzal to be stayed while a parliamentary enquiry into these questions are conducted and denounced press coverage of the trial. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has criticized Roy for what it alleges is defence of a terrorist going against the national interest.

The Muthanga incident

In 2003, the Adivasi Gothra Maha Sabha, a social movement for adivasi land rights in Kerala, organized a major land occupation of a piece of land of a former Eucalyptus plantation in the Muthanga Wildlife Reserve, on the border of Kerala and Karnataka. After 48 days, a police force was sent into the area to evict the occupants—one participant of the movement and a policeman were killed, and the leaders of the movement were arrested. Arundhati Roy travelled to the area, visited the movement's leaders in jail, and wrote an open letter to the then Chief Minister of Kerala, A.K. Antony now India's Defence Minister, saying "You have blood on your hands."

Comments on 2008 Mumbai attacks

In an opinion piece for The Guardian (13 December 2008), Roy argued that the November 2008 Mumbai attacks cannot be seen in isolation, but must be understood in the context of wider issues in the region's history and society such as widespread poverty, the Partition of India (which Roy calls "Britain's final, parting kick to us"), the atrocities committed during the 2002 Gujarat violence, and the ongoing conflict in Kashmir. Despite this call for context, Roy states clearly in the article that she believes "nothing can justify terrorism" and calls terrorism "a heartless ideology." Roy warns against war with Pakistan, arguing that it is hard to "pin down the provenance of a terrorist strike and isolate it within the borders of a single nation state", and that war could lead to the "descent of the whole region into chaos". Her remarks were strongly criticized by Salman Rushdie and others, who condemned her for linking the Bombay attacks with Kashmir and economic injustice against Muslims in India; Rushdie specifically criticized Roy for attacking the iconic status of the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower. Indian writer Tavleen Singh called Roy's comments "he latest of her series of hysterical diatribes against India and all things Indian."

Criticism of Sri Lanka

In an opinion piece, once again in The Guardian (April 1, 2009), Roy made a plea for international attention to what she called a possible government-sponsored genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka. She cited reports of camps into which Tamils were being herded as part of what she described as "a brazen, openly racist war." She also mentioned that the "Government of Sri Lanka is on the verge of committing what could end up being genocide" and described the Sri Lankan IDP camps where Tamil civilians are being held as concentration camps. Ruvani Freeman, a Sri Lankan writer called Roy's remarks "ill-informed and hypocritical" and criticized her for "whitewashing the atrocities of the LTTE." Roy has said of such accusations: "I cannot admire those whose vision can only accommodate justice for their own and not for everybody. However I do believe that the LTTE and its fetish for violence was cultured in the crucible of monstrous, racist, injustice that the Sri Lankan government and to a great extent Sinhala society visited on the Tamil people for decades."

Violation of forest law

In 2003, Arundhati and her husband, were according to The Telegraph informed by Panchmarhi district administration that "a hilltop bungalow her husband owns near Panchmarhi stands on notified forest land and has to be pulled down...on grounds of violation of forest law.". Also named in the case was the sister of Indian novelist Vikram Seth and two forest officials. Arundhati’s husband bought the plot in 1994. Their land in Madhya Pradesh encroaches on a Wildlife protection zone

Views on the Naxals

Roy has criticized Government's armed actions against the Naxalite-Maoist insurgents in India, calling it "war on the poorest people in the country". According to her, the Government has "abdicated its responsibility to the people" While she has received support from various quarters for her views, Roy's description of the Maoists as "Gandhians" raised a controversy. In other statements, she has described Naxalites as "patriot of a kind" who are "fighting to implement the Constitution, (while) the government is vandalising it". In an interview with Karan Thapar on CNN-IBN, Roy defined the "ultimate goal" of the Maoists as "overthrowing the Indian state and institution of the dictatorship of the proletariat", which she did not support because she does not believe that a solution to the problems of the world would come from either a capitalist or a communist imagination. She was repeatedly asked to clarify her views on the Maoists.

Karan Thapar: How do you perceive the Maoists? Arundhati Roy: I perceive them as a group of people who have at a most militant end in the bandwidth of resistance movements that exist Karan Thapar: but do you support any attempt to overthrow the Indian state? Arundhati Roy: ..If I say that I support the Maoists' desire to overthrow the Indian State, I would be saying that I am a Maoist. But I am not a Maoist. Karan Thapar: .. what about the tactics that the Maoists use?.. Arundhati Roy: There is already a civil war...when your village is surrounded by 800 CRPF men who are raping and burning and looting, you can't say I am going on a hunger strike. Then, I support people's right to resist that.

Awards

Arundhati Roy was awarded the 1997 Booker Prize for her novel The God of Small Things. The award carried a prize of about US $30,000 and a citation that noted, 'The book keeps all the promises that it makes.' Prior to this, she won the National Film Award for Best Screenplay in 1989, for the screenplay of In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones.

In 2002, she won the Lannan Foundation's Cultural Freedom Award for her work "about civil societies that are adversely affected by the world’s most powerful governments and corporations," in order "to celebrate her life and her ongoing work in the struggle for freedom, justice and cultural diversity."

Roy was awarded the Sydney Peace Prize in May 2004 for her work in social campaigns and her advocacy of non-violence.

In January 2006, she was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award, a national award from India's Academy of Letters, for her collection of essays on contemporary issues, The Algebra of Infinite Justice, but she declined to accept it "in protest against the Indian Government toeing the US line by 'violently and ruthlessly pursuing policies of brutalisation of industrial workers, increasing militarisation and economic neo-liberalisation.'"

Works

Books

The God of Small Things. Flamingo, 1997. ISBN 0-00-655068-1.

The End of Imagination. Kottayam: D.C. Books, 1998. ISBN 81-7130-867-8.

The Cost of Living. Flamingo, 1999. ISBN 0-375-75614-0. Contains the essays "The Greater Common Good" and "The End of Imagination."

The Greater Common Good. Bombay: India Book Distributor, 1999. ISBN 81-7310-121-3.

The Algebra of Infinite Justice. Flamingo, 2002. ISBN 0-00-714949-2. Collection of essays: "The End of Imagination," "The Greater Common Good," "Power Politics", "The Ladies Have Feelings, So...," "The Algebra of Infinite Justice," "War is Peace," "Democracy," "War Talk", and "Come September."

Power Politics. Cambridge: South End Press, 2002. ISBN 0-89608-668-2.

War Talk. Cambridge: South End Press, 2003. ISBN 0-89608-724-7.

Foreword to Noam Chomsky, For Reasons of State. 2003. ISBN 1-56584-794-6.

An Ordinary Person's Guide To Empire. Consortium, 2004. ISBN 0-89608-727-1.

Public Power in the Age of Empire Seven Stories Press, 2004. ISBN 1-58322-682-6.

The Checkbook and the Cruise Missile: Conversations with Arundhati Roy. Interviews by David Barsamian. Cambridge: South End Press, 2004. ISBN 0-89608-710-7.

Introduction to 13 December, a Reader: The Strange Case of the Attack on the Indian Parliament. New Delhi, New York: Penguin, 2006. ISBN 0-14-310182-X.

The Shape of the Beast: Conversations with Arundhati Roy. New Delhi: Penguin, Viking, 2008. ISBN 978-0-670-08207-0.

Listening to Grasshoppers: Field Notes on Democracy. New Delhi: Penguin, Hamish Hamilton, 2009. ISBN 978-0-670-08379-4.

Speeches, Essays, Interviews

We 'We,' documentary featuring the works of Arundhati Roy

Come September Transcript of speech on 18 September 2002 and conversation with Howard Zinn

Arundhati Roy on India, Iraq, U.S. Empire and Dissent—interview on Democracy Now!

'We have to become the global resistance' (Abridged version of speech at the World Social Forum in Mumbai, 16 January 2004)

Tide? or Ivory Snow? Public Power in the Age of Empire (16 August 2004 speech in San Francisco)

ABC Radio National transcript of Sydney Peace Prize Lecture (with audio) or download the speech here

'The Most Cowardly War in History'; opening statement at the Iraq tribunal (Article dated 24 June 2005)

Podcast of Arundhati Roy and Pankaj Mishra discussing "India in the World" at the Shanghai International Literary Festival

Arundhati Roy on the Human Costs of India’s Economic Growth, the View of Obama in New Delhi, and Escalating US Attacks in Af-Pak

Audio: Arundhati Roy in conversation on the BBC World Service discussion programme The Forum

Arundhati Roy on Obama’s Wars, India and Why Democracy Is “The Biggest Scam in the World”

"In the Valley of the Tigers"; Interview with Ascent magazine on the Narmada Valley

Gandhi but with Guns – essay about the naxalites at guardian.co.uk (2010-03-27)

Fault Lines – Arundhati Roy (video) – Interview with Arundhati Roy on Al Jazeera English (retrieved 2010-05-06)

See also

Anti-globalization movement

Narmada Bachao Andolan

Indian English literature

References

Books and articles on Roy

"The Politics of Design," in

Other

We, a political documentary about Roy's words. Available online.

Arundhati Roy denounces Indian democracy by Atul Cowshish

Carreira, Shirley de S. G.A representação da mulher em Shame, de Salman Rushdie, e O deus das pequenas coisas, de Arundathi Roy. In: MONTEIRO, Conceição & LIMA, Tereza M. de O. ed. Rio de Janeiro: Caetés, 2005

Ch'ien, Evelyn Nien-Ming, "The Politics of Design" (Weird English. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 2004; 154–199). Essay on Roy's language. Available online.

Literary Encyclopedia (in-progress)

SAWNET biography

Bibliography

Arundhati Roy – NNDB entry

Notes

External links

Arundhati Roy Faces Arrest for Questioning India’s Claim on Kashmir - video report by Democracy Now!

Arundhati Roy on Obama’s Wars, Poverty and India’s Maoist Rebels - video interview by Democracy Now!

Category:1961 births Category:Living people Category:People from Meghalaya Category:Anti-globalization writers Category:National Film Award winners Category:Booker Prize winners Category:Indian activists Category:Indian novelists Category:Indian women activists Category:Indian women writers Category:Indian writers Category:Malayali people Category:English-language writers from India Category:Bengali people Category:Indian atheists

Name	Shahrukh Khan
Other names	Shah Rukh Khan, King Khan, SRK‎
Birth date	November 02, 1965
Birth place	New Delhi, India
Years active	1988–present
Spouse	Gauri Khan (1991–present)
Occupation	Actor, producer, television presenter

Shahrukh Khan (}}, ; born 2 November 1965), calling himself and often (for instance on all his DVDs) being credited as Shah Rukh Khan, is an Indian film actor and a prominent Bollywood figure, as well as a film producer and television host. Khan began his career appearing in several television serials in the late 1980s. He made his film debut in Deewana (1992). Since then, he has been part of numerous commercially successful films and has earned critical acclaim for many of his performances. Khan has won thirteen Filmfare Awards for his work in Indian films, seven of which are in the Best Actor category, thus establishing himself as one of the leading actors of Hindi Cinema. In 2005, the Government of India honoured him with the Padma Shri for his contributions towards Indian Cinema.

Khan's films such as Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge (1995), Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998), Chak De India (2007), Om Shanti Om (2007) and Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi (2008) remain some of Bollywood's biggest hits, while films like Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham (2001), Kal Ho Naa Ho (2003), Veer-Zaara (2004), Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (2006) and My Name Is Khan (2010) have been top-grossing Indian productions in the overseas markets, making him one of the most successful actors of India. Since 2000, Khan branched out into film production and television presenting as well. He is the founder/owner of two production companies, Dreamz Unlimited and Red Chillies Entertainment. Khan is today considered to be the world's biggest movie star, and a net worth estimated at over Rs 2500 crore (US$ 540 million). In 2008, Newsweek named him one of the 50 most powerful people in the world.

Biography

in New Delhi where he won the school's highest accolade, The Sword of Honour. ]] Khan was born in 1965 to Muslim parents of Pathan descent in New Delhi, India. His father, Taj Mohammed Khan, was an Indian independence activist from Peshawar, British India. According to Khan, his paternal grandfather was originally from Afghanistan. His mother, Lateef Fatima, was the adopted daughter of Major General Shah Nawaz Khan of the Janjua Rajput clan, who served as a General in the Indian National Army of Subash Chandra Bose. Khan's father came to New Delhi from Qissa Khawani Bazaar in Peshawar before the partition of India, while his mother's family came from Rawalpindi, British India. Khan has an elder sister named Shehnaz.

Growing up in Rajendra Nagar neighbourhood, Khan attended St. Columba's School where he was accomplished in sports, drama, and academics. He won the Sword of Honour, an annual award given to the student who best represents the spirit of the school. Khan later attended the Hansraj College (1985–1988) and earned his Bachelors degree in Economics (honors). Though he pursued a Masters Degree in Mass Communications at Jamia Millia Islamia, he later opted out to make his career in Bollywood.

After the death of his parents, Khan moved to Mumbai in 1991. In that same year, before any of his films were released, he married Gauri Chibber, a Hindu, in a traditional Hindu wedding ceremony on 25 October 1991. They have two children, son Aryan (b. 1997) and daughter Suhana (b. 2000). According to Khan, while he strongly believes in Allah, he also values his wife's religion. At home, his children follow both religions, with the Qur'an being situated next to the Hindu deities.

In 2005, Nasreen Munni Kabir produced a two-part documentary on Khan, titled The Inner and Outer World of Shah Rukh Khan. Featuring his 2004 Temptations concert tour, the film contrasted Khan's inner world of family and daily life with the outer world of his work. The book Still Reading Khan, which details his family life, was released in 2006. Another book by Anupama Chopra, King of Bollywood: Shahrukh Khan and the seductive world of Indian cinema, was released in 2007. It describes the world of Bollywood through Khan's life.

Film career

Background

Khan studied acting under celebrated Theatre Director Barry John at Delhi's Theatre Action Group (TAG). In 2007, John commented thus on his former pupil that, "The credit for the phenomenally successful development and management of Shahrukh's career goes to the superstar himself." Khan made his acting debut in 1988 when he appeared in the television series, Fauji, playing the role of Commando Abhimanyu Rai. He went on to appear in several other television serials, most notably in the 1989 serial, Aziz Mirza's Circus, which depicted the life of circus performers. The same year, Khan also had a minor role in the made-for-television English-language film, In Which Annie Gives it Those Ones, which was based on life at Delhi University and was written by Arundhati Roy.

1990s

Upon moving from New Delhi to Mumbai in 1991, Khan made his Bollywood movie debut in Deewana (1992). The movie became a box office hit, and launched his career in Bollywood. His performance won him a Filmfare Best Male Debut Award. He went on to star in Maya Memsaab, which generated some controversy because of his appearance in an "explicit" sex scene in the movie.

In 1993, Khan won acclaim for his performances in villainous roles as an obsessive lover and a murderer, respectively, in the box office hits, Darr and Baazigar. Darr marked his first collaboration with renowned film-maker Yash Chopra and his banner Yash Raj Films, the largest production company in Bollywood. Baazigar, which saw Khan portraying an ambiguous avenger who murders his girlfriend, shocked its Indian audience with an unexpected violation of the standard Bollywood formula. His performance won him his first Filmfare Best Actor Award. In that same year, Khan played the role of a young musician in Kundan Shah's Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa, a performance that earned him a Filmfare Critics Award for Best Performance. Khan maintains that this is his all-time favourite among the movies he has acted in. In 1994, Khan once again played an obsessive lover/psycho's role in Anjaam, co-starring alongside Madhuri Dixit. Though the movie was not a box office success, Khan's performance earned him the Filmfare Best Villain Award.

In 1995, Khan starred in Aditya Chopra's directorial debut Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, a major critical and commercial success, for which he won his second Filmfare Best Actor Award. In 2007, the film entered its twelfth year in Mumbai theaters. By then the movie had grossed over 12 billion rupees, making it as one of India's biggest movie blockbusters. Earlier in the same year he found success in Rakesh Roshan's Karan Arjun which became the second biggest hit of the year.

1996 was a disappointing year for Khan as all his movies released that year failed to do well at the box office. This was, however, followed by a comeback in 1997. He saw success with Subhash Ghai's social drama Pardes — one of the biggest hits of the year — and Aziz Mirza's comedy Yes Boss, a moderately successful feature. His second project with Yash Chopra as a director, Dil to Pagal Hai became that year's second highest-grossing movie, and he won his third Filmfare Best Actor Award for his role as a stage director who falls in love with one of his new actresses. His performance won him his fourth Best Actor award at the Filmfare. He won critical praise for his performance in Mani Ratnam's Dil Se. The movie did not do well at the Indian box office, though it was a commercial success overseas. Khan's only release in 1999, Baadshah, was an average grosser.

2000s

in Sun Tech City, Singapore, in 2008]] Khan's success continued with Aditya Chopra's 2000 film, Mohabbatein, co-starring Amitabh Bachchan. It did well at the box office, and Khan's performance as a college teacher won him his second Critics Award for Best Performance. He also starred in Mansoor Khan's action film Josh. The film starred Khan as the leader of a Christian gang in Goa and Aishwarya Rai as his twin sister, and was also a box office success. In that same year, Khan set up his own production house, Dreamz Unlimited with Juhi Chawla (see below). Both Khan and Chawla starred in the first movie of their production house, Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani.

In 2002, Khan received acclaim for playing the title role in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's award-winning period romance, Devdas. It was the third Hindi movie adaptation of Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay's well-known novel of the same name, and surfaced as one of the biggest hits of that year. Khan also starred opposite Salman Khan and Madhuri Dixit in the family-drama Hum Tumhare Hain Sanam, which did well at the box office. That same year, he starred in the tearjerker, Kal Ho Naa Ho, written by Karan Johar and directed by Nikhil Advani. Khan's performance in this movie as a man with a fatal heart disease was appreciated. The movie proved to be one of the year's biggest hits in India and Bollywood's biggest hit in the overseas markets. The film relates the love story of Veer and Pakistani woman Zaara Haayat Khan, played by Preity Zinta. Khan's performance in the film won him awards at several award ceremonies. In that same year, he received critical acclaim for his performance in Ashutosh Gowariker's drama Swades. He was nominated for the Filmfare Best Actor Award for all three of his releases in 2004, winning it for Swades. His second release that year saw him playing the title role in the action film , a remake of the 1978 hit Don. The movie was a success. The film was a major critical success. In the same year Khan also starred in Farah Khan's 2007 film, Om Shanti Om. The film emerged as the year's highest grossing film in India and the overseas market, and became India's highest grossing production ever up to that point. While on one shoot in Los Angeles, along with his wife Gauri and director Karan Johar, he took a break from filming to attend the 66th Golden Globe Awards, held in Los Angeles, California, on 11 January 2009. Khan introduced Slumdog Millionaire along with a star from the film, Freida Pinto. He is currently filming for Anubhav Sinha's science fiction Ra.One opposite Kareena Kapoor, which is due for release on June 3, 2011.

Producer

in Germany]] Khan turned producer when he set up a production company called Dreamz Unlimited with Juhi Chawla and director Aziz Mirza in 1999. The first two of the films he produced and starred in: Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani (2000) and Asoka (2001) were box office failures.

In 2004, Khan set up another production company, Red Chillies Entertainment, and produced and starred in Main Hoon Na, another hit. It was, however, India's official entry to the Academy Awards for consideration for Best Foreign Language Film, but it did not pass the final selection. Also in 2005, Khan co-produced the supernatural horror film Kaal with Karan Johar, and performed an item number for the film with Malaika Arora Khan. Kaal was moderately successful at the box office.

In 2008, Red Chillies Entertainment became the owner of the Kolkata Knight Riders in the BCCI-backed IPL cricket competition.

Television host

In 2007, Khan replaced Amitabh Bachchan as the host of the third series of the popular game show Kaun Banega Crorepati, the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?. The previous had hosted the show for five years from 2000–05. On 22 January 2007, Kaun Banega Crorepati aired with Khan as the new host and later ended on 19 April 2007.

On 25 April 2008, Khan began hosting the game show Kya Aap Paanchvi Pass Se Tez Hain?, the Indian version of Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?, whose last episode was telecasted on 27 July 2008, with Lalu Prasad Yadav as the special guest.

Awards and nominations

Khan has been awarded several honours which includes the Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civilian award from the Government of India in 2005. In April 2007, a life-size wax statue of Khan was installed at Madame Tussauds Wax Museum, London. Another statue was installed at the Musée Grévin in Paris, the same year. During the same year, he was accorded the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Order of the Arts and Literature) award by the French government for his “exceptional career”. There are also statues in Hong Kong and New York

In October 2008, Khan was conferred the Darjah Mulia Seri Melaka which carries the honorific Datuk (in similar fashion to "Sir" in British knighthood), by the Yang di-Pertua Negeri Tun Mohd Khalil Yaakob, the head of state of Malacca in Malaysia. Khan was honoured for "promoting tourism in Malacca" by filming One Two Ka Four there in 2001. Some were critical of this decision. He was also honoured with an honorary doctorate in arts and culture from Britain's University of Bedfordshire in 2009.

Filmography

Film actor

Producer

Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani (2000)

Asoka (2001)

Chalte Chalte (2003)

Main Hoon Na (2004)

Kaal (2005)

Paheli (2005)

Om Shanti Om (2007)

Billu (2009)

Ra.One (2011)

Playback singer

Main to hoon Pagal - Baadshah (1999)

Apun Bola - Josh (2000)

Khaike Paan Banaraswala - Don - The Chase Begins Again (2006)

Ek Hockey Doongi Rakhke - Chak De India (2007)

Sattar Minute - Chak De India (2007)

Stunts director

Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998)

Main Hoon Na (2004)

Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (2006)

Chak De India (2007)

Om Shanti Om (2007)

Television appearances

Dil Dariya (1988)

Fauji (1988) ... Abhimanyu Rai

Doosra Keval (1989)

Circus (1989)

In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones (1989)

Idiot (1991) ... Pawan Raghujan

Kareena Kareena (2004) ... Special appearance

Rendezvous with Simi Garewal.....Guest

Koffee with Karan (2004–2007) ... Guest (3 episodes)

Kaun Banega Crorepati (2007) ... Host

Jjhoom India (2007) ... Guest

Nach Baliye (2008) .... Guest

Kya Aap Paanchvi Pass Se Tez Hain? (2008)  .... Host

Oye! It's Friday! (2009)  ... Guest

Tere Mere Beach Mein (2009)  ... Guest

Friday Night with Jonathan Ross (2010)  ... Guest

See also

List of Indian Actors

Newark Airport Incident

Notes

Bibliography

Nasreen Munni Kabir. The Inner and Outer World of Shah Rukh Khan (Documentary, 2005).

Shahrukh Khan - Still Reading Khan. A1Books Distributor 2007. ISBN 9788187107798.

Gahlot, Deepa; Agarwal, Amit. King Khan SRK. Augsburg Weltbild 2007. ISBN 9783828988699.

Ghosh, Biswadeep. Hall of fame: Shahrukh Khan (in English). Mumbai: Magna Books, 2004. ISBN 8178092379.

Chopra, Anupama. King of Bollywood : Shah Rukh Khan and the seductive world of Indian cinema (English). New York: Warner Books, 2007. ISBN 9780446578585.

External links

Category:1965 births Category:Filmfare Awards winners Category:Hindi film actors Category:Indian actors Category:Indian film actors Category:Indian film producers Category:Indian Muslims Category:Indian Premier League franchise owners Category:Indian singers Category:Indian television actors Category:Indian television presenters Category:Indian people of Afghan descent Category:Jamia Millia Islamia alumni Category:Living people Category:Officiers of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres Category:Pashtun people Category:People from Delhi Category:People from Peshawar Category:Recipients of the Padma Shri Category:University of Delhi alumni