Fake news on Aamir directing SRK; no, Aamir is not directing Shah Rukh Khan

Entertainment journalism is going rapidly from fact to fiction to fantasy. The latest brainwave of a desk job is the “news” that Aamir Khan will direct Shah Rukh Khan in the latter’s cameo appearance in Laal Singh Chadha.

For those who came in late, Laal Singh Chadha is the Hindi remake of the Tom Hanks’ classic Forrest Gump. It’s being directed by Advait Chandan who earlier directed Aamir in Secret Superstar.

The story that Aamir will direct Shah Rukh’s cameo has been vehemently denied by Aamir’s spokesperson. “This is an insult to Advait who is a very capable director. He will direct every single frame of Laal Singh Chadha,” says the spokesperson.

So we wonder where such wild stories come from!

Aamir has always been choosy. The absolutely unexpected failure of Thugs Of Hindostan in 2018 made Aamir even more yes-wary. He was mulling over various scripts for months until he finally said yes to Lal Singh Chaddha, a remake of the Tom Hanks classic Forrest Gump where he reunites with his 3 Idiots co-star Kareena Kapoor Khan. There was no Aamir release in 2019 and none in 2020 either.

It is not so unusual for Bollywood to go through an Aamir-less year. But a year without Shah Rukh Khan was unimaginable until 2019. Apparently, he had been reading at an average 3 scripts every day. Whenever he has worked with new directors (new for him, that is) like Maneesh Sharma (Fan) and Gauri Shinde (Dear Zindagi), the film has underperformed. And yes, no SRK in 2020 either. Go, sulk.