Gourab Mondal from Dhakuria spends the night before the release of every Shah Rukh Khan film in front of Menoka. On Wednesday, Gourab was back at the single-screen theatre by the Dhakuria Lakes as early as 6am… this time not for a film, but for the trailer launch of the superstar’s January blockbuster Raees.
“I was the first to reach Menoka at the crack of dawn simply because the excitement of watching the trailer was too much. I usually do it for Shah Rukh’s films and with so much buzz around the Raees trailer, I knew I had to be here for this a good few hours before,” smiled Gourab.
Like Gourab, close to 500 SRK fans made a beeline for Menoka on Wednesday morning, many among them t2 readers as well as diehard Shah Rukh Khan fans. They walked in screaming and shouting his name, bursting confetti, holding up ‘SRK’ banners, lighting diyas in front of the superstar’s pictures and with only two words on their lips: “SRK, Raees… SRK, Raees... SRK, Raees....”
There was reason enough for them to be excited like never before. Not only did they get a chance to watch the trailer of the Rahul Dholakia film, that has SRK playing a ’70s-styled bootlegger-turned-don, a good couple of hours before it hit YouTube, they were also given a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity — with fans in Mumbai, Delhi, Jaipur, Moga, Hyderabad, Indore, Ahmedabad and Bangalore — to interact with King Khan ‘live’ via video chat.
And it was Calcutta that out-screamed them all. They screamed when the first flashes of the trailer came alive on screen. They screamed when SRK made his first appearance as Raees. They screamed when the Bollywood Badshah dimpled and sang — “Korbo, lorbo, jeetbo re… aami Kolkata, we rule!” — after being told that Calcutta was watching.
But it was the 2:46 long trailer — SRK recreating masala magic and madness and paisa-vasool dialoguebaazi — that got fans off their seats, holding up posters, going click-click on their camera phones and even lying down in the aisles with folded hands every time ‘Raees’ appeared on screen.
t2 tracked the top eight moments from the Raees trailer that made Calcutta go cray.
CRAY MOMENT 1
That first shot at the docks as Shah Rukh Khan’s voiceover plays out with: “Ammijaan kehti thi koi dhanda chhota nahin hota… aur dhande se bada koi dharm nahin hota.” The catchy background score, playing through the trailer, had fans going berserk.
CRAY MOMENT 2
When ‘Red Chillies and Excel Entertainment Present’ flashes on screen, giving way to a shot of SRK’s Raees slowly coming into focus as the smoke around him melts away. Yes, the noise was so deafening that we couldn’t even hear our thoughts.
CRAY MOMENT 3
The scene where Pakistani actress Mahira Khan, making her Bolly debut, takes off SRK’s gold-rimmed spectacles, smiles at him and says: “Battery, saala!”
CRAY MOMENT 4
Flying a kite off a rooftop, Raees is warned that he shouldn’t fly too high or he will come crashing down. His reply: “Agar katne ka darr hota toh patang nahin chadhata… firki pakadta.”
CRAY MOMENT 5
The scene with the maximum hoots, screams and whistles. At the mark of 1:30, Raees walks in, bell-bottomed feet first in the frame, with the camera slowly moving up to pan on his face. The next scene has him, kohl-rimmed eyes and black Pathan suit, firing a gun with the bullets flying out of the barrel. And then he fires that shot, stares in the way that only SRK can and tells Nawazuddin Siddiqui the cop: “Saboot le aaiye… le jaaiye… Raees haazir hai!”
CRAY MOMENT 6
When The Man delivers the line that’s been creating a frenzy ever since the teaser hit airwaves: “Baniye ka dimaag… miyan bhai ki daring.”
CRAY MOMENT 7
Raees is shown singing and dancing, fighting and breaking bones, even as an instrumental version of the Qurbani classic Laila main Laila plays out. The one shot that got a huge number of hoots: Sunny Leone dancing!
CRAY MOMENT 8
The last few seconds have SRK’s Raees jumping off rooftops and performing daredevil stunts, until the camera focuses on half his face as he says: “Aa rahaa hoon!”
We are waiting, King Khan!
Cousins Anirban Banerjee, Pritha Chakraborty and Shreelekha Chakraborty screamed themselves hoarse right from that first moment when Shah Rukh Khan walked in as Raees. “SRK’s avatar in Raees is awesome... a mix of god and the devil. The passion with which he was saying those dialogues left me numb,” smiled Pritha (third from left), who bunks classes to watch SRK films! For Sreelekha (fourth from left), Wednesday was the day she “met” Shah Rukh Khan. “I’ll never forget this day because it feels like I actually met him... he’s my knight in shining armour… my ideal chocolate boy, but he’s also more than what meets the eye,” smiled the Subhasgram resident.
ASK SRK
t2 picks some questions that fans from across the country asked SRK at the launch
Why did Raees take so long to release?
SRK: I think this is the first film in the world where the teaser came out in 2015, the first look in 2016 and now we have the film releasing in 2017! On a serious note, good things take time to come.
Who is a ‘raees’ and how do I become one?
SRK: ‘Raees’ means anyone who is a bade dilwala. A beggar who is large-hearted can be more raees than the wealthiest man in the world. So don’t think I will give you any tips to ace it at the stock market and make money overnight… just
become a bade dilwala.
Raees is a mix of ‘baniye ka dimaag… miyan bhai ki daring’. What’s the most daring thing you’ve done?
The only daring things I do are in films… I am your romantic hero, yaar! I am grateful to Rahul Dholakia for making me a don in Raees and making me beat up people!
How has demonetisation affected you?
SRK: I endorse so many products that I get everything absolutely free! Koi chaawal bhej deta hai… koi doodh….
Around 35-40 members of SRK Disciples worshipped their idol outside Menoka before trooping in for the trailer launch. “We do a puja before every SRK film. He is an inspiration for all of us,” said Prosenjit Bose, a member of the Bhowanipore-based club. The club members make it a point to go for every KKR game at Eden Gardens and to welcome SRK at the airport. Their fave moment from the Raees trailer? “When it opens with SRK saying: “Ammijaan kehti thi koi dhanda chhota nahin hota… aur dhande se bada koi dharm nahin hota,” said Prosenjit (standing, second from left).
Aditya Karmakar jumped up on stage and bowed down to his ‘god’ just as the video chat with SRK began. “When I saw him, my head stopped working… I impulsively ran to the stage and folded my hands before him. He’s my god, but unlike other fans, I’ve never copied his hairstyle or look because that would mean disrespecting him,” said the first-year student of South City College. His craziest act for SRK? “I took off my shirt and danced while watching Happy New Year… I’ll do the same for Raees!”
Argha Chakraborty and Astika Roy were the lucky Calcutta fans who got a chance to ask SRK a question each, straight from Menoka. While Argha (left), a student of Ananda Mohan College, wanted to know how Shah Rukh had nailed the ‘Pathan look’ (“Lots of plastic surgery and a good tailor!” quipped SRK), Astika, who also won a ‘Raees’ locket, asked the superstar what had touched him emotionally in Raees? SRK’s answer: “The last 15 minutes of Raees are very personal to me because it’s emotional and it focuses on family. The film is very real and relatable.”
Priyanka Roy, Malancha Dasgupta, Rwitoban Deb & Harshita Anand
Pictures: B. Halder and Arnab Mondal
Were you at the trailer launch? Tell t2@abp.in
