With his last hit Raees all the way back in 2017 , Bollywood’s King Khan is finally making his reappearance on the big screen in 2023 with not one but 4 mega projects, starting the trend early with a series of cameo appearances in 2022. Shah Rukh Khan as per sources is finishing up the shoot for his 2023 release Pathaan, helmed by YRF this action thriller has Deepika Paudkone and John Abraham in co- lead roles.  There also have been reports to have Salman Khan and Hrithik Roshan make on screen appearances while  reprising their roles from Tiger and War, kickstarting the ‘YRF spy verse’. 

Aside from his Pathaan that has got fans much anticipated to watch SRK be on the big screen and mesmerize the audience, he’s also reported to make a special appearance in Salman Khan’s action thriller Tiger 3 where he’ll reprise his role from Pathaan.  A project with Raju Hirani named ‘Dunki’ is also in the works, the only info as of now about the project is its plot that revolves around Donkey flights. But that’s not all, in a change SRK will also be seen working alongside the South actress Nayanthara in Tamil Director ‘Atlee’, Arun Kumar’s  tentatively titled ‘Lion’. The film marks the first Bollywood venture for the celebrated director, who has south megahits like ‘Theri’, ‘Mersal’ and ‘Sangli Bungli’ under his belt.

While all of these projects are still scheduled to release in the better part of the coming year, fans need not be disappointed as SRK will be on their theater screens this very year, multiple times at that. As of now he’s scheduled to make an appearance three times on the big screen this year 2022, with a series of cameos and special appearances. Firstly, in R. Madhavan directed “Rocketry: The Nambi Effect”. A biographical film based on the life of Nambi Narayan, an Indian aerospace engineer falsely accused of espionage. Followed by a special cameo as Raj Malhotra in Amir Khan’s Laal Singh Chadda; the Hindi remake of Forrest Grump, a 1994 American classic. Then finally ending the year with a cameo role as  scientist Dr. Rahul Aggarwal in the Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt starrer Brahmāstra scheduled to release in 2022.

As earlier mentioned Shah Rukh Khan’s last commercial and critically acclaimed hit Raees was back in 2017, but his ‘actual’ last film Zero(2018) proved to be a box office bomb that forced the actor to take time off and rekindle his groove.  Shah Rukh Khan hasn’t released or been in any films after Zero, for private and professional commitments.

The Star  had also taken a break from filming recently due to his son’s still ongoing drug case probe investigated by the NCB. The ongoing fiasco hampered and affected the actor on both personal and professional levels. Pushing back his schedule  for both Pathaan and ‘Lion’ (Director Arun ‘Atlee’ Kumar’s film) the actor asked for some time off, the films were previously being shooted simultaneously. He was also supposed to finally physically shoot in- person with fellow actor Ajay Devgn for the latest Vimal ad, a pan masala brand endorsed by both actors.

Regardless of when Shah Rukh Khan restarts filming, it is undoubted that the pressure to outperform seriously looms  over the actor. His last few flops Zero, Jab Harry Met Sejal and Fan seriously affected the actor’s image to perform outside his niche as a romantic lead.  The fact that all these flops were released in little time one after the other while sharing the same trope of classic SRK romancing his lead all while making short work of the story, didn’t go well with the fans that obviously wanted a change. Probably listening to the fans’ anguish and steering away from his usual strong suit of a romantic charmer, the actor’s focusing on commercial action-thrillers and biographical films of national significance. A formula that has been repeatedly successful for his fellow contemporaries Salman Khan and Akshay Kumar.

In a new era where regional cinema, especially the South Indian industry has come out and created a name for itself and the OTT space is in full bloom offering a myriad of content, Bollywood can no longer be considered  the big premiere leagues of Indian cinema.  Even in Bollywood itself, the Gen Y actors are working tirelessly exploring genres and breaking barriers to garner recognition and out perform fellow actors while the veterans have also started venturing outside classic commercial cinema in favor of fresh projects. So in these changing times, a name as massive as Shah Rukh Khan might still command mass attention anytime, but can it still garner mass recognition as easily as it once used to?