Star performers

Abhijeet Bhatt

The stage is set. The audience has gathered. The air is anticipatory. ‘Deepak weds Rashee’, reads the banner. It’s the night of a wedding sangeet. Suddenly, ‘Shashi Kapoor’ enters the stage amid a thunderous applause. ‘Arjun Singh!’ he screams, mouthing dialogues from the 1982 blockbuster Namak Halal. Someone in the audience whistles. ‘Thank you,’ says ‘Shashi,’ but he’s not done yet.

He then goes on to perform some of ‘his’ iconic dance steps while an ad for an event management company plays in the background. There are cheers from the audience. After all, it’s not every day that one sees a member of the Kapoor clan performing. So what if the man on stage isn’t the real actor, Shashi Kapoor, but his lookalike Raees Khan. The resemblance is uncanny but the audience doesn’t seem to mind.

Try searching for Raees Khan in Google Images. Photos of megastar Shah Rukh Khan, who’s playing Raees in his upcoming film pop up. However, there are no images of Raees Khan, the 42-year-old lookalike and imitator of Shashi Kapoor. An obscure existence has been made even more obscure by a megastar’s upcoming release. But Raees Khan isn’t complaining. Making anywhere between Rs 10,000 and Rs 1 lakh per engagement, he has every reason to thank God for his resemblance to the yesteryears’ filmstar.

Raju Rahikwar is, perhaps, the most well-known Shah Rukh Khan imitator in the country. While the name might not ring a bell, the face bears a resemblance to the Shah Rukh Khan of the 1990s. While King Khan might have grown out of his ‘K...K...K...Kiran!’ days, Raju makes sure to incorporate the famous  stammer in all his acts. 

His affair with mimicry began 24 years back after the release of Deewana. “Since I looked like Shah Rukh Khan, and even my hairstyle was like him, my friends encouraged me to mimic him,” reveals Raju.  He has even made a documentary, Living in King Khan’s Shadow, which documents his life as a lookalike mimic.

According to Raju, “Being a duplicate is a very tough job. At first, nobody supports you. My father was against my taking up this profession. But my elder brother was very supportive.”

When asked if he is comfortable compromising with his individuality, he replies, “I’m not a fan of Shah Rukh Khan. I’m a fan of his stardom. I’m a fan of his hard work. Thanks to him, I have four houses in Mumbai and one in my native village. My father is today proud of me.” Perhaps what best explains the predicament of the families and the lookalikes is this dialogue from Maneesh Sharma’s upcoming film Fan: “Gharwale bhi na mere samajhte nahin hain kabhi kabhi. Woh sirf star nahin hai. Duniya hai meri.” For our star lookalikes or duplicates, an actor is much more than merely a celebrity. It is the life of these stars they choose for themselves, a life that is a source of their livelihood.

Since competition is tough, most duplicates don’t restrict themselves to just one actor. So while Raees Khan spends most of his waking hours in the shadow of Shashi Kapoor, he also tries to imitate Amitabh Bachchan. Same goes for Raj Kapoor lookalike Nagesh Kumar, who performed at the 2013 Filmfare Awards as the showman. He is popular as junior Rajesh Khanna, since he has adopted the yesteryear superstar’s mannerisms to the hilt. He also imitates Dev Anand and Mehmood.

Often actors work hard to develop a unique trademark mannerism — be it a style of dialogue delivery or a way of holding a cigarette. Ironically, they spend a greater part of their careers trying to break free of that image. The duplicates, however, thrive on these limited sets of mannerisms. So while the superstars move on, the duplicates are stuck in a time warp. So, while Shah Rukh Khan has changed his style over the years albeit in a subtle manner, people like Raju are stuck with mimicking only his most famous mannerisms. And therein lies the difference between an original and a duplicate.

If there’s anything that can rival Bollywood in terms of fan following, it’s cricket. The gentleman’s game has produced a fair share of stars. And with them has risen an army of impersonators as well. Balvir Chand Singh has never played cricket professionally. On the contrary, he’s a singer. A Sachin Tendulkar imitator for the past 20 years, he’s even acted in numerous commercials with him. All thanks to the uncanny resemblance he bears with the legend.

From a sense of awe to the evident disappointment in the eyes of people when they get to know that they’re not original but lookalikes, these duplicates have seen it all. They have made peace with giving up their individuality. Basking in a reflected glory seems way better than a life in oblivion.