The year was 2008. I was 15 and coasting on a high from placing among my school’s top rankers in the 10th standard board exams. As a treat, I was allowed to watch a movie unchaperoned with my friends for the first time. I was pretty tepid about a coming-of-age movie starring a bunch of newcomers, but as the credits rolled I looked at my friend incredulously. Had the sensitive and steadfast Jai Singh Rathore stirred the same intense emotions in her as he had in me? “Imran Khan is so cute,” she said with a smile. Not in the same wheelhouse, then. Jaane Tu… Ya Jaane Na became my Roman Empire and I was doomed to spend my early adulthood searching for my Jai, only to end up with red-flag Sushants masquerading as soft boys.
Sixteen years later, when the star walks into the studio we’re shooting at, I am once again the teenage girl singing along to ‘Kabhi Kabhi Aditi’ and insisting her boyfriend wear white tees under his flannel shirts. The actor is charmingly awkward as we take him through the day’s schedule—after all, it has been almost a decade since he last appeared in front of the camera. He had intended to keep it that way, he swears, but his self-imposed mental health sabbatical was overturned when fans began clamouring for his comeback in the comments section of Zeenat Aman’s Instagram post.
Khan is aware that his enduring popularity is a remarkable anomaly. “It boggles my mind because I have spent the better part of a decade tearing down and denying any vestige of fame,” he confesses. “Someone told me that they grew up in an abusive environment and my films made them feel safe. That’s a powerful thing.”
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Denne historien er fra March - April 2024-utgaven av VOGUE India.
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Breathe In, Breathe Out
A powerful tool to help you master your nervous system or another biohacking buzzword? SIMONE DHONDY explores the inhalations and exhalations of breathwork
Red Pill, Blue Pill
India's nutraceutical industry is booming thanks to advanced technology, distrust of the medical system and rising vanity. With multivitamins becoming purer and more effective, NIDHI GUPTA finds out if supplements have become the new serum
Sign of the times
No longer do you need to have an answer to, \"What is the significance of this?\" when people point to your new tattoo. ARMAN KHAN discovers that everything is on the table when you get inked temporarily
Return to form
Watching the world's most elite athletes deliver the best performances of their careers rekindled SONAKSHI SHARMA's own love for sports
Dimple, All Day
YOU MAY HAVE WATCHED HER ON THE BIG SCREEN FOR OVER FIVE DECADES, BUT DON'T MAKE THE MISTAKE OF ASSUMING THAT YOU KNOW DIMPLE KAPADIA.
MUSIC, TAKE CONTROL
As someone who had always sought safety in numbers, ALIZA FATMA often wondered what her own company would feel like. The answer arrived unexpectedly when she attended her first-ever music festival, one of the largest in the world, all alone
Let it grow
When we think of hardworking farmers toiling in India's scorching heat, we often think of men, the sweat on their brow, the sinews in their arms. JYOTI KUMARI speaks to four women who are championing the invisible female labour that keeps these fields running
YOU'LL NEVER WALK ALONE
When armless archer Sheetal Devi set her sights on the Paralympic Games this year, she knew she had a tough journey ahead of her. Luckily, her mother was with her every step of the way.
Beauty and the feast
The appeal of Indian weddings has always been in a sprawling spread. For additional bragging rights, Aditi Dugar recommends going beyond designer tablecloths and monogrammed napkins.
Sweet serendipity
From a scavenger hunt-inspired proposal to a Moroccan-themed baraat, Malvika Raj and Armaan Rai's love story prioritised playfulness throughout their blended celebrations.