Karan Johar is worried about Shah Rukh's health

By Subhash K Jha

If he had his way he'd have got his shoulder operated on Valentine's Day. But Shah Rukh proposes, the marketing law disposes.

Rather than go on the table to cure his acutely painful shoulder, Shah Rukh chose the Valentine week to promote his new film Billu (Barber) vigorously.

Says a friend of the actor, "After attending the special screening of Billu for barbers and hairdressers in Mumbai on Thursday Shah Rukh flew with Lara Dutta and Irrfan Khan to London for the film's premiere. He's expected back on Sunday and prepare for surgery on Monday (Feb 16)."

This time Shah Rukh has chosen Mumbai for the surgery.

Says the friend, "One wouldn't like to call it a politically correct move. But yes, in the past when he got his vital back surgery done in London there was criticism back home about his lack of faith in the desi doctors. Shah Rukh feels some of the finest doctors in the world are in Mumbai. He sees no need to go westward for treatment."

Full security bandobast is being undertaken for the surgery specially now since there has been some unrest regarding Billu.

It is understood that Shah Rukh will need a month-long healing period. A schedule of Karan Johar's My Name Is Khan is affected.

But Karan is not the least bothered. "Films will keep happening. Shah Rukh needs to be well, " he said.

The next schedule of My Name Is Khan will begin on March 14 when Shah Rukh recovers.

SRK has quick surgery after long delay

Put off since November, shoulder operation completed in 1½ hours
For months, Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan had been putting off a surgery on his shoulder because of his shooting and promotional schedules. He needn’t have worried; the operation was over and done with in one-and-a-half hours at Breach Candy Hospital.

Once it had been completed successfully, he waved and exchanged smiles with his wife. He will wear a sling around his arm for four to six weeks.

SRK (43) had hurt himself on the sets of a film in November last year. He let the surgery wait for fear that it would upset his schedule, much of which involved promoting Billu.

Dr Sanjay Desai, an arthroscopic shoulder specialist, conducted the operation. “The surgery began at 4.30 pm and ended at 6. It went off as planned,” he said. Apart from Dr Desai, the team attending to SRK included Dr Rajiv Sharma, his personal medical adviser and physician, and Dr Ali Irani, physiotherapist at Breach Candy.

SRK had a supraspinatus tear, a condition where the rotator cuff tears and causes inflammation and pain. This restricts movement of the shoulder. He had suffered a supraspinatus partial tear in 2003; the tear became total after the accident.

“He chose to do physiotherapy to strengthen his muscle. However, when he injured himself again in November last year, the partial tear developed into a complete tear, leaving no option but surgery,” Irani said.

“Shah Rukh had done an MRI and a CT scan in Los Angeles and had the choice of having the surgery there. However, he chose to undergo surgery in Mumbai as he had faith in Indian doctors and also wanted to stay with his family,” said Dr Desai.

“He will require 4 to 6 weeks of physiotherapy. Till then his arm will have to be in a sling. It will take 5 to 6 months to completely recover,” said Dr Desai.

SRK returned from London, halted at his house, then went to the hospital with his wife Gauri and friend Karan Johar.

"They have thrown me out and I'm jobless:" Shahrukh

Shahrukh Khan is no longer the brand ambassador of Pepsi. Shahrukh when asked with regards to the same sarcastically stated, "I am no longer a part of their campaign. They have thrown me out and I am jobless now."

Just days back we had reported about Aamir Khan renewing his Coca Cola contract for a whopping Rs.10 crore deal. SRK's contract with Pepsi had got over in 2008 and he was looking forward to a renewed contract with a much higher price as well.

Sources revealed, "The new Youngistaan campaign focuses completely on targeting the younger generation and Shahrukh doesn't seem to fit in that. Ranbir Kapoor, who has already been on the Pepsi brigade shall be spearheading this upcoming campaign. The company however is still in negotiations for working out a deal for Khan's IPL team Kolkata Knight Riders for the upcoming season but it appears unlikely that he will go in for it."

Pepsi had earlier dropped their cricket star ambassadors Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Saurav Ganguly. They had very recently shot ads with new entrant Ishant Sharma along with Dhoni and Sehwag.

Dish TV renews contract with Shah Rukh Khan

Dish TV has extended its endorsement contract with Shah Rukh Khan for another 18 months. Dish TV, which leads the DTH category in the country, had signed up with Shah Rukh Khan in '07 to endorse its service. According to Dish TV officials, the service has a base of 4.85 million subscribers. Rival Tata Sky too uses Aamir Khan extensively in its advertising.

As reported by ET last week, Shah Rukh tops the list of celebrity endorsements on TV according to a new Tam AdEx report.

The economic slowdown seems to have had a positive rub-off on the DTH industry, as people have started restricting their entertainment bills and going out less. In the July-September '08 period, the DTH industry was adding six lakh subscribers per month, but the base jumped to one million in the October-December period.


"The DTH sector is witnessing explosive growth and Dish TV is fully equipped with key resources to maintain its leadership position in this growth phase. We have posted robust numbers in Q3 FY09 and are set to garner 8 million subscribers in next fiscal," Dish TV COO Salil Kapoor said.

Dish TV has added 7.89 lakh subscribers in the Q3 FY '09 compared to 5.29 lakh new subscribers in the previous quarter, registering an increase of 49%.

'It’s not great to be Shah Rukh Khan’

Shah Rukh Khan, inspite of nursing an injured shoulder lacked no energy as he answered every question shot at him by journalists about Aamir Khan with aplomb. We present you few of SRK’s most smashing quotes targeted towards Aamir.

Clad in a cool worn out jeans and tee was Shah Rukh Khan, the darling of millions of his fans who thronged his house Mannat in Bandra and even Taj Lands End where he was supposed to be present for this event. Once SRK entered, one couldn’t help but wonder how does a 43-year-old star who is suffering from an injured shoulder gather this humungous amount of energy! The silver shoes and silver stole he sported made for a sexy style statement and soon came the time for the Baadshah to break his prolonged silence on Aamir and the not so flattering comments he had made on SRK.

We present you SRK at his naughtiest best!

When asked about Aamir calling SRK manipulative and only good with PR but not marketing, the Baadshah retorted, “This statement doesn’t require any explanation of me. I do what I do and I don’t need to get anybody else’s suggestions on what I do. I don’t take it too seriously when people compliment me and same goes for criticism. People who work with me know who I am and what I do, people like me and that’s why you see me everywhere. I don’t make films to prove to anyone. I’ve been working for the past 22 years and never have I felt the need to answer to anyone. The comments that Aamir made were out of context and I will talk to him personally about it.”

Talking about blogs he again taunted Aamir by saying, “People anyways think I am a narcissist so if I start a blog or a website it will reinforce their opinion. Jokes apart, after my shoulder operation, I am thinking of starting a website where I will not promote my films or write what food I ate but write about zindagi (life). Also I don’t really feel the need to have a blog as the media conveys all my messages to my fans anyways. I was in fact the first to start a blog but since it was ahead of its time, it didn’t click with the readers.”

SRK’s final reaction to Aamir’s statement was the most entertaining. He said, “It’s not great to be SRK, anyone can be great provided they retain their identity. My films are also ordinary but people have made them extra-ordinary. I am not a good PR person, neither a good media person; I am just a fantastic person.”

Now that’s the SRK we love.