Cricketers and their Bollywood equivalents
Yes, De Villiers has a Bollywood equivalent actorOf the countless parallels that are being drawn in this whole wide world every passing day, the handful that compare cricketers with Bollywood actors lack rationale and hence, explanation. It is a job of much cumbersomeness to validate the choices in the post concerned that merely slaps one picture against another and sells it as an article.For the imaginative mind, even Salman Khan can propose to be Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s equivalent although the former’s crap chartbusters are far removed from the Indian captain’s calm, calculated success stories.It takes a lot of justification and well-researched rationalization to offer similarities between two entirely different fields as cricket and acting especially when the criterion is reduced to just the Bollywood industry.This author, therefore, pleads merciful treatment as he attempts to enlist seven cricketers and their Bollywood counterparts, stating his reasons every time.
#1 Harbhajan Singh and Shah Rukh Khan
Harbhajan Singh’s exploits as a front-line spinner for India are well documented in the reviews of all the matches he has won for the team. The 2001 Kolkata Test in the series against Australia that fetched him 32 wickets, for instance, remains a fine example of what he was capable of on his day during the early 2000s.
Come 2011, and a string of poor performances struck him out of the selectors’ list after the English tour. In spite of the lack of credible performances, his supporters continued to clamor for his inclusion in the teams against Australia, West Indies and the Asia Cup.
He failed to make the most of his limited opportunities whenever he got them and gradually fell behind the likes of Ravichandran Ashwin and Amit Mishra.
For those growing up in the 90s, Shah Rukh Khan is a cult figure in acting. Having performed in more than 80 films and earned numerous accolades and awards, the purported King of Bollywood has now reduced to nothing more than an eyesore performing in films that defy logic, science and common sense.
SRK rose to prominence in the second half of the 90s with films like ‘DDLJ’ and ‘Kuch Kuch Hota Hai’ and continued to dominate the industry right through the 2000s with critically acclaimed movies like ‘Devdas’, ‘Swades’, ‘Chak De! India’ and ‘My Name is Khan’.
Once the very face of Indian entertainment, his decline began with ‘Ra.One’ - a film that was more than a hundred rungs below his own standard - and continued with Rohit Shetty’s ‘Chennai Express’ and Farah Khan’s ‘Happy New Year’.
However, despite his terrible performances of late, SRK continues to enjoy the same amount of fan-following, much like Harbhajan. If present shortcomings being overshadowed with past laurels were to be a criterion for a parallel, this would be it.