303 days, 303 mails, and the wait continues. That, in brief, is the story of my mission to Meet My Hero.
Posing and clicking photographs in front of Mannat, Shah Rukh Khan’s house in Mumbai, is how close I got to my dream last year. Since then, I have been writing to him every single day, wishing with all my heart that my prayer is answered.
When I visited Mumbai with my parents in December 2023, Mannat was a must-stop. I waited in vain for a glimpse of King Khan before satisfying myself with a few clicks in front of the name plate. Moments after we had left the place, my mother saw on social media that SRK had stepped out to wave at his fans that day. My heart broke but I became all the more determined to find a way to meet him.
Ahan in front of Mannat during his visit to Mumbai in 2023
The same day we also went to Jalsa, Amitabh Bachchan’s home, and were able to spot Big B, of whom my father is a big fan. As I sulked, my father said, “Why would he (Shah Rukh) meet you? He has several fans like you. Do something big in life, be a person of importance. Then maybe, one day, SRK will want to meet you.”
Ahan posing like SRK in Mumbai
I was disappointed but these words rang in my ears. Back in Kolkata, I kept wondering ‘I am only 14, what can I do to meet Shah Rukh Khan?’.
Then I came across another SRK fan on social media, Aakash Pillay, who met his idol after waiting outside Mannat for several days. Every day after work, he would sit outside his hero’s home with a placard in hand that had a countdown of days he had been waiting. Finally, on Day 30, his wish was fulfilled. As SRK would say, Kisi cheez ko dil se chaho … to puri kainaat usse tumse milane ki koshish mein lag jaati hai.
Ahan celebrated his hero's birthday on November 2
But could I do the same from Kolkata? The answer was ‘no’. My father suggested that I write to him, requesting him to spare some time to meet me. I got the mail ID of his secretary Pooja Dadlani and that’s when my mail trail began with the subject ‘Meeting my hero’. Since then, it has been 303 days and I have never missed writing to him a single day. The mails are mostly 2-3 lines but on special occasions like his birthday, I write a longer mail.
A screenshot of a recent mail
When my friends heard about this mail trail, they laughed and said nothing would come of it. The mails would probably land up in the spam folder or get buried in the sea of fan mail that he must be receiving every day.
But I am hopeful. I may be just another fan, but for me he isn’t just another movie star.
As told to Jaismita Alexander