Ibrahim Qadri, Shah Rukh Khan’s doppelgänger has opened up on how he has been mobbed several times after people thought he was SRK so much so that his clothes were torn in one such incident.
Sharing a moving note on Humans of Bombay, Ibrahim Qadri said right from his teenage days, he was told that he looked like Shah Rukh Khan after which he too start to learn about the Bollywood superstar to mimic him in real life.
He began the post with these words: “I was never one who paid too much attention to my looks. But my looks were often brought to my attention by my family and friends – ‘You look like Shahrukh Khan!’ My parents were especially proud of the fact that they gave birth to a kid who had an uncanny resemblance to India’s superstar. I couldn’t help the attention I got and frankly, when puberty hit, I started looking exactly like SRK!.”
Much like Shah Rukh Khan fans, Ibrahim too received a whole lot of love and shared anecdotes from it in the post. “And that’s when the madness began; after my friends and I watched Raees, everyone started mobbing me for selfies thinking the real SRK had made an appearance for the film’s premiere,” he wrote citing one instance.
The doorways to love opened wide for Ibrahim Qadri again. It was when he went to watch an IPL match between KKR (Kolkata Knight Riders) and Gujarat Lions in a stadium. He was swamped by fans and even had a cop asking him for a selfie. “Then there was another incident when I went to watch KKR take on Gujarat Lions in the stadium; everyone took out their cameras and waved at me. People clapped and spoke SRK’s famous movie lines at me. I saw how much love people have for SRK, and for the 1st time, I felt like a ‘Badshah’; it was special! But very quickly, I also realized what SRK probably goes through daily; I got swamped and someone held onto me so tight that my t-shirt tore! It got so bad that I had to call the police to be safely taken out of the stadium. And after rescuing me, the cops asked, ‘SRK sir, ek selfie?’,” he wrote sharing the incident.
He added in his piece: “To see people so enthusiastic to meet me everyday made me want to take my SRK persona seriously and become his doppleganger. And so I started watching all his movies and copying his mannerisms. In understanding SRK, I also got mesmerized by how charming, kind and big-hearted our Badshah of Bollywood is. And those are qualities I try to imbibe in myself too.”
Being Shah Rukh Khan’s lookalike also gave Ibrahim a lot of opportunities – he is invited to weddings and other events. “I often get invited to shows and weddings as the ‘special guest’ and I enjoy dancing with crowds to ‘Chaiyya Chaiyya’; to witness people feel special around someone they truly look upto makes me feel that what I do is worth it.”
As much as he enjoys being Shah Rukh Khan’s lookalike, Ibrahim also wants to mark his own identity. “But as much as I respect SRK, I also wish people would look beyond my looks and try to know me as a person too…But the truth is if there was anybody in the world I could choose to look like, my choice would be SRK,” an excerpt from his post read.
Ibrahim signed off the note by writing about the dream he has – that of meeting Shah Rukh Khan someday and would like to thank him “dil se.” He wrote: “It will be a dream come true if one day I get to meet my idol, SRK in person! I’d be speechless if that happened but when I’d get over being starstruck I’d tell him, ‘For always making me laugh, cry, dance, sing and have fun… I thank you. Dil Se.”
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