Here’s Why SRK’s Response to a Beggar Is Hardly Newsworthy

Shah Rukh Khan gave a beggar some food and had the media going crazy over his good deed. What did you expect?

Why does the media sprinkle morality on everything that Shah Rukh Khan says and does? (Photo courtesy: YouTube/Dubai Tourism)

This story about Shah Rukh Khan keeping his hand on a beggar’s head and asking his team to give him food, makes me cringe even more than the fake news about Farida Jalal’s death.

What is the big deal about Shah Rukh Khan asking his bodyguard to buy a beggar some food? Does his gesture pull at the heartstrings of these wannabe journalists, because they usually do the exact opposite? Why would this leave anyone teary-eyed? What else did they expect?

You guys, get a life, really. I’m saying this because if SRK hadn’t done exactly what he did, more on the lines of how you treat beggars, your headlines would have torn him apart. You would have questioned his King Khan status, which by the way, only comes from his box-office success, and not his morality.

All that happened was this - Shah Rukh Khan walked out of a restaurant after a meeting, where he was met with a ton of bright flashlights and a beggar. The man was seen asking the actor for food. Shah Rukh acknowledged him by keeping his hand on his head and asked his bodyguard to arrange a meal for the man. SRK then sits in his car and drives off.

I repeat, what did you expect Shah Rukh to do? Ask his bodyguards to rough the beggar up? Or just ignore the man altogether? What SRK did has got to be the most normal thing for a person to do, irrespective of his celebrity status. If anything at all, being King Khan, he probably had no choice but to live up to that image, especially in the presence of the media.

Anyhow, these headlines make me cringe, simply because they add the unnecessary weight of morality to a gesture that’s simply humane. Did you not expect SRK to even be that?

So the next time something pulls out your emotions into written words, make sure it is actually news worthy. Maybe him taking the beggar along for a home cooked meal, or giving him a lecture about why he shouldn’t be begging in the first place, just might cut it. In the meantime, get a grip. Not everything a celebrity says or does needs your morality sprinkled all over it.