Shah Rukh Khan to make a guest appearance in Youngistaan?

While all the shooting of debutant director Syed Ahmed Afzal’s Youngistaan featuring Jackky Bhagnani as a young dynamic Prime Minister is nearly complete, one crucial sequence remains to be filmed. It’s a scene featuring Shah Rukh Khan. An integral part of the script, the scene was written into the plot from its inception. Apparently the film’s Prime Minister protagonist’s girlfriend, played by Neha Sharma, is a diehard Shah Rukh Khan fan. The scene requires the very dynamic Prime Minister to arrange a quiet surprise meeting between his girlfriend and her celluloid crush. In fact the scene to feature Jackky, Neha, and Jackky’s screen-mentor Farooque Sheikh was shot without Shah Rukh just before Farouque’s death. Says a source, “Shah Rukh’s scene in Youngistaan is compulsory. He comes in at a crucial moment in the plot for a cute cameo. So sure were producer Vashu Bhagnani and his leading man Jackky of getting Shah Rukh for the role that they shot the sequence on Farouque’s insistence just before his death. The scene was done with the idea of filling in Shah Rukh’s shots later.” Alarmingly the film’s release is now a month away. Shah Rukh is yet to find the time to do the scene. Says the source, “Vashu and Shah Rukh share a warm rapport. In fact Shah Rukh generously gave Vashu the title Rangrezz which was the property of Shah Rukh’s production house. There is no doubt that Shah Rukh wants to do the needful. But the dates are a problem.” It is at the moment unclear how the SRK factor would pan out in Youngistaan. Producer Vashu Bhagnani says, “Yes, there is a scene where a major superstar is to appear. But I can’t confirm who he is until it happens.” Earlier Dibakar Bannerjee had written a cameo especially for Ranbir Kapoor playing himself in Bombay Talkies. After waiting till the final hours before release Dibakar had to shoot the scene with a duplicate. A similar no-show happened when Emraan Hashmi was to appear as himself in Tigmanshu Dhulia’s Bullett Raja. In sharp contrast the Big B very generously played himself in a Kannada film Amrithadhare in which a hero had to fulfill his dying wife’s last wish to meet the Big B. The Big B not only readily agreed to play the role—his only appearance in a South Indian film—he refused to charge any money for the friendly appearance. Shah Rukh Khan has done the maximum number of cameos and “friendly appearances” to help out friends and aspirants. In all he has done cameo appearances in 26 films so far. Youngistaan should be Shah Rukh Khan’s 27th guest appearance.