SRK is hit with his six pack

And it won't be long before his pictures from his forthcoming movie Om Shanti Om adorn the gyms perhaps replacing the current pictures of Pocket Hercules, Salman Khan or perhaps the non-smoker John Abraham.

The man who came chasing his love Gauri Chibba to Mumbai, also pursued his celluloid obsession to the city of dreams and reached the top with a singular mission of doing so.

From wielding a hockey stick during his college days to doing so in the recent Chak De India , King Khan as he is popularly known, has oscillated between the out and out entertainers to message-oriented movies in recent times.

His last release also is knocking on the doors of a national award for the actor even as the title song of the film has gone on to be a sporting anthem.

Cut to Circa 1985. The actor wasn't the quintessential goodlooker or didn't have a father making movies to launch him.

The actor considered a go-getter right from the days of his theatre days, got along with a bunch of friends right from television days. Incidentally, his first television serial Fauji was directed by a gentleman called Colonel Raj Kapoor.

Khan, who landed sharp for a 6 am audition, was strong enough to survive a strenuous backpack run and a punching exercise — enough to get the role of Abhimanyu Rai, and the hero Vikram Rai's brother in the series. But SRK and the camera fell in love with each other and Abhimanyu Rai's character soon transmuted into the lead role.

Khan hasn't looked back since then with hits like Deewana, Darr, Baazigar, Karan Arjun and Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge placing him right up there among the greats.

In the early 90s, SRK rose to power with Darr , Baazigar and Anjaam as the second angry young man after Amitabh Bachchan when the nation was tormented by communal turbulence.

He then added fresh doses of love to his huge youth following and in Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge taught them ideals by refusing to run away with his lover till her family approved of their relationship — much like his real life ballad.

Darr and DDLJ got him to be a regular with the Chopras, and filmmaker Karan Johar says that he cannot imagine a script without Shah Rukh. Almost every filmmaker worth his salt has a script ready to cast Shah Rukh in.

Gutsy enough to pick on a negative role in Darr when many including Aamir Khan preferred to opt out, Shah Rukh has moved from strength to strength doing cinema that is populist as well as experimental. Films like Maya Memsaab, Asoka, Paheli or serials like Mani Kaul's The Idiot and In Which Annie Gives It To Those Ones with Arundhati Roy prove his passion to be a part of good cinema as well.

Box office juggernauts like Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Dil To Pagal Hai, Kabhie Khushi Kabhie Gham, Kal Ho Na Ho, Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna, Veer Zaara , have only consolidated his status as the biggest entertainer of the new millennium.

Fans of Shah Rukh Khan who loved the character of Mohan Bhargav in Swades modelled on Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi had just finished nominating him as the youth icon for a popular music channel.

Khan was also gutsy enough to take on the role of Emperor Ashoka in Santosh Sivan's Asoka which he even produced and tried to take it to the Oscars but lost out to a good enough candidate, Lagaan .

Beneath the veneer humour that the Khan exudes at times is a stylish and elegant man who loves dressing up, a man who loves success and has enough ability to back the desire.

How else can one explain the several endorsements that the man has been able to do with élan and remain at the top of the cinemabiz for a decade now?

Answers, anyone?

S Ramachandran, TNN