Fan is a 2016 Indian Hindi-language psychological action thriller film directed by Maneesh Sharma and produced by Aditya Chopra under his banner Yash Raj Films. It stars Shah Rukh Khan in a dual role as Aryan Khanna, a film star, and his obsessive fan and lookalike, Gaurav Chandna. Gaurav beats up a rival actor to appease Aryan, but is instead punished by his idol; heartbroken, the fan plans revenge.
Sharma had originally conceived the idea of Fan in 2006 and narrated the story to Chopra, who advised him against the challenging project for his directorial debut. In the same year, Yash Chopra narrated it to Shah Rukh, who expressed interest in being part of the project. The project was revived in late 2013, and Shah Rukh underwent 3D scanning in 2014. Principal photography began in July 2014 and was concluded in November 2015. Fan was a songless film; a soundtrack album consisting of a marketing song in different languages was composed by Vishal–Shekhar and the original score was composed by Andrea Guerra.
Fan was heavily marketed; it was released internationally on 15 April 2016 after several delays. The film opened to mixed-to-positive reviews from critics, who praised Khan's performance, the visual effects, and action sequences, but criticised the screenplay. At the 63rd Filmfare Awards, Fan received the Filmfare Award for Best Special Effects.
Plot Gaurav Chandna is a Delhi-based hardcore and obsessive fan of Bollywood superstar Aryan Khanna. He harbors a crush on Neha, his friend, and neighbor who works at a call center. Gaurav's face bears an uncanny resemblance to Aryan's, which helps him win the local talent show by impersonating Aryan. Encouraged by his parents, he embarks on a train journey to Mumbai to meet Aryan and present him with the trophy won by impersonating him.
When Sid Kapoor, an actor, expresses harsh sentiments about Aryan to the press, an infuriated Gaurav beats him up. He makes him apologize to Aryan while he records it and the video is uploaded to the Internet. He sends a copy of the video to Aryan as his birthday gift. When Aryan sees the video, he gets Gaurav arrested and he is mercilessly beaten in jail, where Aryan angrily reprimands him, declaring that Gaurav is not his fan and that he had Gaurav arrested. Gaurav asks for five minutes of Aryan's time, at which Aryan scoffs at giving the fan even five seconds. Devastated, Gaurav returns home and burns all of his Aryan memorabilia, and sells his Internet cafe, vowing revenge against Aryan for turning away his fan.
A year later in London, Gaurav goes to Madame Tussauds, impersonating Aryan and purposely creating havoc, which leads to Aryan being arrested by the police. Released on bail, Aryan receives a call from Gaurav, who reveals what he did and offers to stop troubling Aryan if he apologizes. Aryan refuses, and Gaurav disguises himself as a crew member on Aryan's show where he is scheduled to perform at the wedding of a billionaire's daughter in Dubrovnik, Croatia. After performing a dance show, Aryan receives a cue card with the message "Say sorry" and realizes that Gaurav is nearby. Meanwhile, Gaurav poses as Aryan and molests one of the female guests. The host berates Aryan and asks him to leave the event. Outside, Aryan spots Gaurav and chases after him, though Gaurav escapes. The molestation incident is reported by the media, resulting in a tarnished reputation and boycotts of Aryan's shows.
Gaurav escalates things further. He invades Aryan's home in India and vandalizes his trophy collection, even frightening his wife and children. In response, Aryan visits Gaurav's parents in Delhi and meets Neha. With their help, Aryan impersonates Gaurav at the local talent show; he declares Gaurav's love to Neha and tells about Gaurav's acts, to the ire of the audience.
This provokes Gaurav, who shoots at Aryan with a gun. Aryan again chases after Gaurav and subdues him after a bloody fighting. Enraged, Aryan asks Gaurav to give up impersonating him and live a normal life. Gaurav responds by telling Aryan that he has destroyed his life and reminds him that he still has not apologized. Gaurav flings himself off the roof, dying with a smile. Aryan's name is cleared from all the controversies, but the ordeal haunts him, and his name is forever linked with Gaurav's, both in his mind and in the eyes of the public. On his next birthday, Aryan goes out to the roof to greet his fans. When he is about to turn to go back inside, he sees a haunting glimpse of Gaurav among the crowd, smiling up at him, upon which he turns back to the crowd with greater respect and appreciation.
Cast The cast is listed below. Shah Rukh Khan in a dual role as Aryan Khanna, a film star Gaurav Chandna, Aryan's obsessive fan and lookalike Harsh Kumar as Teenager Gaurav Rian Gupta as Child Gaurav Shriya Pilgaonkar as Neha Singh, Gaurav's crush Waluscha De Sousa as Bella Khanna, Aryan's wife Sayani Gupta as Sunaina, Aryan's manager Yogendra Tikku as Mr. Chandna, Gaurav's father Deepika Amin as Mrs. Chandna, Gaurav's mother Taher Shabbir as Sid Kapoor, Aryan's rival Indraneel Bhattacharya as Akhtar, Aryan's lawyer Parveen Kaur as Aunty, a Train passenger Megha Gupta as Payal Amarjeet Singh as a Show Host Shikha Malhotra as News anchor Mohit Bagri as Dhruv Khanna, Aryan and Bella's son Namit as Naresh Bhutiani Bianca Colaco as Ishaa Khanna, Aryan and Bella's daughter Digvijay Rohildas as Aryan's bodyguard Prashant Walde Niranjan Asrani as Mumbai Police Commissioner T. Rampal
Production
Development and casting After serving as an assistant director in the Yash Raj Films productions Fanaa and Aaj Nachle, Maneesh Sharma narrated the story of Fan to Aditya Chopra in 2006. Chopra felt that the film was too ambitious and expensive for a debut and advised him to abandon the idea, after which Sharma took up Band Baaja Baaraat. Yash Chopra narrated the story to Shah Rukh Khan in 2006, and Khan became interested in the project. The idea of Fan came from Sharma's observation of the desires and fans' expectations of the celebrities they admired. Sharma felt that the concept hadn't been greatly explored in cinema.
On 16 December 2013, Yash Raj Films announced the project with Shah Rukh Khan as the main lead and Sharma as the director. The project was discussed for over a year before Shah Rukh agreed to sign the film. On 25 March 2014, it was announced that Greg Cannom would develop the look of Shah Rukh in the film and be responsible for the prosthetic makeup. Khan underwent 3D scanning for his look as a young boy. Though it had at one time been reported that Shah Rukh was scheduled to play a 17-year-old boy in the film, Khan later denied the claim. Shah Rukh started working on the film before the release of his previous venture, Happy New Year, and underwent a makeover for the film. According to Shah Rukh, Fan is a "family" film. He wanted to do an "intense yet commercially viable film".
Amid speculation, Shah Rukh confirmed the film would have two heroines, but added that the film "did not require a big female star". Model Waluscha de Sousa played an important role in the film. She was cast following an audition with Shanoo Sharma. Ileana D'Cruz, Vaani Kapoor, and Parineeti Chopra were each considered for the role of Aryan's wife before de Sousa was cast. She had previously acted with Khan in a few commercials. The film also marked the debut acting role of Shriya Pilgaonkar, the daughter of Sachin Pilgaonkar, who had an important role in Fan. She was selected after an audition. The screenplay and dialogues were written by Sharat Katariya and Habib Faisal respectively. Manu Anand and Namrata Rao were hired as the cinematographer and editor, respectively. Parveen Shaikh and Oh Sea Young served as the film's action directors. Sayani Gupta, Deepika Amin, and Yogendra Tiku were also confirmed to play supporting roles in the film. Gupta was chosen after Shanoo was impressed with her performance in Margarita with a Straw.
Filming and post-production
Principal photography began in July 2014. The film was shot in Mumbai, Dubrovnik, London and Delhi. In October 2014, Shah Rukh reported that he had finished shooting a 20-day schedule for Fan. Parts of the film were shot outside Shah Rukh's residence in Mannat. In April 2015, Fan became the first film to shoot at the Madame Tussauds in London. Khan's statue was temporarily moved to the London Eye for filming. In February 2015, Khan was spotted shooting in the Delhi neighbourhood. Filming continued in Dubrovnik despite Khan suffering a knee injury while filming an action sequence. India Today reported that Shah Rukh was back in Mumbai in April. Khan simultaneously shot for Dilwale and Raees along with Fan.
Shah Rukh was injured again when he travelled back to Mumbai. In November, Shah Rukh revealed that the film used dialogues from his previous ventures, one being Baazigar. On 16 November 2015, Khan returned to Delhi for additional filming. In November 2015, it was announced that the filming of the project was complete. In January 2016, the filming visual of the song "Jabra Fan" was revealed. The song was shot in the streets of Delhi.
For dubbing the role of Gaurav, Shah Rukh had to modulate his voice. Along with visual effects, prosthetics were used to make Shah Rukh seem younger. The production was made on an estimated budget of ₹850 million. Produced by Chopra under the banner Yash Raj Films, which also distributed the film, its final cut ran for 142 minutes.
Music
Fan was a songless film. The film features an original score composed by Italian composer Andrea Guerra, whereas the soundtrack of Fan consisted of a promotional track that was not included in the film, which was composed by Vishal–Shekhar with lyrics written by Varun Grover. The first song "Jabra Fan", was released as a single track on 1 February 2016. It was recorded in multiple languages, and released as a part of the soundtrack on 29 February under the YRF Music label. It also includes the trailer theme music and a remixed mashup of "Jabra Fan".
Marketing Shah Rukh's house was graffiti-painted as a promotional strategy. The logo of the film, the first of its kind with a collage of pictures of Shah Rukh's real fans, was released on 23 October 2015. The makers released a 2-minute teaser for the film on Shah Rukh Khan's birthday on 2 November 2015. This was followed by a teaser poster, that released five days later. A music video of the song "Jabra Fan", released on 1 February 2016 for promotional purposes. The official trailer of Fan was released on 29 February 2016 and was viewed 4 million times on the Internet in the first 24 hours. The 3-minute video later garnered over 20 million views on YouTube with more than 170 thousand likes, a record for a Bollywood film. A game based on the film was in development by 99Games in February 2016 and released in 2017. A contest titled 'Tu Nahi Samjega' was organized by Yash Raj Films.
Release Fan was scheduled for release in late 2014 or early 2015, but owing to the injuries sustained by Shah Rukh during the filming of Happy New Year, the film's release date was postponed to 14 August 2015. The complex post-production visual-effects work further pushed the release of Fan to early 2016. After several delays, the film was released on 15 April 2016 in 3,500 screens in India and about 1,100 screens abroad. It was produced on a budget of and an additional was spent on publicity, for a combined cost of approximately . The studio recouped part of their investment before release by selling the satellite rights to Sony Pictures Networks at around .
Reception
India