SRK lookalike Ibrahim Qadri: Want to meet the superstar once

Growing up in the small town of Junagadh, Gujarat, hoarding painter Ibrahim Qadri was told by virtually everyone who met him: ‘You look like Shah Rukh Khan!” To add to things, he would sport Khan’s hairstyle from Deewana (1992). And the SRK fan, who has gone viral for his resemblance to the star, has since graduated to posting pictures on social media and attending events.

“I didn’t pay much heed initially. But, in 2017 when I visited Mumbai for the first time, being a huge fan of Shah Rukh bhai I went to Mannat (SRK’s house in Mumbai, India) to catch a glimpse of him, and got mobbed outside his place. The crowd started gathering around me and his security was trying to protect me from SRK’s fans! It was only then that I realised how true it had been all along,” says Qadri, recalling how he then began dressing like SRK in real life, and later, he started participating in shows and events all around the country.

“When I came out of the cinema hall after watching Raees (2017), I was sporting the same beard as Shah Rukh bhai, and everyone started staring at me… After that I began working on my physique and my looks. Everything about me was different, and while people say it’s easy to copy someone, to be like SRK in real life is very different. So I started posting videos and photos, even recited SRK’s dialogues, and it’s through social media that I’ve received this amount of love,” adds Qadri, sharing how life is when playing the part of a megastar’s duplicate. “I’m from a small town where there are no acting opportunities, or even places where I could have learnt how to deliver dialogues. While bhai would wear branded clothes, I would make do with copies,” he quips, adding, “But I’ve always believed that my skill was more important than how I looked; so I put in a lot of effort to be as true to his characters as I can.”

Qadri has sure found a loyal fan following, thanks to social media, and even receives acting offers for ads and web series, alongside many proposals for marriage as well! But that’s not what he dreams. He confesses, “I don’t plan for the future, I simply live in the present. I never wanted to be an actor, so that is not on the cards. I just plan to continue doing events, many of which got cancelled amid the pandemic, so I’m working on my craft.” But there’s one thing that he surely dreams of: “I want to meet him once, and shake hands with him! I am a huge fan of SRK’s acting and how he carries himself. He has had such a huge influence on my life. Outside Mannat, I got a slight taste of how larger than life his existence is, and I experienced that simply because I resemble him.”

Author tweets @bhagat_mallika

Follow more stories on Facebook and Twitter