'Eternals' star Kumail Nanjiani: 'Shah Rukh Khan is a God, he is not a movie star'

Actor and comedian Kumail Nanjiani is in the news for his new stand-up comedy special 'Night Thoughts'. While on a chat with fellow comedian Hasan Minhaj the actor got candid about his love for Indain movies and Shah Rukh Khan. During a conversation with Minhaj on his YouTube channel, he drew clear distinction between Bollywood icons and Hollywood superstars. During the chat, Minhaj asked Nanjiani, “Who is a better movie star, Shah Rukh Khan or Tom Cruise?” Nanjiani responded, “Shah Rukh Khan is a God, he is not a movie star.”The actor went on to explain, “Can I tell you why this superpower is at a whole other level. We’re comparing apples to oranges. Once again, the mastery of Urdu as a language, which is simultaneously the biggest movie star in the world, which is a very American, individual thing. But it is the humility factor,” he said.Nanjiani went on to share his thoughts about Khan’s public persona and compared it to Cruise's 'movie star' appeal. He shared, “I must say, I watched interviews with Shah Rukh Khan, a whole lot. Tom Cruise will come out with his movie star shades, Shah Rukh Khan will come out and say, ‘Oh! I’m nothing’. Obviously, he knows that’s not true, but that he is so confident in his movie star-ness that he actively downplays it.”Minhaj and Nanjiani also noted how Khan, being a leading man in Bollywood, was not afraid to take up negative roles in his career. Kumail said, “He is also a very versatile actor. He was also the first lead actor to start playing complicated bad guys. Like Kiran, Daar. I think he was sort of a bad guy in those, which was interesting."The Pakistani-born actor went on to explain the cultural significance of cinema in India, and how America would never experience something like that. He said, “What people don’t understand here (America) is what movies are to India, they are not to people here. There, it is such a big part of the culture, the people who are movie stars are gods, they are kings,” he said and added, “The Bollywood movies are, you know, you spend 5 hours in a theatre, that’s your whole day. The reverence people have there for their movies, America has never had.”Further explaining the nature of Indian cinema, he said, “It’s about entertaining people. If you look at a normal masala movie, it has action, drama, romance, comedy, songs. Every movie is everything."Kumail Nanjiani, in his turn in Marvel's 'Eternals', played the role of a Bollywood movie star named Kingo. At the time, he revealed that he drew inspiration from actors like Hrithik Roshan and John McClane to give his character an action-hero and Bollywood star appeal. The film also featured an elaborate Bollywood-style song-and-dance number, making it a first in the MCU.