Shah Rukh Khan accused of plagiarism, actor’s Chief Digital Strategist defends

Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan is known for his references to his struggles in his past life in his speeches. But the case was a little different when he did the same thing at the All India Management Association (AIMA) conference held in September. According to Bangalore-based social media consultant Agratha Dinakaran, his speech had a lot of resemblances to author J.K. Rowling’s 2008-speech at Harvard University. But while making the accusation Dinakaran had no clue that she has missed the credit which the star had given to the author in his speech, as defended by SRK’s Chief Digital Strategist Shailja.

The famous author of the Harry Potter saga Rowling has undergone several miseries in her life like poverty, unsuccessful marriage, professional failures and her emerging taste of success in her life. She spoke about her life in detail in his speech at the Harvard five years ago. Rowling referred to poverty as not at all an`ennobling experience` adding that, "Poverty entails fear, and stress, and sometimes depression; it means a thousand petty humiliations and hardships." Rowling further added,“Happiness lies in knowing that life is not a check-list of acquisition or achievement. Your qualifications, your CV, are not your life, though you will meet many people of my age and older who confuse the two. Life is difficult, and complicated, and beyond anyone`s total control, and the humility to know that will enable you to survive its vicissitudes." Shah Rukh in his last month’s speech said, "Let me tell you, poverty is not an ennobling experience at all. Poverty entails fear and stress and sometimes, depression. I`ve seen my parents go through it many times - it means a thousand petty humiliations and hardships."

Resembling Rowling’s speech the superstar also said, "I`d like to tell you all that life is not just a checklist of acquisitions, attainments and fulfilments. Your qualifications and CVs don`t matter, your jobs don`t matter. Instead, life is difficult and complicated and beyond your control, and to know that with humility, respecting your failures will help you survive its vicissitudes." Dinakaran was the first one to detect the similarity between the two speeches and through her blog ‘MeLaNGe’ she alleged that SRK has copied Rowling’s speech titled 'The Fringe Benefits of Failure and the Importance of Imagination.' Shailja came forward in defence of Shah Rukh saying the actor has definitely given his credit to the author and has not randomly picked some words from the original speech. In her defensive blog Shailja clarified, "In the beginning of the speech SRK starts with "Let me forewarn you, this is a recycled speech. Whenever I am called to give speeches at ypo or some such big organisation...I use this speech. Its generic...simple...and makes me give no commitment in our first meeting. Somewhat like the corporate world itself." While proving Agratha’s allegations wrong, Shailja also mentioned her meeting with a fan at the YPO who spoke about SRK’s credit to the author, "I reached out to the fan who was present at the YPO and she cited an anecdote, "Mr Khan had made a joke about the word 'vicissitudes'...and said jokingly "It's J K Rowling, I have problems saying such big words....but did it to impress the smart ones gathered there." Now we hope SRK keeps out of further controversies regarding these kinds of plagiarism issues in future.