A Bollywood superstar just delivered the next viral TED talk
Shah Rukh Khan is a certifiable Bollywood superstar, with over 80 films and hundreds of millions of fans to his name. On Thursday, he gave a talk at the 2017 TED conference that touched on everything from his reputation as the "King of Romance" to the ways that the world has changed since the introduction of the internet.
It was a sprawling talk. And while he wasn't as tightly focused as some others throughout the event, Khan turned out to be the funniest speaker of TED 2017 thus far. The talk will undoubtedly have a huge audience when it hits the internet. Some of his choice (and very quotable) quotes:
- "Humanity is a lot like me. It's an aging movie star, grappling with all the newness, wondering whether she got it right."
- On the internet: "We had expected an expansion of ideas and dreams; we had not bargained for the enclosure of judgment."
- "You can use your energy to spread the darkness of destruction or you can use it to spread the joy of light to millions."
- "I looked at my face and realized I am starting to look more and more like my wax statue at Madame Tussauds."
It wasn't just the audience inside the Vancouver Convention Center that enjoyed Khan's talk. His 24 million Twitter fans started a trending hashtag on the site (#SRKLiveAtTEDTalks). Khan's local Canadian fans also showed up outside the convention center.
There was an ulterior motive for getting Khan on the TED stage. Later in 2017, he'll host a TV version of TED talks in India, called Nayi Soch (New Thinking).