Shah Rukh Khan's 'FAN' Copied From Robert De Niro's 1996 Psychological Thriller 'The Fan'?

The first trailer of Bollywood's superstar Shah Rukh Khan starring Maneesh Sharma's psycho-thriller film, FAN, has given goosebumps to all the real life fans of Shah Rukh. But from the trailer, it looks like that the flick is inspired by Robert De Niro's 1996 psychological thriller film, The Fan.

In FAN, Shah Rukh will be seen portraying the double role -- Aryan Khanna, the superstar from Bollywood and Gaurav, the crazy fan of Aryan. The released trailer looks promising as it does not follow the normal fan-meet-star story. Whereas it gives a feel of Stephen King's Misery where a fan stalks his/her idol and the love turns into obsession.

According to a report from DNA India, the film is not totally about what Gaurav will say when he will meet his superstar. But the film takes some different twists when they both will indulge in fights. A source close to Khan and the production team was quoted as saying:

"Fan is not just about the love of the fan for his favorite superstar. In the film, eventually Gaurav and Aryan are pitted against each other and it's the superstar who plays the nemesis to the fan."

FAN's trailer starts with Gaurav and shows us how much he loves Aryan. As the trailer progresses, we see that his love has turned into a lethal obsession when the star starts to avoid him and rejects him from his own life. The trailer ends with a note when Gaurav is looking deep into Aryan's eyes and saying that, Agar Gaurav hai toh Aryan hai...Agar Gaurav nahi....Toh Aryan Bhi Nahi (If there is Gaurav then there is Aryan and if there is no Gaurav then Aryan has no existence).

Watch Shah Rukh's FAN trailer:

The trailer actually reminded us of Robert's 1996 film, The Fan. The Fan was directed by Tony Scott and starred Robert and Wesley Snipes in the leading roles. According to movie's IMDB page, the movie followed the story of Wesley as a superstar ballplayer for the San Francisco Giants and Robert as a mentally unstable baseball fan of Wesley. In the psychological thriller, Robert's entire existence is based on his support for Wesley and his team, and because of his obsession, he loses his son and his job.

The story takes a shocking turn when Robert goes on to kill Wesley's rivals and starts to act like Wesley's beloved, when his affection it not returned by the latter. The official trailer also ends with a note when Robert's character tells to Wesley's character that "without people like me, you are nothing."

Watch Robert's The Fan trailer:

It is too early to officially comment on the similarities between the two plots but from what we have seen in the trailer. While one of Shah Rukh's character, Aryan, seems to be based on Wesley's character and the other one of the crazy fan, Gaurav, seems to be inspired by Robert's character.

Shah Rukh's FAN is slated for release on April 15, 2016.