Film

Fan

Name: Fan
Genre: Action, Adventure, Thriller
Released: 2016
Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Amin, Yogendra Tiku, Shriya Pilgaonkar, Sayani Gupta

Drama
Relentless

Shah Rukh Khan plays two roles in this dark thriller about obsession and ego: a man consumed by his idol worship and the megastar who ignores him. It's a stylish, propulsive film that uses the mechanics of stardom—distance, reflection, the gap between persona and person—to build genuine tension. For anyone interested in how celebrity works, or what happens when admiration curdles into rage.

TMDb rating

3.1

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you enjoy a stalker thriller where a fan's devotion curdles into menace, and you don't mind a star playing both the obsessive and the idol.

Skip it if you want a tidy, feel-good star vehicle; at 138 minutes with its thriller mechanics front and center, it is a long, grim ride with little room to breathe.

What it asks of you: Sit through a full two and a half hours of sustained tension, with few quiet pauses, and keep track of who is watching whom throughout.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

The Fan1981

Michael Boorman's masterpiece about a stalker spiraling into violent fantasy over a reclusive actress. One of cinema's best explorations of how obsession lives in the mind before it ever reaches the world. Quietly devastating.

But A 1981 film moves at a different pace than you're used to. Some will find it slow; others will find that slowness is exactly where the dread lives.

Play Misty for Me1971

Clint Eastwood's directorial debut about a radio DJ and the unhinged woman whose call won't stop. Compressed, tight, and genuinely frightening—it nails the moment when attraction becomes a threat you can't escape.

But Made in 1971, so the gender politics aren't subtle. Some viewers will bristle at the shape of the story, even if the filmmaking is excellent.

Bodyguard2011

Hindi thriller with a different spin: Salman Khan as the protector obsessed with his charge, power dynamics weaponized from the inside. Great action and a nastier emotional undercurrent than you'd expect from the marketing.

But Bollywood plotting sometimes takes precedence over character logic. You have to meet it halfway on how it arranges its revelations.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Fan

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Singin' in the Rain1952

Both films are about the gap between the star and the person; both use the mechanics of performance and artifice to explore identity. One loves what it's looking at; the other hates it. Together they're a conversation about the same mirror.

Gene Kelly and Donald O'Connor are dancers playing actors in 1920s Hollywood—a film obsessed with the machinery of stardom, the gap between performer and person, and how fame manufactures distance. It's joyful where Fan is dark, but both see the same architecture underneath.

But A musical from the '50s. If you're expecting modernity or cynicism, this will feel gentle and even naive. Its pleasures require patience with an older language of cinema.

One Hour Photo2002

Robin Williams playing against type as a photo lab technician whose ordinary life is entirely constructed around a family he doesn't know. Eerie, sympathetic, horrible. A masterclass in making the viewer complicit in someone's delusion.

But Slow-moving and deeply uncomfortable. Williams's intensity makes it feel darker than the plot alone would suggest. Not a comfort watch.

Nightcrawler2014

Jake Gyllenhaal as a man who remakes himself into what he believes success demands, then discovers the only rules that apply are the ones he makes. Relentless social commentary wrapped in a crime thriller. Absolutely alive.

But The protagonist is genuinely repellent, and the film won't let you look away or feel good about what you're watching. It's exhausting by design.

Taxi Driver1976

Scorsese and De Niro's portrait of a man whose grip on reality loosens one day at a time. Travis Bickle's obsessions aren't sexual like Fan's, but the machinery of isolation leading to violence is the same and still matches nothing made since.

But Bleak and slow in stretches, with a tonal shift at the end that divides people on what the film is actually saying. You have to sit with the discomfort.

Unfriended2014

Thriller told entirely through computer screens. A young woman killed online comes back to stalk her cyberbullies through social media. It's clever, fast, and genuinely scary about how exposure and obsession play out when everyone's watching.

But The format—everything on screen—can feel gimmicky or dated depending on your patience. If you hate found footage, this will test you.

Ingrid Goes West2017

Aubrey Plaza as a woman who moves to LA to befriend an Instagram influencer, then can't tell the boundary between fandom and relationship. Sharp, funny, and terrifyingly current about how social media erases the distance between admirer and friend.

But The humor is dark and sometimes misses. Some viewers will find it sarcastic in a way that undercuts the actual stakes of what's happening.

Knightfall2017

Both use a duality of character—public figure and private obsessive—to explore how far someone will go. Fan exteriorizes it; Nightfall internalizes it. Both understand that obsession is a form of blindness.

Bengali crime thriller series that builds obsession through a cop's investigation of a serial killer. Methodical, claustrophobic, brilliant at showing how single-minded pursuit—whether criminal or investigative—corrodes everything else. Subtitled but hypnotic.

But Bengali language, which means many Western viewers will miss it. Even with subtitles, pacing and cultural context can feel distant if you're not used to non-English television.

The King of Comedy1982

Both films use a double role or mirroring to ask: who gets to decide what's real? Both are about performance as a path to power and the violence that erupts when performance fails.

Scorsese and De Niro again, but this time about a nobody who wants to be somebody so badly he'll kidnap to get there. It's vicious about celebrity and ambition, filmed like a fever dream, and Robert De Niro is terrifyingly believable as a man rewriting reality to include himself.

But It's a comedy only in the darkest sense. If you're expecting laughs, you'll be wrong-footed. Some find it mean-spirited; others find it essential.