Font Size 
Don't compare me with Big B, I'm an upstart: SRK
Published on Mon, Oct 15, 2007 at 17:24, Updated on Tue, Oct 16, 2007 at 08:48 in Entertainment section
Tags: Shah Rukh Khan, Interview
Related Stories
Photogallery
 |  |
Meet Bollywood’s biggest brand ambassador Shah Rukh Khan as he speaks his mind in a free-wheeling interview with Bhupendra Chaubey on religion, the business of entertainment, his films and much more.
Bhupendra Chaubey: Welcome on the show tonight, Shah Rukh
Shah Rukh Khan: Thank you, thank you very much.
Bhupendra Chaubey: How do I introduce you, though, Shah Rukh? A performer, brand ambassador, artiste, or a salesman?
Shah Rukh Khan: Ah, I should be the most hard-working employee of entertainment.
Bhupendra Chaubey: You look at yourself as an employee?
Shah Rukh Khan: I look at myself as an employee; there was a time I didn’t; I looked at myself like the badshah, but as you grow in status in this industry of entertainment and media, you realise that finally you got much more than you deserve and that’s only because your employer has been very kind to you.
Bhupendra Chaubey: Many might say it’s just humility on your part, or modesty..
Shah Rukh Khan: Well, I’m humble.
Bhupendra Chaubey: But I would say that the reason I actually asked you this question about your introduction is that it hasn’t been all that hunky-dory for you: the ride from your Fauji days to Baazigar and now the kind of movies that you’re participating in, whether it’s Chak De or your Om Shanti Om. Has the ride been smooth?
Shah Rukh Khan: I think as smooth as it can be. I think it’s been a great ride. It’s been, uh, of course as you go along, there are lot of things you think have gone wrong sometimes, but most of the things have gone right. There was a time I became ungrateful and greedy and I thought everything should go right!.
But then when you look back sometimes, whenever I do – I do that very seldom – but when I look back I say okay, then, overall it’s been a good innings. I’ve done well, played some good shots, and I think I’ve got my lucky breaks and… it’s great to be doing what I’m doing.
Bhupendra Chaubey: Have you changed as a performer, Shah Rukh, over the years, because I remember when you started off initially, initial part of your movies, whether it was Baazigar or Darr or any of your other movies, there was a feeling; many of your critics, in fact, argue that Shah Rukh Khan is an actor with two to three expressions. Has that changed? Have you put a deliberate attempt from your side to prove them wrong?
Shah Rukh Khan: No, I…, as a matter of fact before critics could say that, I said that I have three expressions and I sometimes mix them together, and I do a permutation where it becomes three into two into one and make six or seven of them, but not more than that. Maybe, I am speaking out of turn but I don’t think lot many actors have a lot many expressions. This is it and you play within that parameter or that set of rules.
Expressions are like rules, the rules set by my face, by my nature, by my upbringing, by my education, and I need to play within that. For an actor it is important to know the limitation before knowing the talent, and I think… I was never… I have never claimed to be a great actor, but there is a huge change in the way I have started performing now.
When I was young and I was very stupid – now I am older, still stupid but not very stupid – what I decided to do was that I put in a lot, I needed to be noticed; I was a young, little kid in a crowd, in a big party, where I had to pull at everyone and say “Look at me! Look at me!” and I made that attempt.
Soon I realised I am the guy who was sort of the host of the party, now. So I need to start behaving myself, and as the years have gone by, I do a little less and try to convey a bit more. So that change has happened, but the expressions are still the same.
Bhupendra Chaubey: But I want to ask you Shah Rukh, I think you are one of the few actors in our film industry – the concept of hits and flops never affects you. Is that to do with the fact that you’ve become so visible now in every walk of life? You are there on television screens, there on advertising hoardings, irrespective of what happens to your film career – it actually makes no difference?
Shah Rukh Khan: I wish it was that easy. I wish it was as simple as that.
Bhupendra Chaubey: You don’t agree with that?
Shah Rukh Khan: I don’t agree with that. I don’t think it's visibility. Nobody wants to see you if you don’t do work which makes you deserving to be visible. Nobody would like to see it. You wouldn’t interview me.
Bhupendra Chaubey: Okay, so…
Shah Rukh Khan: I think finally the core of my job is to make films that entertain you, and when I say 'entertain', I mean lot of people come and see it. Unless they see a lot of your films, whether it’s endorsements, whether it’s television, whether it is just appearances, anywhere, I wouldn’t be called to do any of them.
Bhupendra Chaubey: So, let’s talk about something which has given you tremendous amount of visibility all over again, tremendous amount of respect again: your recent super-hit Chak De. How was it working in that movie?
Shah Rukh Khan: Fantastic! I mean, as good or bad as it is working in any other film. Actually, I think of all films that I do as the best films being made at that time. That’s how I goad myself on to get up in the morning after 16 years of the same work. I still get this, this is the greatest film I am doing. I work in every film as if it’s my first shot. And at the same time, when I’m giving the first shot, I work in the film thinking “this is the last shot”.
Bhupendra Chaubey: But would I be wrong, Shah Rukh, to actually look at it a little differently, in terms of perceptions? If you look at the last movies you’ve done, let’s say in the period of four to five years? You started off with Pardes, or Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna, or Swades, or the recent Chak De!, every movie, I thought there was some message that Shah Rukh Khan was trying to give to the people in general; in Swades he was someone who believed tremendously in traditional Indian values, similar to your Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge performance; then, in your recent hit, you try to come across as someone who was representing the feelings of those who, perhaps, are being accused of not being patriotic enough, specifically the Muslim community. Was that something on your mind when you were in the movie?
Shah Rukh Khan: Honestly, if you ask me, most of time I think too much credit is given to the main protagonist of the movie, the main star. I think if these thoughts are there, I think they are the director’s and the writer’s thoughts. I just happen to be the face which is speaking those thoughts. And honestly, I have never so deeply dwelt into why I am doing a film.
The bottom-line is that when I do a film, and I have kept it simple – I think one of the greatest qualities of success is keep it as simple as possible – I say, okay, this is the story, it is saying something beyond what the story should say, it has a fantastic sub-text, but is it what I am going to sell? No. What I’m going to sell is, is it watchable for two hours? Within that two hours, after it’s entertaining – and I am not trying to deride or demean the importance of cinema I’ve done through some great directors and writers; but, if I didn’t keep it so simple, I think I’d just get lost in giving messages. And I truly believe, messages – it’s an old saying in films – messages are for the post box and the post office, not for actors and films.
So, I don’t want to give messages, but yes, sometimes I think that is true, the kind of films that are attracting me, somewhere internally do make me want to say certain things and that is why I get attracted – “I’ll do this one!”
I like the fact that it is Kabir Khan, leading a bunch of 16 girls, from different states of our country; talk about women empowerment, talk about sports, and yeah, don’t let anyone else pick on you just because you happen to be from a minority group. And fortunately, I’ve never faced it personally, you know? I mean, I’m supposedly in a Hindu country, and one of the biggest stars – you can’t more secular than that as my life is, and my wife is a Hindu and I’ve had a great life.
So I’m no one to make a comment, but I do hear minorities have issues, and Islamic ones too, and I think somewhere it must have played on my mind and I said, let me do a film where a guy faces this brunt somehow, rightly or wrongly, and let me justify it to them.
Bhupendra Chaubey: Over the last couple of years, every time that I’ve seen you come at public functions, I’ve seen the moment you come on the stage and the time you’re getting off the stage, you always do aadaab. Is that something you’ve been doing all along or is that something that has come to you in recent times?
Shah Rukh Khan: All my life
Bhupendra Chaubey: So, there’s no hidden message there?
Shah Rukh Khan: No, there’s no hidden message. Shobhaa De said somewhere a hidden message about this, and I’m very fond of Shohbaa. She’s very sweet, she finds signs in everything, strangely, but –
Bhupendra Chaubey: Maybe as journalists maybe it’s our habit to read too much into what you film-stars do.
Shah Rukh Khan: Yeah, maybe, maybe. But I once remember I was doing it on stage, eight years ago. I’m Islamic by birth, my father and mother taught me to say aadaab. Saif Ali Khan does aadaab also so it’s upto your upbringing.
I remember when my wife was going around with me, she wasn’t married to me, she used to find it very strange because she hadn’t seen anyone do this *does aadaab* and touch the heart and she would say, “Why do you touch the heart like this?” It sort of signifies respect to you and you’re close to my heart.
Bhupendra Chaubey: And you tell your children also? You give the same kind of values to your children?
Shah Rukh Khan: Yeah, my kids do aadaab but very sweetly. They say “yo!” *does aadaab*.
Bhupendra Chaubey: So, it’s the fusion of Western culture and ancient Indian values -
Shah Rukh Khan: It’s a fusion of the secularity of my country, I think. You say how, you know, can say – as long as you greet me with respect, whether you do it like this *does namashkar*, whether you do it like this *does aadaab*, whether you do it like this *touches heart*, as long as – that’s what I’ve taught my children – whichever mode you decide to greet people with, make sure there is respect. I always, at the end of a function, because I’m an artiste, take a bow to the audience. You would have noticed it also.
Bhupendra Chaubey: Yes, yes.
Shah Rukh Khan: I make it a point to go, but that is my theatre upbringing.
Bhupendra Chaubey: Right.
Shah Rukh Khan: You finish your show and you bow, say “thank you” to everyone. So… that also has no hidden agenda! That’s the way I’ve been brought up.
Bhupendra Chaubey: But I want to delve a little more into the secular credentials of the country that you’re talking of, just like Bollywood is a secular fraternity, as well. How do you get affected as a person, as an individual – not necessarily as a performer, or as an actor – when you pick up the newspaper or when you see the television, and news channels, and you see these stories coming up, that in some part of the country, minorities are being targeted for, actually for reasons which should not even be talked about?
Shah Rukh Khan: I feel very ashamed. I feel very saddened. I feel very, very disturbed about them.
Bhupendra Chaubey: And what do you do about them?
Shah Rukh Khan: And I’m ashamed because I don’t do anything about it, to be really honest. I wish I could… what can I do? I can just speak about it. I can feel about it. I do not… purposely I don’t follow up a movement to try and change that. But, I know there are lots of youngsters out there who would understand me.
I don’t think I can change the way people think, who are older than me, or who are already affected by this sort of mentality, but to the youngsters – and I think I am going to make a huge impact on their lives as an actor, as someone who comes across to them as a person who has a mind, who’s friendly, who’s nice – and I want to tell them, “Let not religion – ever – come in the way of the progress of our country, or in your thoughts, because religion is a discipline”.
So whether you are Islamic, whether you’re Hindu, whether you’re Christian – I have grown up performing in Ram Lilas, being in the vaanar sena or Hanuman, I have been brought up by all Hindu, Teksons, Sharmas – they were really wonderful people when my parents were not at home. I still believe in Islam because my parents taught me to read the Qur’an. And I think I am very secular. I would like to tell the youngsters, “Don’t let religion be any yardstick for the measurement of progress and happiness”.
[ Single Page View ]
| Ads by Google |
| Related Ads: | |
Read Comment | Post Comment
I can vouch that Shahrukh is one of the most intelegent and honest actor in our film industry ever. God
Read Comment
Read more comment »