Bollywood: An Insider’s Guide
Copyright – Fuad Omar 2006.
Interview from 2001
Fuad Omar
Shah Rukh Khan: Journey to the other side
Shah Rukh Khan is very tired. His whirlwind tour of the UK has seen him zipping from London to Birmingham, doing interview after interview, talking to anyone who would hear about his new film. The press circus can be a black hole that swallows you whole and spits you out after sapping all your energy, leaving many sick with exhaustion. Shah Rukh Khan is tired… but with his enthusiasm, you never know.
When I meet him, I know he has left early after a long night, and his day has many more appointments after mine, but he still smiles, greets me warmly, and still talks about his new epic with a burst of animation befitting a newborn baby.
That's why there is only one Shah Rukh Khan. His passion for what he does is unparalleled and his ten-year journey in his profession has seen him from crawling and searching for a footing in the industry to walking, running and now flying with a film that is the cinematic event of the year, thanks solely to the man sitting opposite me and his dedicated team.
I begin by congratulating him not only on the film Asoka, which is arguably one of the best films to grace the silver screen in recent times (and I am not just talking about Indian cinema, but in general), but even more so on the scale of the promotion of the film. I tell him how proud I am to see the posters of Asoka in every metro station as I take the escalator and tend to stare at each one so that people notice and want to see what it is that has piqued my interest so much, hoping that they too will see it, and how great it is now to see him promoting the film and Indian cinema on national programmes, on shows like Big Breakfast and Film 2001. I congratulate him on the entire promotion of Asoka.
"Actually, it's more my partners than me, so Jai Mehta, who actually arranged it, and of course Juhi and Aziz. When we realised that we couldn't get anyone to take on this film and release it at this level, we decided to do it ourselves," he tells me.
The biggest compliment I can give the film's promotion is that it has actually been launched on such an unprecedented scale that when I asked the man selling the Big Issue at Harrow Station what the latest blockbuster was, instead of naming America's Sweetheart with Julia Roberts and Catherine Zeta Jones, he said 'It's that Asian film that's on everyone's lips, Asoka!' I give him a smile as I proudly tell him 'You must see it, it's one of the best films I've seen'
Asoka is everywhere because it is being launched by the same dedicated team that made the film with passion, as Shah Rukh's company is releasing the film itself. Yes, it is a risk, but the product is of such high quality that it would be a crime not to succeed.
"There were two reasons for making this film," says Shah Rukh, leaning forward a little. "One was that a director of Santosh's calibre should be given the exposure he deserves. He will have had that with Terrorist and we thought if he cast me in a film, it should just follow on from that. It is also because of the kindness and the goodness that the South Asian audience in London and America and the rest of the world have shown me over the last ten years. So we thought we would combine the two and then Jai went a step further and said let's release this film and show that we are proud of our film."
Releasing the film on his own was a big risk, especially overseas. Sony claimed that they were never meant to distribute the film despite clearly making an announcement earlier, and have since also pulled out of their distribution deal for Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham. Rather than being bitter, Shah Rukh turns the negative into a positive, saying that he is happy to be able to give the project that is so close to his heart the generous boost it deserves.
"When I say we're proud of our film, I mean there are a lot of people who aren't as enthusiastic about somebody else's project and have no reason to be because I understand that, whether it's Sony or whoever, it's not their film and they don't know what we're doing. It's our baby and our child and we wanted to give it the best start possible, the best chance in life possible and we do that by making sure it gets to the best theaters in the country and to the best people," he explains.
"The second reason was the gratitude that we (Shah Rukh, Juhi Chawla, and Aziz Mirza) as a team wanted to show to the people who live here, who I personally believe have made me such a huge star. My marketability in India is high because I am an overseas star and I sell well here and it's not about selling, it's about people loving me.
I see a child of 13 who I met eight years ago and now she is a lady of twenty-one and still loves me, it is so wonderful to see that she has now got a boyfriend and is getting married, she has moved on and yet kept me with her. So I am what I am, largely because of the love given to me by the Asians here and I want to say thank you and my way of saying thank you to everyone is Inshallah to try to make beautiful films that are commercially viable in the Asian market too. Another way of saying thank you is to say that Fuad has been quoted in an article in Total Film which is read by people who have not seen a Hindi film before and will now because of this article and the one they are watching is of such high quality as Asoka. I can assure you that this is a film that you can take your friends to, it has the usual popular format of a Hindi film, there are songs, dances, emotions, colours, a mother, it has all that and you can show it to your friends without having to justify yourself. Nor would you have to succumb to your preconceived notions that Hindi films are a bit silly or that they are not long. Yes, it is long and there are songs, but just as most Chinese films have kung fu, we have songs, it is part of who we are and how our films are made. We try to say the same thing as the makers of Snatch or Titanic, but our language is a bit different."
Shah Rukh's point dawned on me like an epiphany. As a film journalist, the holy grail for me is to achieve the acceptance of Indian cinema among cinema audiences that is normal for British films and Hollywood. There is no reason for our cinema not to achieve the recognition it deserves, as the same amount of blood, sweat and tears that goes into making a film anywhere goes into Indian cinema too, and yet for some reason it fails to break the barrier. Feel-good films do not do any better than those made in Bollywood and as far as talent is concerned, our reservoir never runs dry.
"If you can look beyond the language, the essence is still the same (in Indian and foreign cinema). The performances are the same and the technique is almost the same and, inshallah, we will catch up there too in a few years because of exposure. As the market increases, we will catch up faster and you will be able to see films from the world's largest film producing nation, the longest surviving film industry against Hollywood."
I lean back in my chair and let out a silent 'Eureka', as if Shah Rukh has just given me the key to a formula I've been trying to understand for years. The answer he gives is spot on.
"It's all about giving it the same look. My request to everyone is, and I'm not saying this because it's my film, we took a big risk and spent a lot on advertising and put up posters everywhere and all that, because it's our baby, but it's also that you can take one of your western friends to watch Asoka. So please, watch it and I can assure you, the next time the western friend is travelling on the subway or sitting at the barber's and sees a magazine carrying an article about our industry which would not normally cover it, he could turn to the barber and say, 'Hey these films are interesting,' and maybe he could spread the word too. And that's the only way we're going to do it because we can't afford to do it the way foreign films are done, we don't have that market or that money and it's that belief in Asoka that we've taken a big risk on, so I hope it succeeds."
Shah Rukh pauses for a moment, allowing me to absorb the revelation he has just delivered. The key is exposition and Asoka is definitely a film that will be talked about and promoted everywhere and even covered at all hours of the day from breakfast to evening chart shows to late night film reviews and the reason for that is the international standard it has, anyone can watch the subtitled film and enjoy it as much as a Hindi film fan.
Now I say to Shah Rukh that the film is a success whatever the outcome because he is pushing the envelope and has paved the way for him to break into the international arena with this film like no one before him, but how does he feel the film will do in India, I ask.
“Inshallah he will be just as successful in India,” he says, but frowns before continuing.
"It's unfortunate, Fuad, sometimes people have a very limited way of looking at things. I've been working for ten years and unfortunately I do a job that is half commercial and half artistic, in fact it's completely artistic, it's just that it's measured by a commercial yardstick. And because it's measured that way, people get a very limited picture of what it is."
I begin to understand what he is saying, but before I can comment, he explains it himself.
"I have taken risks because I believe that art has no formula and you can do anything you want as long as it entertains people and they appreciate the effort. You have tried many times to deliver the performance and it is not the failure of a film at the box office that disturbs you, it is the refusal of people to appreciate the effort. Even my friends who have seen the film and also like it, measure it in commercial terms and say, 'Yes, I don't know if it will be commercially successful but it is a beautiful film and you will get a lot of critical acclaim.' Why are these two things separate entities? For me a good film is a good film, either it makes money or it doesn't. I hope Asoka breaks the myth that box office money is not important for me because I have already put my last penny into this film and so has Juhi and if we don't get it back, we will never be able to make another film but that's okay, we will still manage," he says matter-of-factly.
I ask him not to say such things because Asoka is at least a giant step forward in Indian cinema and it would be a shame if the team responsible for it did not continue to carry the torch. He sighs and says that it would be good to be successful because it would show that good films need to be made.
"I just want to break the myth and say here is a film that will do well at the box office and good films deserve a special place and recognition. I hope people see the film and applaud the effort."
Not only have the efforts of Shah Rukh's team been praised, the good news has also spread like wildfire. Be it the Times, the Guardian or the Independent, the film has received attention and fantastic reviews and one thing is for sure, every Asian will be proud when they see it. I think Shah Rukh's busy schedule is responsible for him not hearing all the applause or feeling all the pats on the back and so I smile knowing that when his tour is over and he gets a moment to himself, his ears will ring with the echoes of applause and he will find that his efforts have not only been appreciated but wholeheartedly welcomed.
I change the subject and mention that I had noticed that his character in this film had no nuances from any other he has played before. Asoka has the same traits as some of the others, like arrogance, but it is different from Rahul in Dil To Pagal Hai or Raj in DDLJ. He laughs and tells me the reason.
"I thank Santosh and Juhi for that! Juhi told me, 'and you don't do any of your acting, just listen to Santosh and do what he says and if Santosh tries to fall into the same old routine, just tell him to shut up and make him do it the way you want him to do it!' Santosh also imbued the characters with an innocence and I wanted to convey that in every aspect of the film. Asoka was innocently aggressive, innocently pompous, naively brutal and childlike. I wanted to tell it like a story."
We laugh, as the image of Juhi telling Shah Rukh to stop acting the way he has in the past is one that many of her fans can certainly imagine, with her frown, childish smile and finger-pointing at him as if in a lecture, reminiscent of many of their films together. As I look at the clock, I realise that my time is almost up and I move on to an aspect of Asoka that fascinated me: The journey (or the path).
I draw comparisons with the book The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, which is about a boy who is also on a journey to reach his goal, only to find out that his travels taught him more than where he was going. A book that Shah Rukh has read, he is quick to respond to it, testing my memory of the character's name and elaborating on the whole aura that surrounds a journey.
"In my opinion, the thing about travelling is an Indian philosophy, but I'm not sure. It's even one that my mother used to tell me, a story from the Koran. She used to tell it to me every night, the story about a boy whose mother sewed some coins into his jacket (instead of pockets). Some thieves caught him on his way, stole his horse and said 'don't you have any more money with you? Do you only have this much?' and they went away, but the boy called them back and said, 'No, I still have this, here take this too,' and gave them the sewn coins and said that he did it because his mother told him not to lie. And he said, 'I hope you don't bother people who don't have any more.' Hidden in the story is the meaning that you learn while you travel. Even in modern times they say that a traveller is very educated, you travel around the world and education comes with it."
"That is why the process of life is very important and that is what I learned and mentioned in the conclusion of the 'Making of' book, that the process is given more value. The shadow or shade of the tree is as important as the hole you fall into. The little pain you feel is as important as the flower you smell because it can end at any time. And when it ends you must tell Allah I did everything along the way. He will not ask you 'did you reach the end?' because there is no end. The end is when He decides. And He wants your life to end in a way that you say 'hey listen, I don't mind if the morning doesn't come because I saw the shadow and the traps and I enjoyed them.' The process is important. God doesn't expect you to reach a place, He asks you 'Before you reach Me, what have you seen' because He just wants us to enjoy the journey, similar to the analogy, it is the process of making a film that should be enjoyable and not the end result. It is a general philosophy that I believe in and I think Santosh also believes in it, as do my partners, Juhi Chawla, Jai Mehta and Aziz Mirza."
My eyes light up as I listen to Shah Rukh. He not only tells stories when he is paid to do so, he does it off-screen too and a private audience gets a lot to learn from him. The story is familiar to me but hearing him tell it again brings new meaning and once again underlines the importance of the journey and everything that is learned along the way.
Tearing myself out of the enchantment of his words, I realise that our time is almost up and this time, before I can remind him, he continues, willingly bringing his analogy to a fitting end, referring to one of the many memories of London that he will take back with him.
"When we went to the premiere, it was so beautiful and the people were so lovely and friendly, please thank them on my behalf in your article. It was great, Juhi called me, Aziz and my wife called and said 'how was it' (the premiere) and I said 'I don't know'. I just enjoy the process which is so enjoyable. And the process ended for us at that premiere, it has been really amazing, the whole journey of doing this promotion and making and presenting this film and that is what matters, what happens in the end result is not important. I hope and pray that God gives me enough strength, courage and resources to do this process again and again."
I also say a silent prayer on his behalf, wish the same, reiterate that this man has much more to give and Asoka is just the beginning. It is a film that we can take our non-Asian friends to and know that they too will enjoy it, as much as they would enjoy any contribution to international cinema. Shah Rukh's words about the journey of creating and presenting this film once again brings back memories of the sets and makes me grateful to have been able to witness some of the steps and today share in his satisfaction of enjoying the journey.
Before I leave, he adds with his typical smile that shines through:
“And as I said at the premiere, we hope, of course, that Western audiences will soon want Arnold Schwarzenegger to start dancing in his films!”
Typical Shah Rukh, always willing to make people leave with a smile. Shah Rukh Khan is very tired, but you would never tell by looking at him. Because he intends to jump higher than ever before and scale new heights of success, making sure along the way that he has put Indian cinema one hundred percent on the international map.