Urban Legend – The final cut… Shah Rukh Khan
Jitesh Pillai
Showbiz creates strange bedfellows. Art meets market. Dhoti meets Tommy Hilfiger. Shah Rukh Khan meets Asoka. As Ashutosh Sivan's lush film lights up the screen, the smoke from Shah Rukh's cigarette snakes its way across the room like tiny snakes. Sweet dreams are made of this.
SRK has just completed 10 years as a wisecracking filmmaker. He loves the sound of his words, the tone of acting and the grandeur of life. He talks part philosophically, part psychobabble, part nonsense. All incoherent, all gripping. Like Virginia Woolf's stream of consciousness novels. To understand Shah Rukh Khan, you have to understand his contradictions.
He has been discredited at times. His larger-than-life bungalow, Mannat, has been mired in controversy. He has also had to face the naysayers who pick apart everything from his business skills to, well, the colour of his silver-grey BMW.
On a deceptively quiet afternoon at Filmistan Studio, Mr. Decade fires his guns. Take this:
Does the success of Lagaan lift your spirits? Especially since your next two films - Asoka and Devdas - are, how shall I say, historical/costume films?
I am over the moon about Lagaan. I called Aamir Khan and Ashutosh Gowariker and asked them to share their happiness with me. Lagaan has shattered all the accepted norms of filmmaking.
You don't need villains or superheroes, you don't need to go to Switzerland and Germany to shoot dream sequences and you don't need to wear haute couture.
So much has been made of the look of a film. Even a dhoti can look sexy. Aamir Khan has a real warrior's heart. The success of Ashu was long overdue; he is incredibly hardworking. But I hope there is no predictable reaction that only historical or costume films work. God forbid.
Let's talk about you. What made you want to play Asoka and Devdas?
Greatness lies not in doing different things but in doing things differently. Just like all my negative roles in Baazigar, Darr and Anjaam came together; Asoka and Devdas will take me to new realms. I enjoyed being the biggest kid in the 1990s, now let me be an emperor in 2001. You know what I want to do next? Play a Superman with underwear over my pants.
Tell me more about Asoka.
I want 14-year-old boys to leave the cinema saying, "Asoka is cool. I want to know more about him."
I don't claim to be making a historical film. But as an actor and producer, I want to believe that Asoka is as relevant to cinema as Queen Elizabeth, Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela. My films should be more entertaining and relevant than what you learn about Ashoka in eighth-grade history books.
But can you avoid being Shah Rukh Khan in every role?
As an actor, I don't want to be Shah Rukh Khan. I want to be better than him. I want to be Michael Schumacher, Narain Karthikeyan and Al Pacino. On a loftier level, I can say I have nothing left to achieve. The new challenge for me is to do the same stuff differently.
Is acting still enjoyable?
The situations are ready-made; an actor is part of the raw material. But acting is fun. Why do I act? I don't know the answer. Maybe to make myself happy. There are no reasons why I am an actor. (Laughs) That's why I am an unreasonable actor.
They are always on full blast - sometimes even having to put on a show when the camera is off.
Yes, there is a strong desire to please. I am an actor and I am always entertaining, I am a court jester. But my acting is real. I am on 24 hours a day. But that's OK. The media attacks everything from my bungalow and my sexuality to the colour of my socks. But I'm not complaining. I just have a problem with oversimplification.
You mean?
It's easy for someone else to analyze my roles. It's easy to tell me to take the blame for my failed films. But let me tell you, creating a role is not easy. Even after 10 years in the business, I don't know what will work and what won't.
As a celebrity, I get asked if my wife doesn't mind me flirting with the heroines on camera. I don't know how to explain that. I never asked myself if Nicole Kidman minded when Tom Cruise kissed the Chinese girl in Mission Impossible 2.
What happens when you deal with other celebrities?
I fall in love with them. Because they are so much more real. I met Madonna when I was in the United States doing my shows. Face to face, she looks so much smaller, thinner and more vulnerable. I just held her hand. I could be arrogant and say that it is not important to be photographed with Madonna because where I come from, 70 million people want to be photographed with me.
When I did a photoshoot with Amitabh Bachchan for Filmfare, I did not even want the weight of my fingers to rest on his shoulders. He seemed so vulnerable. It was the same when I met Hema Malini, Sridevi and Madhuri Dixit. For me, it was like a Jurassic Park ride at the theme park. So when someone comes to meet me, I want to entertain them properly. But sometimes it is nicer not to meet the people you love. Sometimes they are like wet paint, touch them and they get dirty.
Do you look back on your ten years of acting with affection?
Yes. But I don't look back nostalgically. I made mistakes. I mistreated bureaucrats, journalists and directors. But I don't have the time or the luxury to look back and regret.
Has it been a good life, from June 26, 1991, to now?
With all due respect to other actors and stars, mine has been the 'ideal' life of a celebrity. There have been dark moments, love, hate, goodness, everything. Even the bad guys who come to scare me, leave happy. I come into contact with a million kinds of energies every day. But they all leave with positive energies. That's my strength as an actor.
So are your dreams not over?
Never. People die young or old, dreams don't die. I stopped gaining height, but I grew in stature. Height doesn't matter, girth does. Ha!
Then does reality strike?
As a producer, I cannot do five films a year. As an actor, I can. That is the reality. The reality is that there will be a poll on whether I deserve my bungalow or not and there will always be criticisms about my ability as an actor. That is real. But please, please let me tell all those who are jealous of my success that my house, my cars, my bungalow are just incidental. From Darr to Devdas, that is my reality.
How old are you?
35.
How old do you feel?
37. An actor's age should be counted by the Fridays he is seen on. I am 37 Fridays old. By the end of this year, I will be 40. The challenge for me has never been to be called well-dressed, nor to be on the A-list of Page 3 in Bombay Times. If that happens, fine.
Someone recently laughed at my entrepreneurial skills. Sure, I don't feel that doing advertisements is all that great. But I will do them. I need the money. But no amount will replace the warmth I spread.
Even today, I don't charge Rs 5 crores for a film. I don't indulge in anti-social activities. I don't ask to see other actors' contracts to check their fees. I don't ask to see my shots on the monitor when I am working with other actors. That is my reality.
Where does all this energy and anger come from?
An actor is driven by the devil. I can be elegant, loud, and cruel. My art is independent. It may be like the dance of Astaad Deboo - free-running, unbridled.
So what does it mean to act like SRK?
I don't believe in method. Technique is fine. I will cut my hair to play an army officer. The 'I' is important. Kundan Shah disagreed with me but I don't think any actor can recreate his character from film to film. Whether Shah Rukh Khan is teaching music in Mohabbatein, starting fights in Josh and killing in Baazigar. Yet it is always SRK who does what he is asked to do. If any other actor says he makes the audience forget who he is, he is lying.
So is acting essentially like life?
Acting is life in miniature. You're playing a role all the time.
Excuse me?
I've come to the conclusion that I act all the time. The only time I don't act is when I sleep. Right from drinking tea in the morning to rapping like MC Hammer, when I play with my child, I act. But I'm real, I don't fake my emotions. I can't separate myself from acting anymore. Acting reminds me of the colors deep blue or black.
I am sure there are always reference points. Do you want to repeat Dilip Kumar's performance in Devdas?
Mine will be a conglomeration of so many performances. But I will never copy. My drunk scene might remind someone of Nicolas Cage in Leaving Las Vegas. Who knows, someone might even draw parallels with Keshto Mukherjee's hiccup scenes.
Well, that's oversimplification.
Exactly. Why does the tea in your house taste different every day? Acting is just that. Why does every rain shower look different and smell different? I remember when I was doing the scene Jahan se main dekh raha hoon in Mohabbatein; I was in a bad state. I had just come back from Delhi; had some personal problems. But still, I did it right.
It's so easy to romanticise acting, isn't it?
Yes. Acting is glorified. One journalist asked me why my bungalow didn't have windows. Someone else said I must be on coke as I have so much energy. One guy in the industry remarked that I must be a womaniser as I portray love so beautifully. Why does Govinda dance so amazingly? Is it because he dances all night in a disco before coming to the shoot?
So, once an actor, always an actor?
Yes, yes, yes. Even if I were a businessman, I would be an actor. If I were an army officer dying on a battlefield, it would be as heroic as those death scenes in the films. I was born just to act. You can take me out of the actor, but you can't take the actor out of me.
Five years into our marriage, Gauri knew that I would always be an actor. If I sleep for four hours at night, I miss the actor in me. When I take a bath, you won't believe the acting I do.
And what do you do with all the mediocre minds that surround you these days?
Now don't be rude. God didn't mean us all to be assembly line products. Perfection is boring.
Today my one-year-old daughter is hugging my leg. By the time she is five she will probably have her own friends, at 16 she might not even like my presence in her life. And maybe by 21 she will run away with the man she loves. Will that somehow make me love them less?
It's the same with my films. I will never punish my directors or those who are involved with me in any way. So I will always love and stand by Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani.
As the poster boy who led the new anti-hero movement, how different are you today?
Poster boy, yuppie movie hero, those are names. If the hero of the 1970s was a non-conformist, as a yuppie I promised a better world. The yuppie doesn't beat up a truckload of thugs. He's smarter. He doesn't have to kill on the battlefield; he can make a killing on the stock market.
The yuppie believes in capitalism, not communism. In fact, he believes in a new 'ism' every day.
Why then does the yuppie movie hero talk about loosening up his acting?
When you are good at something, it is time to move on. You must lead new movements. That is why man went to the moon. I want others to learn from my mistakes. I want to spend some time alone and put my internal mechanism back together. I am a little tired of the demands placed on my life.
I need to rediscover the child in me. The more I am with people, the more I lose my ability to be a child. I want to become childish and silly again. To grow further, I must stop growing.
What is the reality of something as illusory as showbiz?
An actor has no expiry date, fame does. Years ago, when I did the TV series Circus, the trapeze artists would say to me, "Ho gaya to kartab, gir gaya to haadsa." If you get it right, you are the king, if it goes wrong, you are dead. Similarly in acting too, sometimes there is no time to fight, no ifs, no time to recover.
Once Asoka is over, I will be moving on. Hopefully away from the sound of applause, the wah-wahs and the awards. It will be time to reach into my magic bag once again.
Okay, give me an intelligent one-liner.
I'm a self-made man. And I'll take the blame for it. Ha!