Shah Rukh Khan unlimited – One 2 One
Khalid Mohamed
Confession: I haven't met anyone like him since I was 19 and first picked up pen and paper as a reporter. Someone who keeps the interview going for me when I feel like I'm 90 and ready to sit back in my grandpa's chair.
Capable of surprising, adept at rising above the mundane marathon of an interview and piercing the air with grins, grimaces and gesticulations, Shah Rukh Khan is the 90s journalist's dream come true. SRK is not moody, whether he's skipped a meal or has a flight to catch or an urgent appointment with a Malaysian Mobike marketer.
Visitors are constantly streaming into his makeup room in the studio like an unstoppable river. No problem. The man is still focused, sliding in and out of a pair of jeans, held in place only by a calfskin belt for a perfect fit. What Khan can do, Khan does. All I know is that I have my first question prepared for the conversation. The rest, I hope, will follow. He does it:
What questions would you be asking yourself at this point?
I would ask - will it continue to be as much fun? Will I be able to develop as an actor? Will I be able to step into roles that are appropriate for my age later on? I am 33, an age where I can be myself without worrying about makeup and make-up. Makeup and posing are for 60-year-old actors. Actually, I am at a weird age right now - not young enough to play a college kid and not old enough to be a father.
My goal is to entertain. I want to do at least one film a year that keeps me entertained. By researching a role, I don't mean that if I play a journalist, I should hang out with five journalists. I feel like someone will have to push me beyond what I have already done and I have done it all. If I am to play an engineer, I don't have to study engineering; I have to get the hang of acting like one. Directors and writers will have to guide me to that skill.
I don't want to be told stupid things like, "Oh, you're overacting," or "Oh, you're so subdued." Stupid statements like that are made by stupid directors.
Where will you discover the kind of directors who can take you beyond the tried and true?
I have gone from Mani Kaul to Mani Ratnam. It was important to have worked with all of them. At the time when I was doing Idiot, Mani Kaul unconsciously contributed to this energetic aspect of my acting. Energy is just the opposite of what he wants from his actors. I had seen his Uski Roti. I had to find out if I could be motionless, do absolutely nothing. Believe me, an actor feels very insecure when he does nothing in front of the camera. From Mani Kaul I learnt to just stand, just be.
And then I immediately went to the other extreme, with Deewana and Chamatkar. I was hyper as hell, I still am. Michael J. Fox impressed me more than any other actor. When he acts, things happen in him and around him. There is a rush of energy. Truly, subtlety is for old people.
I've been told that I played a low key role in KKHH. I played an older man, a father, so that's OK. I have faith in myself as a soft-spoken actor, I have played down without worrying, in Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, Pardes, Dil To Pagal Hai and now in KKHH. I am also a conscious person. So in Dil Se I was myself and I thought the film worked. But it didn't for most of the audience.
Personally, I really enjoyed Duplicate. I was as hyper as I could be. If I had been low key, it would have been awfully boring for myself.
What did you learn from Mani Ratnam during Dil Se?
From Mani Ratnam I learnt being yourself is true acting. I even used some of that in KKHH - like the scene when Kajol and I sit on a bench and just talk, that's one of my favourite scenes.
Mani Ratnam instilled confidence in me and I tried to do what he expected from me. I can't tell the difference between scenes that went right and those that went wrong, but overall it was a wonderful lesson - just be.
You seem to be in an unfathomable position as an actor today. What niche do you fit into?
Nobody can pigeonhole me. In the last two years, I have done Koyla, Yes Boss, Pardes, Dil To Pagal Hai, Duplicate and KKHH. The romantic ones among them have become huge hits. I am even called sexy now. I am a cute, chocolatey sex symbol today. Earlier, I was called an actor like James Dean, I was said to have tremendous promise. Now that I am a successful actor, I am supposed to be cute and sexy.
Either way, I have a considerable collection of popular songs to my credit. At concerts, other actors have to wonder which song they are performing to. I have to think about which ones I am leaving out. I have everything without asking for it. I am romantic, I am still going to college, I am hot and my songs are huge hits. I am not ungrateful for it; it is just that I find all this very ironic.
I repeat, where do you expect to find the directors and writers who can give you that little something extra?
It could well be a director or writer who comes up with a solid story and puts together the characters carefully. I hope that the directors will tell me how to do a certain nuance and not an emotion.
Don't tell me to look sad, tell me what kind of sadness should be. Like Aziz Mirza does. Or Mani Ratnam did in Dil Se, when I was supposed to be warm and loving to my grandma, he told me to be normal instead of doing this stuff like, 'Oh nani, tum kitni acchi ho'. You don't have to announce your feelings to the people you love.
In Yes Boss, Aziz told me to behave towards Juhi Chawla as I would behave towards a girl I could never reach. That's the way I used to feel with Gauri. I couldn't tell her I loved her, I couldn't kiss her, I just had to hope that my eyes spoke to her.
Do you feel young today or worldly and grown-up?
I feel a little embarrassed playing young. I can't separate real life from fake life. Gauri gets annoyed about it - she says, if you're old, so am I. The point is that I feel strange about getting into childish pranks and antics; I've done enough of them in my 25 films so far.
Once you chose unconventionally - but now you only go for the big blockbuster projects.
Aziz Mirza and I planned a small film with a small canvas. But strangely enough, once I'm into a project, it doesn't stay small.
I can't be a rebel even if I want to be one. If I had made Deepa Mehta's Earth, it would have sunk into the mire as Shah Rukh's next release. Or when someone makes a small film like Hyderabad Blues, he or she inevitably comes to me with the offer 'now let's make a solid commercial film'.
Do you miss the days of small films? Or do you think of them as a ghetto?
I still work in the same atmosphere. It's just the sets, the lights and the hoardings that have become bigger. When someone like Deepa Mehta comes to me, I don't even talk about money. But recently, no one has spoken to me.
To be honest, I don't miss those days. My clothes may be designer, but the soul is the same. I still enjoy the acting part. I'm still a worker.
What did you learn as a worker from Subash Ghai?
Exactly what I learned from Rakesh Roshan. That my point of view is not always right. I am not always right about how a film should turn out. Maybe that's why I didn't watch Pardes. I felt irrelevant in the scheme of the film, but that's okay because Pardes really worked.
As an actor, I didn't enjoy making Pardes. But I have nothing personally against Subhash Ghai. I was his employee. And an employee should willingly and happily do exactly what the employer wants. I just wasn't happy and that was it.
Yash Chopra made you a softie, right? A real romantic?
Yashji made me understand that love conquers all, that love is the truth. One day he pointed out to me that the romantic heroes are the most enduring of the stars. He is right. On the other hand, Subhash Ghai decided to teach me that the boss is always right.
Do you think you could fit into the Sooraj Barjatya guard of filmmaking?
If I could fit into Subhash Ghai's guard, I can fit into any. I may question the school of Sooraj Barjatya, Aditya Chopra, Karan Johar or even Abbas-Mustan. The bottom line is - will it be a satisfying experience for me as an actor? Actors and directors don't have to slavishly agree with each other's beliefs to make good cinema.
As an actor, it's my job to give them my suggestions, whatever they're worth. If they agree with some of them, fine. If not, that's okay too, as long as we make a film that we're all ultimately happy with.
What do you have to say about your role in KKHH?
I don't think KKHH was written for me personally. When I first heard it, I knew it was the girl's film. But I love Karan like a brother; I would do 10 more films like KKHH for him. I would even do the part of a supporting actor, one of the college boys who hang around the campus.
Karan is so sensitive that he knows how girls feel, more than he knows how boys feel. KKHH is not a film for boys. Karan is the ideal guy to make girl-oriented films. One day, maybe a director will make a film just for me, like Baazigar, Darr and DDLJ were.
Do you think you could have been given more to do in the climax of KKHH?
No, I felt I should have kept it smaller. My character was a contrast figure, the less he did, the more interesting he was. There had to be a certain dignity about the man. He was a widower, not an action hero. When Kajol comes down the stairs, he just looked at her, with tears in his eyes. Any dialogue would have ruined the impression.
Were those tears real?
I don't use glycerin. If I do occasionally, it's only for action scenes. For scenes that require tears, I just blank out. I don't think of myself as chasing girls that aren't mine or that I need to steal a girl from someone else. I just fall in love all over again because it's the purest emotion.
KKHH restored your commercial clout. What else?
I don't think I ever lost it. I'm not paranoid, not yet. Nobody can bring down an icon without a good reason. OK, I wish Duplicate had done better. But it wasn't a flop either. And Dil Se did amazingly overseas.
I guess I've reached a stage where I always have to be commercial. My films have a vibe that a lot of hard work has gone into them. There's enough effort put in that occasionally the audience likes it. Sometimes it doesn't.
Is effort enough?
Sometimes effort is not enough. But I try to bring as much energy as I can to my co-stars and technicians on the sets.
How tall and how heavy are you?
Why do you ask?
Because you have lost weight. You seem indifferent to your health.
I am 5'9" tall and weigh 67 kg. I once weighed 71 kg. I lost weight due to hectic work schedule. I was shooting for Dil Se in Ooty and then KKHH; I was just wolfing down some khichdi as I had diarrhea. Then I fell ill during my concerts in the United States and lost more weight.
Do you have a death wish or something?
Nothing quite as romantic as that. Maybe I just keep myself going with the thought, let me get this pile of work out of the way and then I'll take it easy. It never happens because I want to do all this, I pack 40 hours of work into four hours. I've been slaving away like this for seven years now.
Didn't the birth of Aryan change your lifestyle?
I won't say the cliche that my son changed my life. All I can say is that I love life even more now. For his first birthday, I flew back from shooting for Badshah in Hyderabad. I woke him up; he looked at me sleepily and smiled. He likes balls, round things, so I took him to a bowling alley for his birthday. Aryan is great to be with.
Would you like to have a second child?
I would like to have a second child the day after tomorrow. A girl with straight hair who I would call Muskaan or Suhana. Girls are so lovely and kind, I would love to sit and nag and gossip with my daughter one day. I was brought up more by women than men, so I know how special and sensitive they are.
Tell me, why are you not politically correct? Why do you make statements like you did Salman Khan a favour by accepting Karan Arjun with him?
I hate to clarify things. But the fact is that I never did Salman any favour, he doesn't need any favours from me. He is a good-hearted guy. Initially, I didn't do Karan Arjun for whatever reason.
We bumped into each other in the Aradhana dubbing studio, he asked me if I had said that I didn't want to work with bodybuilding heroes. I told him that I didn't mean it at all. Things cleared up afterwards and I am sure Karan Arjun would not have been a big hit without Rakesh Roshan's belief in the film and Salman Khan's good vibes.
Do you think you end up making more enemies than friends?
I would like to believe that I have no enemies. I would also like to die believing that Madhuri Dixit, Juhi Chawla, Kajol, Adi (Aditya Chopra), Karan and Jai Mehta are my best friends. I don't associate with any of them in public but they know that in private I am sincere and genuinely happy when I am with them.
What about your pangas with Sunil Shetty and Sunny Deol?
Sunil and I started at the same time, he with Balwaan and I with Deewana. I had just made a general comment about junk food heroes and he thought I was talking about him. I wasn't. We met on a flight recently and cleared the air. As for Sunny, I haven't met him in a long time. I don't know him that well, socially or professionally.
Where would you say the rivalry exists?
Of course I have competition, but only from my co-stars.
What do you have to say about Akshaye Khanna?
I have not seen his films. And to say there are enough roles for all of us would be another cliche. Nor can I feign humility and say that I have been given so much by God, or that other actors could have played the roles as well as I did.
Let Akshaye, Aamir, Salman, Sunil Shetty and Akshay Kumar do their thing. And I will do mine. I just happen to be so much better. If that sounds arrogant, it is because the day I lose my arrogance, I will be finished. I would like to believe that there is a little of Hitler and Napoleon in me. Sorry, but even if I try, I cannot be as selfless as Mahatma Gandhi and Mother Teresa.
A side question. Do you regret any fights you had with your parents when you were a teenager?
I never fought with my parents. You don't really get rebellious until you're a teenager. My father was taken away from me when I was 15, before I could get on his nerves. He only hit me once in my life, when I was a child and dropped a glass of milk.
My mother died when I was 26. When all my rebellion, fights, struggles and growing up issues came out, I took them out in the film industry. As maudlin as it sounds, the film people became my parents. And look, I still fight and kick around.
Have you found surrogate parents?
I loved my parents so much that they can never be replaced. But yes, Aziz Mirza and my uncle Billu Abdul Wahid are like my fathers. They saw me grow up. I had my first taste of alcohol, and Indian whiskey, while doing Circus and I threw up. As for smoking, I started when I was 24. Mom asked me if I knew that cigarettes were bad for my health. I said yes, and she left it at that, saying, "As long as you know, you will get rid of the habit." I am still trying.
Finally, where do you see yourself in the next millennium?
To be honest, I believe in entertainment, in making people laugh and cry. I've become too used to making other people's dreams come true. I would feel left out if I stopped being involved in creating dreams.
I know there are these periods of rejection when an actor no longer finds favor. In the back of my mind there is this perhaps misplaced confidence that it won't happen to me.
If it does happen, I will have to be sensible enough to turn to films that only some people like. Perhaps it is not possible to please everyone all the time. I will cross that bridge when I reach it.