Posted:
http://idiva.com/news-entertainment/shah-rukh-khan-i-dont-want-to-stop-being-the-bad-guy/10794
Your remake of Don met with a lot of negative reviews. But Don 2 has been well recieved.
A lot of people who criticised the first version of Don were doing so for the sake of it. They hadn't even seen the original Don with Amitabh Bachchan. I like doing remakes. I did Devdas and I did Don. I really wish someone could remake Abhimaan with me. What I liked about my first Don was the way Farhan (Akhtar) made it. The way he narrated it to me was brilliant. I liked what he did with the last 10 minutes. The twist was something else. It was almost like The Sixth Sense.
We made a sequel after almost five years. Times have changed and I'm sure there's an audience that looks beyond arguments and wants to accept new films. Some films are ahead of their time. If you look closely, there aren't many remakes of films which have villains as the protagonist. That's intriguing. I've played the bad guy before in Baazigar and Darr. And I did so again in Don. I don't want to stop being the bad guy. Don 2 has a lot of style. Farhan has a vision and he achieves that. The lines that I say in the movie are not normal Bollywood fare, they're Hollywood. It's unique, stylish, cool.
Doesn't it bother you playing a bad guy especially since you're a parent and a role model?
You should be good at your job. My job is acting. An actor's got to do what he's got to do. If I was a miner, wouldn't I get my hands dirty digging coal? But yes, as an actor there are things I don't like to do. I don't like to portray physical proximity on screen. I find that extremely distasteful. Also, I hate using cuss words on screen. These are the two things I never do on screen.
Isn't it ironical that you don't mind exposing your kids to violence but have a problem with love?
There are different reasons for this. I can't show them myself in a love-making scene and tell them 'dude, it's a job'. It's okay to say that I'm flying, I'm fighting and I'm beating someone up on screen. My kids are gradually growing up. Aryan is 14 and Suhana 10. It's awkward. (Smiles) And there are enough actors who are kissing on screen.
Don't you think exposing kids to violence will eventually desensitise them to it?
Look at it this way. If I show my kids cartoon films, how will they be affected? Will they see the sense of humour? Cartoons today are the most violent. But it's done in a fun way. My son plays a lot of video games. I think it's better if he plays video games with his five friends and they punch their respective virtual characters than do it for real. I think we should expose our kids to violence in a controlled way. TV channels today are full of violence. Husbands beating wives, children being buried alive, they even showed Saddam Hussein's dead body. Look I'm an actor. I've glorified a Raj and a Rahul, I've glorified love. But I've met women who've told me, 'I married this guy thinking he's like Raj from Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (DDLJ) but he's not'. Do I take that in bad taste? I don't. One has to be sensible that it's just a movie. I don't believe in the role model thing. Sachin (Tendulkar) hits really hard. He is an aggressive batsman. That doesn't make him a bad role model. He gets angry a lot of times on field. Sourav Ganguly used to get angry. So do Yuvraj (Singh) and Bhajji (Harbhajan Singh). But they're role models. Sometimes, we are exposed to situations that bring out our aggressive side. The more you try to curb it, the more it will manifest itself. Like we should know, if we hit someone, we can get it back too. Just do not be violent. We should know the reality. My daughter couldn't see a film in which I die. So we used to edit those portions and then show it to her. Later on, I realised that I can't keep this reality from her. She has to understand that it's my job. So then I showed her those films and she cried. But then she was okay.
So you like playing a bad guy on screen?
Yes. Meaner, faster, sexier, I like it. These are the few things I really enjoy doing as an actor. Otherwise, I keep doing films like Chak De. (Laughs) I can be a robot too. In Don 2, I'm flying, jumping and punching people. I like the excitement. And somewhere I like the mean streak too. There is a scene in the film where Kunal (Kapoor) comes to me and says he can't work for me anymore and I ask him why. He says 'matters of the heart'. He says he's getting married to the girl he loves. Don will never let him go, so he says, 'I will kill your loved one, then what will you do?' I love saying such lines on screen. I enjoy them. I like doing mean things on screen. I like playing characters, which have no redeeming quality. Why should there be light?
What are the mean things you'd like to do in real life?
(Smiles) Lots of things, like scaring the shit out of someone.
What is it about darkness that attracts everyone?
Darkness will always be the most appealing aspect of life. Allah gave us light so we can kill darkness. Islam doesn't say that the birth of Adam and Eve was wrong. It wasn't punishment. But they eventually got it wrong. The whole idea was that an angel was supposed to be born. God made humans which were non-angelic creatures. He wanted to see if they could rise above the darkness. He wanted to test them. He has angels to rescue them but he put them to test too. Our whole life is about darkness. So brutality, anger, greed, lust, meanness are the first instincts of mankind. Have things changed? From politicians to mafia dons, where is the civilisation? We just wear garbs of being good people.
For an actor to give a good performance, does he need to tap into his dark side and do a dark role?
Yeah, somewhere that's true. All the beauty and love and romance that I've portrayed through my films is because I have this dark side. It's easier for me to play the good guy because I know my dark side. So I play the opposite and give a shot, where I have to tell my actresses 'aur paas, aur paas, aur paas (come closer).'
Give me an instance of your dark side?
I'm scary when I'm angry. People who have been subjected to my anger have seen it. I'm well-spoken always. But there are times when I get angry and I fight with an X, Y and Z. For 20 years now, I've been mellow. Very rarely do people see that angry side. Even Gauri was shocked to see this side of me once at an event when I got really angry. I would've killed them. It was that extreme. I try to control that streak. But too much control also doesn't work sometimes. So then, I just detach from people I don't like. I often get angry with journalists who interview me. I love giving interviews. But sometimes journalists take undue advantage of the fact that I'm open with them. Interviews should be done with the sole intention of interviewing and not misinterpreting. For example, if I say this girl was shooting with me right now and they see me give her a peck on the cheek, it will be reported as he was kissing her. I've heard them say, 'Yeh toh maze le raha hai' (He's having a good time). All this disturbs me. An actress I thought I knew went around telling everyone I made a pass at her. I felt angry and let down. I don't like someone who meets me with an agenda. But I'm told that I'm a public personality and people will meet me only with an agenda.
Why do you think RA.One received so much negativity, even though it's one of the biggest hits of the year?
I don't know. A critic wrote that the main reason I made this film is because I'm hitting mid-life crisis. Now tell me, how is that a critical appraisal of the film? I'll be nice to them to a certain extent. But not after this. My logic is, if you can get so personal, I can shut you out. But I choose not to do that. I've been in this industry for close to 20 years now. I have a house, cars, a production house. I own a cricket team too. I'm happy. I don't ask people for money to make films I want to. So when people are dismissive of me, I feel weird. They haven't even seen my film and they pass senseless comments. How am I supposed to react? That person neither has a vision, nor the imagination to make a film. But I do. I've made all kinds of films. At least respect that.
What lessons have you learnt from this negativity for RA.One and otherwise in general?
This negativity has made me understand a lot of things... that people around the world, whether it's Russia, China, Europe, people love me. But the sad thing is that my people love me less.
What sense do you make of people attacking you?
I get criticism from people. I mean if someone is at the top of their game for the last 20 years in this industry, why wouldn't people have an opinion? They would. But I find it strange when people tell me you don't make different films. The last love story I did was Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi and it wasn't a regular kinda love story. In that sense the last one was Kuch Kuch Hota Hai. Even Chalte Chalte was between married people. I've done Chak De! India, Swades, Don but still people tell me, 'You only do love stories ya'. I find it so strange. Guess you can't please all the people all the time. I choose films that make me happy. I love my job, it has given me everything. I have a lovely family. But still there are times when I'm sitting alone on the terrace and I'm sad. That frustrates me and I tell myself to just get over it.
How do you get over it?
By looking at my life. All I want to say is if I'm working in a film, I am the film. Deal with that. I'm not taking credit away from anyone but I am the film. If someone directs negativity towards me, that's okay, it's alright 'coz I'm happy doing my job. I own the world. I'm genuinely the king of the world. I live my life king-size and I will die like a king. Wherever I go with my kids, I make sure they live the best life. I've protected my family from all the negativity around me. When I'm sad, I hide it. I go into the bathroom, cry as much as I want and then come out to them. I can't begin to tell you how big a blessing the touch of my children's skin is to me. It's like God showering love upon me. I've realised that they are the two people who love me the most. On my birthday, they gifted me this card and it's the most wonderful gift I could ever get. It was a handmade card with a sweet message on it.
What does stardom mean to you?
There are millions of people who love me. They want to meet me and click pictures with me. I went to London for a premiere where there were Hollywood stars too. It was minus two degrees and still there were 200-odd people waiting to see me. They wanted a glimpse of me, take my autograph. That simply is stardom. Every year on my birthday, I stand on my roof to greet the people standing outside my gates. People say I do it to promote my film. But whenever I'm at home, I go to the terrace every Sunday to wave out to the people who gather there. I want to share that love they feel for me. I want to make everyone who comes in contact with me happy. I do not want to sound pompous when I say this. I'm not a star, a megastar or a superstar. I'm just a feeling that you cannot resist. When I attended the marathon in Delhi, the chief minister asked me to go inside and have chai. When I came out, I understood why she'd asked me to do that. For the first time in the history of a marathon event, I saw people running in the opposite direction. (Laughs) They did that just to see me. It was shocking. But people told me they could understand and why that happened.
Your remake of Don met with a lot of negative reviews. But Don 2 has been well recieved.
A lot of people who criticised the first version of Don were doing so for the sake of it. They hadn't even seen the original Don with Amitabh Bachchan. I like doing remakes. I did Devdas and I did Don. I really wish someone could remake Abhimaan with me. What I liked about my first Don was the way Farhan (Akhtar) made it. The way he narrated it to me was brilliant. I liked what he did with the last 10 minutes. The twist was something else. It was almost like The Sixth Sense.
We made a sequel after almost five years. Times have changed and I'm sure there's an audience that looks beyond arguments and wants to accept new films. Some films are ahead of their time. If you look closely, there aren't many remakes of films which have villains as the protagonist. That's intriguing. I've played the bad guy before in Baazigar and Darr. And I did so again in Don. I don't want to stop being the bad guy. Don 2 has a lot of style. Farhan has a vision and he achieves that. The lines that I say in the movie are not normal Bollywood fare, they're Hollywood. It's unique, stylish, cool.
Doesn't it bother you playing a bad guy especially since you're a parent and a role model?
You should be good at your job. My job is acting. An actor's got to do what he's got to do. If I was a miner, wouldn't I get my hands dirty digging coal? But yes, as an actor there are things I don't like to do. I don't like to portray physical proximity on screen. I find that extremely distasteful. Also, I hate using cuss words on screen. These are the two things I never do on screen.
Isn't it ironical that you don't mind exposing your kids to violence but have a problem with love?
There are different reasons for this. I can't show them myself in a love-making scene and tell them 'dude, it's a job'. It's okay to say that I'm flying, I'm fighting and I'm beating someone up on screen. My kids are gradually growing up. Aryan is 14 and Suhana 10. It's awkward. (Smiles) And there are enough actors who are kissing on screen.
Don't you think exposing kids to violence will eventually desensitise them to it?
Look at it this way. If I show my kids cartoon films, how will they be affected? Will they see the sense of humour? Cartoons today are the most violent. But it's done in a fun way. My son plays a lot of video games. I think it's better if he plays video games with his five friends and they punch their respective virtual characters than do it for real. I think we should expose our kids to violence in a controlled way. TV channels today are full of violence. Husbands beating wives, children being buried alive, they even showed Saddam Hussein's dead body. Look I'm an actor. I've glorified a Raj and a Rahul, I've glorified love. But I've met women who've told me, 'I married this guy thinking he's like Raj from Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (DDLJ) but he's not'. Do I take that in bad taste? I don't. One has to be sensible that it's just a movie. I don't believe in the role model thing. Sachin (Tendulkar) hits really hard. He is an aggressive batsman. That doesn't make him a bad role model. He gets angry a lot of times on field. Sourav Ganguly used to get angry. So do Yuvraj (Singh) and Bhajji (Harbhajan Singh). But they're role models. Sometimes, we are exposed to situations that bring out our aggressive side. The more you try to curb it, the more it will manifest itself. Like we should know, if we hit someone, we can get it back too. Just do not be violent. We should know the reality. My daughter couldn't see a film in which I die. So we used to edit those portions and then show it to her. Later on, I realised that I can't keep this reality from her. She has to understand that it's my job. So then I showed her those films and she cried. But then she was okay.
So you like playing a bad guy on screen?
Yes. Meaner, faster, sexier, I like it. These are the few things I really enjoy doing as an actor. Otherwise, I keep doing films like Chak De. (Laughs) I can be a robot too. In Don 2, I'm flying, jumping and punching people. I like the excitement. And somewhere I like the mean streak too. There is a scene in the film where Kunal (Kapoor) comes to me and says he can't work for me anymore and I ask him why. He says 'matters of the heart'. He says he's getting married to the girl he loves. Don will never let him go, so he says, 'I will kill your loved one, then what will you do?' I love saying such lines on screen. I enjoy them. I like doing mean things on screen. I like playing characters, which have no redeeming quality. Why should there be light?
What are the mean things you'd like to do in real life?
(Smiles) Lots of things, like scaring the shit out of someone.
What is it about darkness that attracts everyone?
Darkness will always be the most appealing aspect of life. Allah gave us light so we can kill darkness. Islam doesn't say that the birth of Adam and Eve was wrong. It wasn't punishment. But they eventually got it wrong. The whole idea was that an angel was supposed to be born. God made humans which were non-angelic creatures. He wanted to see if they could rise above the darkness. He wanted to test them. He has angels to rescue them but he put them to test too. Our whole life is about darkness. So brutality, anger, greed, lust, meanness are the first instincts of mankind. Have things changed? From politicians to mafia dons, where is the civilisation? We just wear garbs of being good people.
For an actor to give a good performance, does he need to tap into his dark side and do a dark role?
Yeah, somewhere that's true. All the beauty and love and romance that I've portrayed through my films is because I have this dark side. It's easier for me to play the good guy because I know my dark side. So I play the opposite and give a shot, where I have to tell my actresses 'aur paas, aur paas, aur paas (come closer).'
Give me an instance of your dark side?
I'm scary when I'm angry. People who have been subjected to my anger have seen it. I'm well-spoken always. But there are times when I get angry and I fight with an X, Y and Z. For 20 years now, I've been mellow. Very rarely do people see that angry side. Even Gauri was shocked to see this side of me once at an event when I got really angry. I would've killed them. It was that extreme. I try to control that streak. But too much control also doesn't work sometimes. So then, I just detach from people I don't like. I often get angry with journalists who interview me. I love giving interviews. But sometimes journalists take undue advantage of the fact that I'm open with them. Interviews should be done with the sole intention of interviewing and not misinterpreting. For example, if I say this girl was shooting with me right now and they see me give her a peck on the cheek, it will be reported as he was kissing her. I've heard them say, 'Yeh toh maze le raha hai' (He's having a good time). All this disturbs me. An actress I thought I knew went around telling everyone I made a pass at her. I felt angry and let down. I don't like someone who meets me with an agenda. But I'm told that I'm a public personality and people will meet me only with an agenda.
Why do you think RA.One received so much negativity, even though it's one of the biggest hits of the year?
I don't know. A critic wrote that the main reason I made this film is because I'm hitting mid-life crisis. Now tell me, how is that a critical appraisal of the film? I'll be nice to them to a certain extent. But not after this. My logic is, if you can get so personal, I can shut you out. But I choose not to do that. I've been in this industry for close to 20 years now. I have a house, cars, a production house. I own a cricket team too. I'm happy. I don't ask people for money to make films I want to. So when people are dismissive of me, I feel weird. They haven't even seen my film and they pass senseless comments. How am I supposed to react? That person neither has a vision, nor the imagination to make a film. But I do. I've made all kinds of films. At least respect that.
What lessons have you learnt from this negativity for RA.One and otherwise in general?
This negativity has made me understand a lot of things... that people around the world, whether it's Russia, China, Europe, people love me. But the sad thing is that my people love me less.
What sense do you make of people attacking you?
I get criticism from people. I mean if someone is at the top of their game for the last 20 years in this industry, why wouldn't people have an opinion? They would. But I find it strange when people tell me you don't make different films. The last love story I did was Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi and it wasn't a regular kinda love story. In that sense the last one was Kuch Kuch Hota Hai. Even Chalte Chalte was between married people. I've done Chak De! India, Swades, Don but still people tell me, 'You only do love stories ya'. I find it so strange. Guess you can't please all the people all the time. I choose films that make me happy. I love my job, it has given me everything. I have a lovely family. But still there are times when I'm sitting alone on the terrace and I'm sad. That frustrates me and I tell myself to just get over it.
How do you get over it?
By looking at my life. All I want to say is if I'm working in a film, I am the film. Deal with that. I'm not taking credit away from anyone but I am the film. If someone directs negativity towards me, that's okay, it's alright 'coz I'm happy doing my job. I own the world. I'm genuinely the king of the world. I live my life king-size and I will die like a king. Wherever I go with my kids, I make sure they live the best life. I've protected my family from all the negativity around me. When I'm sad, I hide it. I go into the bathroom, cry as much as I want and then come out to them. I can't begin to tell you how big a blessing the touch of my children's skin is to me. It's like God showering love upon me. I've realised that they are the two people who love me the most. On my birthday, they gifted me this card and it's the most wonderful gift I could ever get. It was a handmade card with a sweet message on it.
What does stardom mean to you?
There are millions of people who love me. They want to meet me and click pictures with me. I went to London for a premiere where there were Hollywood stars too. It was minus two degrees and still there were 200-odd people waiting to see me. They wanted a glimpse of me, take my autograph. That simply is stardom. Every year on my birthday, I stand on my roof to greet the people standing outside my gates. People say I do it to promote my film. But whenever I'm at home, I go to the terrace every Sunday to wave out to the people who gather there. I want to share that love they feel for me. I want to make everyone who comes in contact with me happy. I do not want to sound pompous when I say this. I'm not a star, a megastar or a superstar. I'm just a feeling that you cannot resist. When I attended the marathon in Delhi, the chief minister asked me to go inside and have chai. When I came out, I understood why she'd asked me to do that. For the first time in the history of a marathon event, I saw people running in the opposite direction. (Laughs) They did that just to see me. It was shocking. But people told me they could understand and why that happened.
And I still remember the interview from quite a few months back when he said he was a "light" person who liked playing fun roles. 
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