'If you want me to quit smoking, make it illegal'
Thursday, November 01, 2007 12:10 IST
Read the full transcript of Ayaz Memon's interview with Shah Rukh Khan as he talks about stardom, being a safe bet and why he often feels like a blinkered-racehorse.
You look all set to play a game...
SRK: I have trained my kids in such a way, that they come home from school, play till about six in the evening, and then eat their food. They then go and play some more and come back, all dirty, at 10 in the night. Even if they don't study, they must play. I used to do that myself, in Delhi.
So Chak de was a real-life statement too?
SRK: I believe there is nothing better in this world, than sports. If I weren't an actor, I would have been a sportsman. Even now, when we play at our film shoots, I play like a player. I believe that you should play to win: give it your best shot, and work very hard even if it tires you out.
You were slated to do Lagaan. What happened?
SRK: Actually, Lagaan started with me. I didn't refuse it - we didn't have the money to make it back then. I took him [Ashutosh Gowarikar] to three producers. I remember when he came to me with that film, I had malaria, so we sat in my house, and the first posters are lying in my computer.
At the time we had a different idea: we actually wanted Sachin [Tendulkar], Ajay Jadeja and Kapil Dev to play characters in the film. Then someone made a sports movie, which flopped badly. We used to go to producers and though they would all talk nicely, once Ashutosh left they would refuse the project.
Then I took Ashutosh to the US where we met two producers. Even they refused. No one wanted to produce it. Then after six months, Aamir came into the picture.
Did you talk to Aamir about it?
SRK: Aamir came to take the equipment from us and I think he was convinced about the film. I felt the fact that Aamir was doing it was fantastic. I also felt that because Aamir did it, Lagaan is a better film. They had lot more patience, I would have never been able to do it.
Om Shanti Om is your sixth movie as a producer, is it an in-house vehicle for yourself?
SRK: No. My movies are never in-house vehicles. It is just very fortunate in that, so far, I have been a profitable star to make a film with. My idea behind the company is to make films a lot of other people would not want to make. To survive, however, you need to make money, this in turn would allow us to make the next movie.
We were not ready to borrow money: we were very clear on one thing - we wanted to make films on our own steam. That is the driving principle behind our production house. Of course, now there is a lot of synergy and collaboration, but I still would not like to succumb. Insallah, with Om Shanti Om, I feel that we may not have to succumb for another two years, as we will make money off, what I feel, is a good film.
One hears you got a whopping Rs75 crore for the worldwide rights to the film...
SRK: Those figures are wrong. But Insallah, I am hoping that after its release the movie will set a record. When I see the film now, I feel that it is a very safe, commercial film, and if we get it right, we will be in a position to make money. And then I will make two or three films next year and try not to star in them. If it is required to do a song for marketing, then it's ok. The idea is to make film with newcomers.
When you started, your company was to make medium-sized films...
SRK: I need to have a wider film like Om Shanti Om or Chalte Chalte on the back of it. I can experiment mainly because I am not using somebody else's money. We have twice been in trouble, once after Asoka and then Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustan. We were on the verge of closing down.
I don't like that feeling. I worry not only for myself, but also for the 120 people working for me. Closing down means even though I will continue with my acting, they will have to go home.
You hate to lose?
SRK: I am very clear. I just read this fantastic line: "The race is not over, because I haven't won yet."
Have you fully recovered from your back surgery?
SRK: After my back surgery, the first two years were not too good, although I didn't tell anyone. Anything I did used to hurt, but now I feel on top of the world, physically. Mentally I am very refreshed because the kids are growing up and I like their energy, and I am trying to attach myself to their thought processes.
There's been a lot of drama surrounding your six-pack. Are you riding a trend, saying this is how to lick the competition?
SRK: I don't believe there is competition. I am very pompous about that. A six-pack is not a sign of good health, it is a physicality like having a good haircut, so it's not like kuch kamaal ho gaya.
To get there, however, you have to be very healthy. I enjoy the effort it takes to get a six-pack more than the muscle itself. If you see the film, in the first half I am a little soft - physically - and there is a song where I am without a shirt. So it is almost like a double role.
A double role is something I have done before, but here I thought I could do something different. I like the physical transformation and I feel it is simply a part of my job. It has become a big thing, but even actors like Marlon Brando, Aamir and Abhishek have done it. It's quite subtle, it's not like I am naked.
Are you on edge about around the release of your film?
SRK: I get a little numb. I don't know if I get very nervous, but I go very quiet during my release; and this is not just in interviews, personally I become quieter. I internalise the whole thing. I equate a film's release, in a very strange way, to the death of a dear one.
You can't do anything about the person, you can't bring him back, there is a bit of sadness: 'what was mine for all this while will not be mine from Friday, what will God do with her, what will happen to her up in the skies, will it go to heaven, don't know. All we do is pray for its good'. Till this point, Farah and I were controlling everything, but now has the film has gone into a world, which we know exists, but know nothing about.
Being such a popular public figure, how do you retain your sanity?
SRK: I am supposed to entertain, so there are no excuses. It is like telling a cricketer, you have problems at home so it is ok if you don't get a century today. The greatest downer of being a public figure is your inability to surprise people all the time. If Sachin scores runs and hits a century, people are like: 'he is scoring a century so what's the big deal?'. He will only surprise people if he scores 250.
When you came to Mumbai in 1991 did you aspire to be the Badshah of Bollywood?
SRK: Nothing like that. I was exactly the same as I am now. I am a bit reclusive, which is a bit of a problem, but I just want to act. Every morning, every shot, every film, every scene is what is important to me. When I came to Mumbai, I had a million small pleasures I wanted to give vent to, now the number has decreased, but there are still enough for me to feel happy.
You haven't become cynical?
SRK: I am an immensely positive person, I feel it is the people around me who have become cynical. I find myself telling some of the guys and girls who started out with me to relax and have a good time. I am still attached to the silliness I had in my youth and that is why I am still young. I am a doer, not a thinker.
Are you a risk-taker?
SRK: My popularity is so much that it blankets some of the risk in cinema, and I am ok with that. People say I don't work with newcomers. But I have, I can't help it if they become big people after that movie. I am one of the first actors to have a production house, which is not just making movies, it is making statements.
So there is a suppressed philosopher who emerges in your movies?
SRK: I think more than a philosopher, it is a storyteller. Your story should be like an Aesop's Fable, where there is no story as such, but there is an essence. Like Om Shanti Om, where the essence is that at the end of your life, everything will turn out happy. All my films always have a funda.
I have never made a film just like that. I like a lot of films that I don't produce. I was supposed to produce Swades, but I am not a serious filmmaker. I can't make a film only on funda; there should be song dance, fun and frolic. An intelligent person can see through these layers.
Do you wake up every morning and check your competition - 'who's doing what, am I on the right track'? ; ;
SRK: There are two things you can do. One, is you can decide to gauge the competition and plan your life according to them. Unfortunately you can't control their lives so you never know what they are going to do and how they will do it. Second is to just lead your life and follow your heart.
Will I run faster than him is not important; will I run the fastest...that's what is important. So, is my life going to depend upon other people's success and failures? No. My life will depend upon what I think and what I can achieve.
I don't watch anyone else's films unless they are my friends like Ashutosh, Aamir, Salman. This year I might not have watched a single film. It's like a horse at the race with blinkers on. It doesn't know who the other horses are.
Basically what you are saying is that you are living life on your own terms?
SRK: I have been very lucky. People like me so much that defeat is next to impossible. This year my standard is Chak de, which is a fantastic film. So I don't stress about Sawaariya or any other film, which with all due respect, may be great films. My problem is how I will better Chak de. So it is up to me to go out and beat myself.
Are you a method actor? Do you internalise a lot?
SRK: I am the most unreal of actors. I say this in interviews, and people get very disturbed because people who work with me say 'Shah Rukh you are such a thinking actor'. My job is to make the audience feel that acting comes naturally to me. As an actor my job is to show the character on screen, not myself. Method acting is very difficult for me.
This is a profession driven by ambition and envy. How do you tackle all of it?
SRK: There are three aspects to competition: The first is physical. I know that, physically, I am not the best-looking actor in the industry. I remember once Mansoor Khan told me that he was glad that ugly people like myself were doing work, as there would different roles for us. I have done well without being the best-looking hero.
The second aspect is jealously. I don't believe anyone is jealous of me, if so, the work will speak for itself: I don't have to tell you how much better I am. The third aspect is competition in material.
I am an economics student and I have a very simple agenda: less money less time, can't be more money more time. I say time is money, which is a very simple agenda. I tell everyone - nobody believes me - I don't make any money. You give me the money when the film is over.
There have been defaults, but that's ok. Sometimes, defaulted films have given me so much. I won't name them, but I have earned Rs100 crore in goodwill. I can't take money from someone who has himself lost money. If you lose money with a Shah Rukh Khan film then shame on me. Over the last few years - in a sense - I have become the biggest thing in films, sometimes nearly as big as a producer.
This is very contrary to the perceived image of Shah Rukh Khan as a money-crazed actor.
SRK: I am very clear. It is nice to have material goals. If you like a good thing have it. I am not telling you to be underhanded, manipulative or dishonest in yearning for material wealth. I am a middle-class boy; I have all the beauty of the world and I don't even use it.
It is very contrary to what the perceived image of Shah Rukh Khan is?
SRK: I am very clear, the reason I can do this with the love of my films is because I ma used to good material. It is nice to have material goals, if you like a good thing have it. God made us, we made those things for luxury, and you want to buy a car think of a plane, if these things get fulfilled fantastic.
I always tell youngsters that today the world has become like that, I am not telling you to be underhand, manipulative or dishonest in yearning for material, honesty, hard work and a dream like quality and if you think it will come. I am a middle class boy, I have all the beauty of the world and believe you me I don't even use it. So at the end of it I realise that maybe I did not need something but when I got it I felt happy.
You did a bold scene in Maya Memsaab early in your career. Would you do explicit scenes now?
SRK: No, I don't even kiss my heroines. I don't even ride horses because I get scared. I don't do kissing scenes because I feel awkward doing them. Even in Kank, I had a love scene with Rani, but that was part of the film. I will not do it just for commercial reasons.
There has been talk in Bollywood about camps and even starts have consolidated positions, big starts opening their own production houses, I am the face, we will have our set of people and work together, Is that true?
SRK: No, that's not true. To be honest, all of us in media to give a story a beginning and an end we make it up and write it that way. But bottom line is, I produce films with Aziz and Juhi because we were making a film and we didn't have a producer so we decided lets do it for ourselves.
But beyond that business wise I think there are very few people who have started production for the sake of doing everything. If you notice also, most of the guys also, for instance Aamir is producing this film that is not in a way commercial, which is Taare Zameen Pe, Lagaan also nobody wanted to until Aamir did it. So if you notice, we actors sometimes feel that let us do something good that nobody else will. So I don't think so that all this is really true.
How do you plan your roles? Do you observe life around you?
SRK: I am very observant, and I absorb, this was taught to me by an actor called KM Singh. I met him one day and he was blind. He met me at a party and put his hand on my face and said bade khoobsurat ho tum. He couldn't see me, his nephew Pushkar introduced me and then he looked at me and said, 'I want you to do one thing, observe absorb and use it out when called upon to do so'. I think people like heroes, so I play it over-the-top. I play to the galleries.
You started off as a theater actor. Do you think that is more challenging than cinema?
SRK: It is more fun. I do live stage shows, not just dance shows. I also do talk shows, and stand-up comic acts. When the audience laughs with me, at that moment, I am richer than Mukesh [Ambani], Lakshmi [Mittal] and Bill Gates put together. It is very satisfying, but I enjoy the film work also.
You have a great sense of humor. Is that in-born or is that cultivated?
SRK: I think my father was like that. He had a great sense of humour, sometimes it could be cutting depending on the person..
What's next for you?
SRK: I don't know. I have this lifetime dream of making a studio. To give the industry a studio where one can walk in and say 'wow it's nice to be a filmmaker'. I have the next seven months free; I don't have any films lined up. I want to play sports for a month. I also like to read, I have a library of about 5,000 books.
Are you worried about age or not playing a hero?
SRK: I don't think so. I am 42 and still playing youthful roles
Would you accept a character actor's role?
SRK: I played a 55-year-old man in Veer Zara; I played it when I was 39. I am a theatre guy so I will play anything. You have to be a hero: You never win the silver, you lose the gold. Even if I have a small role in a film I believe that I am the hero. I wouldn't have had said this when I was 40, but I can say it now.
I am really felling 27 or 28, more mentally than physically, and there is this will to endear myself a new audience, which starts at the age of seven and ends at 20. I will work towards this new audience that likes Twenty20 cricket.
Have you ever thought of leaving India?
SRK: I love my country and I love it unconditionally. I like my country the way it is. I have never walked down on a road in Delhi or Mumbai and said, 'Singapore is better'. I have huge regard for the people who have made this country the way it is.
Do you think that too much money can diminish creativity?
SRK: There is a simple word we use in Economics, 'diminishing marginal utility'. Money has also got diminishing returns, there is nothing more diminishing in its utility than money. People say too much is bad once you have reached the stage of enoughness [sic], beyond that point money does not make a difference.
You become more spiritual, which I am I think right now. I don't think being materialistic is a bad thing, but the heart and the head have to be in the right place. When that happens you don't have to sell your soul, which I have done to make my films. I have no regrets, I am very happy.
How much is enough for you?
SRK: There is no quantification. If I walk into a shop to buy clothes and I can't decide between two shirts, then I should have the money to buy them both.
Are you enamoured of your own power?
SRK: It humbles you; it doesn't quantify power at all. Power is very subjective. I get this award every year - the most powerful guy in the film industry. Believe me, I am so powerless that I have two directors who have decided not to work with me. I don't call any shots, except the creative ones.
One day I was driving down from Khandala with Aziz and Juhi, and there is this point from where we could see lots of houses down below. Juhi and Aziz said that all the people staying in those houses have different problems, but they have one thing in common, they know Shah Rukh Khan. And that I think is the humbling thing, that I am an integral part of their lives.
Do controversies affect you, or do you take them in your stride?
SRK: I think my right to information makes me ask all these organisations: 'tell me how many people you have sued in the last two years for smoking in public'. I would like to find out that number. I find that a little stupid. I smoked because there was an ashtray. I feel very bad that I am an icon for the youth and I have a bad habit. I would like to tell people not to do it, but having said that, it is my life, if you want me to change it then make it illegal. I don't do drugs; I don't drink I don't run red lights; I don't do anything that is illegal.
You are turning 42 on November 2, what is it that you are really looking forward to?
SRK: I want my kids to be very educated: that's the thing that I want from life. Eighty per cent of education is sports. It teaches you team spirit, it teaches you how to lose, it teaches you how to win, and it teaches you how to control your emotions. I think education is more than just chemistry, physics and maths. They don't need to be known as Shah Rukh Khan's children. I should have my place and they should have theirs.
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