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| Shah Rukh Khan is angry. Very angry. A part of the press in Mumbai has taken on the awesome responsibility of proving his career is over, after Hrithik Roshan’s sudden impact in Kaho Naa... Pyar Hai. Shah Rukh can laugh off the absurdity of the logic applied to the Hrithik-up-Shah Rukh-down argument. What he doesn’t find amusing is the way the media has been using his recent setbacks at the b-o as an occasion to hit him below the belt. Hurt, angry and determined to fight back in his own way against the grossly unfair allegations and assumptions regarding his career, Shah Rukh has decided to stay away from the press. Indefinitely. Given a choice, he would have preferred not to allow this interview to be printed. But he’s too much of a gentleman to retract a full-fledged interview. In a comprehensive heart-to-heart, I try to discover what makes Shah Rukh Khan tick. Like a timebomb... |
I’ve died earlier in films like Darr and Anjaam. But you’re right. Since I played nasty sorts in these, it didn’t hurt. But Baazigar hurt. And I’m going to die in Devdas, aren’t I?
Some people think Hey Ram flopped because your role was brief.
I think the marketing of the film up North (where Shah Rukh’s presence was played up) was wrong. I did the film only for Mr Kamal Haasan. And I was very clear in my head about that. In fact he was very upset with the way the hoardings in Mumbai were presented. My role should have been projected as a small, interesting cameo. But I guess everyone has his own strategy for producing and marketing a film. That’s why I’ve turned producer, myself. I can do it my on way.
Yes but the majority of the films you do will still be for other producers.
Yes, but I plan to do only three films a year of which one will be for my own company. We’ll be producing several films every year, starting with Santosh Sivan’s film. Yes, we’re planning to make a film together on the historical figure, Ashoka The Great.
You’re planning to play Ashoka The Great in Santosh Sivan’s film?
Yes, why not? If I can play Devdas, why can’t I play Ashoka the Great? It’s not going to be a routine costume drama, mind you. I know people will jump at the idea of Shah Rukh Khan doing a period film. But we have something different in mind. I can’t speak much on it because I don’t know how much Santosh wants me to divulge. But we are going to make a film that’s different from the usual historicals.
Starting with Hey! Ram, I see a movement towards a different kind of cinema in your career
But I wouldn’t have done Hey! Ram for anyone except Kamal Haasan, unless I was offered Saket Ram’s role. For him, I would’ve even done a walk-on part. I don’t think I’m cut out for period films. I don’t have the patience for getting into costumes and beards and creating pre-set characters. I like to play characters I can create on screen, perhaps guys who don’t really exist? So okay the guy in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai contained realistic elements. But he was basically a fantasy figure. I was inspired by five or six characters I had met. But if I play, say, Mahatma Gandhi, I can’t do that. I don’t have the will, patience or perhaps even the talent to play real characters. May be I will, five years down the line. But right now, no. I was offered the role of Dr Ambedkar, you know.
What are your convictions as an actor?
Very simple. I should enjoy myself in doing a part as much as Michael J
Fox does. I don’t like the role Nicholas Cage played in Leaving Las Vegas,
though I liked him in Face Off. I get depressed by serious films. I shed
real tears when I see Naam, Imtihaan, Bambi or Awakenings. But sorry, I
don’t get moved by something like The Green Mile. I thought it was awful.
It just went on and on.
Are you as comfortable working with Shashilal Nair in One Two Ka Four as you are with Karan Johar and Aditya Chopra?
In some ways, more so. The world that Karan and Aditya create are a little alien to me. I feel comfortable doing such roles, but they aren’t really challenging in the sense that there’s only goodness in their vision. It’s wonderful to be part of such a positive outlook. God willing, Aditya and Karan will go through life without seeing anything negative. But I like to portray blood and sweat as well. I like to see American Beauty.
So are actors in Hollywood smarter than their counterparts in Mumbai?
No, I guess they’re more experienced. They’re more exposed to screenplays of every kind. Over here, compromises creep into even the most adventurous scripts. I think the conditioning in Hindi cinema is a bit wrong. It’s very difficult to get away from a fixed mindset. That’s why I enjoy working with people like Kamal Haasan and Mani Ratnam. May be they help me get rid of all my pre-conditioning as an actor.
Would you say your detractors got a chance to criticise you because of what happened to Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani?
To an extent, may be. They have been hitting out at me for a long time. Now, they have new evidence of how unworthy I am of stardom. If it makes them happy, let them say what they like. I know what these guys are all about. I don’t want to give them too much importance. It’s their profession. They shouldn’t compromise with it. It’s almost as if other people seem to wish to make up their minds on my behalf. They seem to know me better than I do.
After the way Hrithik Roshan is being projected as your successor could you be embarrassed to work with him in Karan Johar’s film Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham?
Actually I’m embarrassed by your question. Because I don’t know what to say. No matter what I say, it would sound pompous or patronising. I don’t think the matter is important enough for me to react. For me the film, not my co-star, is important, with due respect to Hrithik, Salman, Aamir and all my other colleagues. When you say, “Shah Rukh Khan you can’t touch this,” I may be wrong. But that’s how I feel. People may think I’m being pompous. But I genuinely feel I work very hard. And nobody messes around with me. From Motilal to my son Aryan, nobody can touch this. It’s so stupid, but every year since I came into films, some one or the other has been about to overtake me. When I came in, I was a nobody. In some ways I’m still a nobody. So overtaking me is no big deal.
How can you say you’re a nobody when you feel no one can touch you?
If you want to be successful you need to be yourself. The achievement is not in removing Amitabh Bachchan or Shah Rukh Khan. The achievement is in being Amitabh Bachchan or Shah Rukh Khan. I think the magazines that pitch one actor against another miss the point entirely. There’s no need to compare one actor to another for either to succeed. For me, Aamir Khan will always be a good actor. I don’t even want to be diplomatic by claiming there’s a place for everyone.
No one takes my place. That’s what’s so unique about me. I guard my place very zealously and I’m proud of it. I can be No 27 or No 1000. But there cannot be another Shah Rukh Khan. Honestly do you think there’s another Amitabh Bachchan, Rajesh Khanna or Balraj Sahni. If people are stupid enough to compare me, Aamir or Salman with Amitabh Bachchan, I tell them even the three of us together cannot be Amitabh Bachchan. We never will be of the same time. Salman, Aamir and I are all very important in our places. And we should stick to what makes us special. I think I am a special star. My place cannot be taken by anyone. No one should even try to have another Shah Rukh Khan would be very boring and repetitive. As it is, people find me repetitive!
I never think of myself as a number. I am not in this game. But I guess journalists get salaries for writing what they do. So there’s no point in discussing this at all.
What further plans do you have for Dreamz Unlimited?
Oh, we have loads of them. Aziz Mirza is working on three subjects. In six months, he will decide which film he wants to make next. I have Abbas-Mustan on the line, too, and of course, Farah Khan. She was thinking of co-producing her film with someone else. Now we’ll do it ourselves. Then I have some offbeat subjects in mind, all of which I’m working on.
Wouldn’t you like to be associated with films that go to festivals?
I’d like to be associated with films that are associated with Shah Rukh Khan. You know there’s a certain criteria for quality. I am that quality. My films should be the Shah Rukh Khan kind of films. But yes, I’d like to be part of American Beauty or Oh Darling Yeh Hai India or Kabhi Haan Kabhi Na. So I have done films that were of a certain sensibility. I have never done a film for its commercial value alone.
I have a feeling Devdas is going to be the opus of your career?
No, that would be ending my story too soon. It’s certainly an important film and I’m looking forward to it. I have never played a drunkard before. That’s one of the things that excites me about Devdas. I love to over-simplify matters. Beyond that I know nothing about Devdas. I hardly remember the old version. I haven’t read the novel by Saratchandra Chatterjee. The closest I have come to seeing Devdas is Leaving Las Vegas. I may be completely wrong. But that is what I think Devdas is.
So do you see Devdas as a very special film?
I think all my films are very special. It sounds like a cliche, but to single any one film out is like playing favourites among my children. There will be no difference between Aryan and my second child.
Are you seriously proud of all your films?
Yes, because all of them were done with the intention of doing something from the heart. Like my first film, Deewana. Do you know Raj Kanwar had already shot with Armaan Kohli before I stepped into the role? I just followed Raj Kanwar’s instructions in Deewana. In that sense, I owe the impact I made to him. Obviously, his style was different from mine. But the passion was the same. Even in Mr Yash Chopra’s films, we share an equal passion, though his style of acting is different from mine. See,I need to be instructed by my directors. But nobody can tell me to do a scene exactly the way he wants. My scenes are done the Shah Rukh Khan way.
Don’t you think your career is going into a new phase?
Every actor passes through four or five phases in his career. I think I’m going through the second-and-a-half or third phase of my career. The first phase was the kind where everyone says, “My aunt saw you on television and she said you’d make it big. We all knew it all along.”
The second phase in my career was where everyone including me accepted I was a star. I realised I had been given a special position. That was about a year-and-half ago, when I accepted I was a star who could do no wrong. Then starts the questioning phase. The “Is he a star?” routine. That’s the phase I’m going through right now.