Originally posted by srk_preity_kajo
Bollywood superstar ShahRukh Khan talks to VIKRAM KHANNA about his past and future roles, in movies and in life
AS MOVIE stars go, ShahRukh Khan is about as larger-than-life as you can get. In India, where popular culture rules supreme and movies are part of the national DNA, everybody knows Shah Rukh. The consummate entertainer has won just about every award an Indian movie star can win. 'All that's left is Best Actress,' he likes to say.
ShahRukh Khan's face is plastered on movie hoardings and posters across India. In cinema theatres and homes, millions of people, from pre-teens to grandmothers, from all walks of life, have laughed and cried watching his movies. Hit songs from his films blare loudly in markets, tea shops and dhabas - India's truckstop eateries - and indeed, even in the side-streets of Little India in Singapore. Shah Rukh's fans chase after his car, wait for him at airports, chat with him on the Internet and devour everything that India's tell-all movie magazines report about him.
And it isn't just in India. During the International Indian Film Academy awards in Singapore in May 2004 - the Bollywood equivalent of the Oscars - thousands of fans, many of whom had come from elsewhere in South-east Asia, screamed at the mere glimpse of ShahRukh Khan. His hit movie Kal Ho Na Ho ('Whether Tomorrow Comes or Not'), a romantic weepie set to haunting music, won Best Picture.
Shah Rukh's personal bodyguard, a strapping karate black belt named Yasin Khan, told me that when they were in Germany for a movie shooting this year, the star found himself mobbed on the streets. He is a phenomenon in places as far afield as Russia and the Middle East, Poland and Vietnam.
In what is considered something of a public relations coup, India's largest private-sector bank, ICICI Bank (in which both Temasek Holdings and the GIC of Singapore have a stake) has signed on ShahRukh Khan as its 'brand ambassador' for an undisclosed sum of money. Recently, the bank brought him to Singapore - it has already taken him to London and Dubai - to show him off. In an evening function at the Shangri-La hotel last Saturday, the Bollywood icon entertained about 800 of the bank's clients and stakeholders. He gave a little talk, took questions from the floor and then, true to persona, pulled people out of the audience at random and danced with them on stage to the Bollywood beat.
The bank picked Shah Rukh, according to its Singapore general manager Suvek Nambiar, because he embodies many of the qualities that the bank sees in itself: energy, youth, enthusiasm, techno-savvy and global appeal. 'It also has to do with winning,' says Mr Nambiar. 'Shah Rukh is associated with winning, and so is ICICI Bank.'
My interview with Shah Rukh on Saturday afternoon is at the offices of the bank in Republic Plaza. He is, of course, instantly recognisable, despite the beginnings of a beard. 'You look familiar,' I say, though adding that probably the last place I'd expect to be seeing him was in a bank. He chuckles. 'If you did, I'd probably be robbing the bank. But as an actor, it's always nice to surprise people.'
Standing at about 170 cms, in real life ShahRukh Khan seems smaller than in his movies. Regular gym workouts - and a lot of dancing - have kept him trim. He is, as you would expect, totally at ease with lights and cameras, as well as questions; he has sat through about half-a-dozen interviews before this one, but still looks fresh and focused.
Faithful to the script, he knows he has to say something about his new association with the bank. 'To be really honest, I did not think my profile fits into something as serious as banking,' he confesses. 'But when I met up with Mr Kamath (ICICI Bank's CEO) he was very kind and patient with me. And I am a customer. The only bank account I have opened personally has been with ICICI Bank.'
He has been impressed with the service, he says. 'When I spend money on my credit card with ICICI Bank, I get an e-mail within hours.'
'But that's because you're ShahRukh Khan, right?'
'But I don't get e-mails from other banks,' he replies.
ICICI Bank is, however, only the latest in a string of products and services that Shah Rukh has endorsed. He has also endorsed about two dozen other brand names, including Pepsi, Bagpiper whisky, Cinthol soap, Hyundai cars, Omega watches and Mayur suitings. 'I think I can be in the Guinness Book of World Records as the hero who has sold the maximum number of products,' he has said.
Shah Rukh is unabashed about his willingness to endorse products. That's his way of winning the freedom to make the sort of movies he loves. 'There is this image of me that I'm very business-minded, commercially inclined,' he says. 'Which I am, and there's nothing wrong with that. You have to be comfortable - although you need to work hard and you should not be dishonest.
'But I only make about three films a year. And I don't charge for them. If you want to sign me for a film, you can only do that if I like your story. You can't buy ShahRukh Khan, either by money, association or friendship. But if I like your story, I'll do it. If you ask me 'how much', I will answer, 'whatever you say. If you want to pay me, fine, if you don't want to pay me, that's also fine. And it has happened many times. Producers have come back and said, Shah Rukh, we can't pay. And I have said, 'it's OK'.
'But however good one tries to be about these things, you see other movie stars, and they have a lifestyle, which you also want - the more so when you're younger. You want a good car, a good house, a good life. So there has to be a kind of balance.
'So I thought, OK, I will do live shows, and I will do advertisements, which before me no movie star had done. Now everyone's doing it. I was told by many marketing experts 'Shah Rukh, this is going to overexpose you, you'll burn out, it'll destroy you as an actor'.
'But I thought this would be a good way to put my investments in different areas - by earning from one area, I would be able to choose what I want to do in the other area, without having to worry about where my money's going to come from.
'And it's not just about me earning money, it's also about me wanting to produce films where I don't need to borrow money. I'm a bit old fashioned. I don't even like to borrow from banks. Using my own money enables me to make films that are creative, to take a chance, even if it goes wrong. That's why I do endorsements and live shows. I even dance at weddings. No medium is too small for me. It gives me the money to do what I want to do.'
What ShahRukh Khan wants to do most of all - his passion, his singular mission in life - is to entertain. He is not known for 'character acting'. He is most often cast in roles where he flirts with the girls, makes wisecracks, sings and dances and gets his viewers all emotional. 'I play to the gallery,' he has said. 'More than an actor, I am a performer. I like to give style to every movement that I do. There are moments when I know that if I look in a certain way, it will surely make my audience cry.'
But now, Indian movies are changing. Bollywood used to be called India's 'dream factory' because it churned out formulaic movies that featured the stuff of the common man's dreams: lavish lifestyles, glamorous heroines, torrid romances, elaborately choreographed dances, and catchy songs. For a long time, more serious movies that eschewed the formula - they were called 'art movies' - were, at best, modest commercial successes. But in recent years, with the rise of India's middle class and with more and more people realising their material dreams, tastes in movies have been changing. Productions like Rang de Basanti ('Colour it Saffron') and Black - both non-formula films - have done well at the box office. Would an out-and-out entertainer like ShahRukh Khan be out of sorts in a new era of more serious, cerebral films?
'Even though I am fantastic looking, I am still quite intelligent,' says Shah Rukh, never one for false modesty. 'When you have worked for 16 years in cinema, done about 50 films, never had anyone explain to you how cinema in India really works and done OK for yourself at the cost of sometimes being called a 'ham' - luckily I'm not in a Muslim country, if I was and someone called me a ham, I'd have a fatwa on me - you learn a lot.
'Yes, I have chosen to entertain you more than make you think. I've done some silly stories. Sometimes I do sacrifice thought for emotion. I can go over the top. But I'll be honest. If people see you restrained and dignified, they think you're a great actor. If you're flamboyant and you jump around and romance the girls, they think you are silly. But that's OK, that's entertainment. And I'm a great believer - honestly so, shamelessly so, vulgarly so - that cinema is for entertainment. If you want to send messages, there's the postal service.
'But yes, a film like Rang de Basanti is an amazing piece of work. It's both entertaining and thoughtful. A film like Black, while not entertaining, is very intense and makes you thinK
'But even these movies are made by filmmakers. Actors only act in them. So if there are going to be cerebral filmmakers, I'm sure they'll still choose me. Because they have to sell their film. And as dumb as I may be, I sell.'
In the future, Shah Rukh has said, the chances are that Bollywood, rather than Hollywood, will rule the world. 'Yes, we will be a great superpower,' he says. 'But it's not going to happen overnight. It's not like we'll wake up tomorrow morning and find we are all over the world.
'But you can see the signs. When I do a film, I just know this is going to work. It's hard to describe. I know my audience is global. Absolutely. I know that whatever I do, it must transcend barriers of culture and language, because it's about emotions.
'My films run in Poland. I had to look up Poland on the map to remind myself exactly where it was and find out things about it. I discovered that Copernicus was from Poland.'
'It's like ICICI Bank. This is not a bank only for Indians. It's an Indian bank that's good enough to be an international bank. When you walk into their offices in London for example, it has the feel and all the professionalism of an international bank, but it has this Indian touch to it. It's the same with our films.'
I ask Shah Rukh whether his audiences might yet, one day, see him in a Hollywood movie. 'It's not as if Steven Spielberg is waiting outside LA for me to arrive, he says. 'I don't really have a USP for Hollywood. I'm a 40-year-old actor. I don't dance like John Travolta. I don't fight like Bruce Lee. I don't even think my English is up to American standards. I'm sure there are 40-year-old guys in Hollywood who can do a better job.
'So when agents come to me offering me Hollywood roles, I say 'come on, it's a waste of time'. I make Indian films. I would like Hollywood to buy my films and show them to the world. I'd feel very proud if that can happen.
'But if a big producer or director from Hollywood decides to make a film about India, in India, with an actor who's 40 years old with brown skin, then I might fit the bill. That's the only way I'll do a Hollywood film. But I've never had a great offer from Hollywood. And I don't feel bad about it.'
Before Shah Rukh leaves to get ready for his Shangri-La function, I have a last question. I ask him: 'You have everything. You have fame, fortune, friends, family, respect and the love of a whole nation. What is left? What else do you want?'
He thinks for a moment. 'At this stage, I guess I would like to return to not wanting anything,' he says. 'I never thought I'd be thinking like this when I'm 40. Forty is the age when you should really be going out and doing all the things you want. But in the last few years, I've felt that I should now start giving back to the world what it has given me, most of all a lot of love.
'I want to do it through my work - I'm not going to be a philanthrophist, I'm still going to be an actor. But through my work I want to do something that will, somehow, be thanking people. Whether it is nutty, funny or cerebral, whatever people want, I will try to give them. I have no opinion left, I have no dream role left, I just have to be what people want me to be.
'I have no shame. I will not say, 'no, no, I will only do this and not do that'. As I tell everyone, I am a jester. And I play that role with great pride. If you tell me to jump, I'll jump. Because you have given me so much.
'Before I came to Singapore, my daughter asked me, 'Daddy, where are you going?' I said 'I'm going to Singapore sweetheart, I have a function, but I'll be back soon'. She said, 'do you like doing all this?' I said, 'It's not about liking. I have to do this. Not for money, but because people enjoy it, and I have to do what people enjoy.' So that's what I want now: to lead less of my own life, and lead more of other peoples' lives.
source:planetsrk.com
