Dubai is a very strict city when it comes to road safety regulations. This whole year I ran around, smoothly, without having to pay any fines, which by U.A.E. standards, is a matter of pride. The government rewards you with an amount if you manage to close a year with a clean slate - to promote safe driving. But I lost my chance due to Shah Rukh Khan.
INSTEPinterview
Instep decodes the phenomenon known as King Khan.
Dubai
Dubai is a very strict city when it comes to road safety regulations. This whole year I ran around, smoothly, without having to pay any fines, which by U.A.E. standards, is a matter of pride. The government rewards you with an amount if you manage to close a year with a clean slate - to promote safe driving. But I lost my chance due to Shah Rukh Khan.
Earlier this December, for the first time, I ended up with a ticket on my way to Oberoi Hotel in Dubai because I didn’t want to be late and get placed at the back of the conference room where Shah Rukh Khan, alongside his Dilwale team, was scheduled to address the media. Luckily, I made it on time.
Our hosts this afternoon did their best to keep the media poised. We received instructions to brace ourselves because a storm was about to come through the doors.
Enter: Shah Rukh Khan.
Our hearts skipped a beat, and it took us all a few minutes to collect ourselves and get on to business.
What I found most interesting about SRK who can be funny, philosophical, fantastic and fragile, all at the same time, was his passion towards his work.
Months before the release of his film, Shah Rukh Khan knows that in order for the cash register to ring, he has to promote the film in vigorous fashion. And as SRK promotes his films across malls, cities and continents, he believes that as an actor, it is simply part of his job.
Here are some excerpts from our conversation with Shah Rukh…
Do you think Dilwale can create magic like Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge (DDLJ)?
Dilwale is a film about relationships so there are moments which are about the younger part of the love story but you cannot compare it with our earlier films like DDLJ or Kuch Kuch Hota Hai because those films were about accepting each other and cherishing each other but this story is about forgiveness. That’s why it’s called Dilwale because it takes a big-hearted person to forgive. It’s a love story which transcends time by fifteen years in the future. And then there is another love story of Varun and Kriti that runs parallel and then the film becomes really intense in the second half.
Do you feel the pressure of creating the thrill that your jodi with Kajol is known to create?
There is no pressure because I think neither I nor Kajol ever worked in terms of posterity or with an intention to create legacy. We respect that people perceive us as a hit couple and we try our best to keep the dignity intact. We love working with each other, we laugh a lot and the relationship is very open as we keep taking feedback from each other on our respective scenes and that’s about it. But we have never taken ourselves to be more important than what people think us to be.
You haven’t done an offbeat film like Dil Se or Chak De India in a while. Is it because such films do not promise an outcome of over 100 or 200 crore rupees in box office figures?
I think every actor goes through a phase and experiences an evolution driven by the work they have done, and the work they get. I have Raees coming along which might be like Ram Jaane, then I have Fan coming. So those are different genre of films. For me it’s not the case that offbeat cinema doesn’t excite me or I feel that it is not creative enough. At my stage and age, I cannot imagine any boredom so if the subject or the character excites me enough to wake up at 6am everyday, and enjoy wearing that make-up and go to the sets and do the film, then I do it without having 200 or 300 crores as target.
How open and approachable are you to small and independent filmmakers and experimental cinema?
First of all it’s not like that we are unapproachable or there is a huge wall between me and those independent filmmakers. But if an 
independent or a niche filmmaker approaches me and says I have a dream to make a film, I can bless him and wish him luck but I cannot guarantee to be a part of his dream unless he has strong credentials. And when I say credentials, it doesn’t mean that he should have a history of working with stars or it doesn’t even mean that he has to have a track record of successful films. But he should know the craft and must know how to work. At the end of the day we all want to do different work but we also have to keep a balance. I will never mislead an actor and say woh kar jo dil mein aata hai or ja apni zindagi jeele. Two films later, he will end up with no work.
After 25 years in the business, is there a void that needs to be filled?
There is a void, of course. I think every creative person has a void. As I always say I never live by the last performance I have done and I get completely detached from it and that is the cause of my loneliness. You put one year of your life into something and one fine Friday morning you have to let go of all that. I don’t like living retrospectively and this is the lonely part - you keep leaving parts of yourself and move on to create more parts, otherwise I will empty myself out soon.
At this stage in your career, what kind of roles excite you?
As an actor I don’t really define a character that I aspire to do or maintain an inventory of the roles I want to play ke ek pagal ka role, ek handicap ka role and so on. I think now at this stage of my career the challenge is that you give me a role, have a vision for it and I will try and make it even deeper than what you thought it would be, I’ll try and take it beyond. So that void is always there. I hope that somebody gives me something which I don’t know how to do.
Picking up from the title of Dilwale, are you a heart person or a mind person?
Personally I am a heart person. I think most of us are when it comes to family and friends. But when it comes to the work it’s a mix. I think the seed of creativity comes from the mind but the soil is the heart. You can’t deny the fact that you only think and your heart takes a backseat. I think you imagine from your mind and then you sow that in your heart and then the result of that combination is Jaadu. Jaadu happens. But again that’s all work, if you ask me personally, I don’t think I have a space for a brain in my head.
Sadiq Saleem, is a UAE based entertainment journalist. He can be contacted on his page fb/sidsaidso.
