It’s
quite intriguing. When I was researching you, I got two very different
versions of you. One said you are smart, calculating, guarded, clever.
You think really fast, and you are always figuring what to say to suit
the person you are talking to. The other said you are an impulsive,
giving guy. A muh phat – you say anything that comes to
mind. You have a great instinct for emotion. But you are like Krishna.
You give yourself generously to people then you disappear, leaving them
hankering for you. Which one is truer?
Both versions are
quite close to me. See, if I am with you Shoma, I am yours. I do so
many things and I want to do so much more -- but I need to be 100% there
to make it happen. If I am doing a film with you, you’ll think
I am your best friend, I’ll make you comfortable, I’ll make
you laugh, I’ll never make you have stress, you’ll say,
oh god, I wish I could only work with Shah Rukh. But when I’m
finished with you, I’m gone. I’m working with someone else.
If I came back to you, I won’t be able to give him that. It does
not mean I have lost love for you, I am giving, but I cannot
give in two different places at the same time because then it becomes
50-50. So I give my 100% and I move on, and I come back to you when
I am working. So a lot of my friends, like Yash Chopra, say, yaar
tu baat nahi karta hai – but it’s not that I don’t
love you, I’m just not social.
About the rest,
yes, I think I have an instinct for emotion. I think I’m an actor
because I know which emotion to tap in what person. So yes, I never
get the tone wrong. If you ask me funny questions, I’ll give you
funny answers. You are asking me serious questions, so I am engaging
seriously. If you ask silly stuff, I’ll answer at that level.
I always know what tone to use. I think the only time I have ever been
at a loss for tone was with this senior journalist from the Indian
Express. Sweet, grey-haired, very senior. She was talking to me
like, “beta, this, beta that…” -- asking me all these
questions. Suddenly she says, (mimicking) “Acha, are you homo?”
I was so shocked.
Because she was like a mother, and she was chatting with me like this.
I was quite taken aback. That was the only time I’ve been at a
loss of words, as to what tone to speak with her.
So what
did you say to her?
Nothing, I said we could go find out. We can go to a
hotel. She said, “What?” I said there is a little hotel
down the road, we can go and find out. She got a little offended. She
said, ‘Mujhe meri beti ne bola poochhne ke liye.’
I had another joke, you can ask your daughter, we can figure this out,
but I just kept quiet.
Sometimes some really stupid people come and talk to
me, so then I just say things to create a bit of controversy. The other
day this little slip of a girl came and said, “You’ve done
a music video before KBC. So does it change your image of being like
a cool, hip guy?” I said, “No, I’m sexy, I’m
cool, I’m hip, I’m handsome, there’s no discussion
about it.”
What else
can you say!
Yeah. A lot of them come. They really don’t know
what they should ask. Some say really strange things. Earlier I used
to get very angry. I was like, “You know who you’re talking
to? Don’t you have any respect?” But now I just smile. If
I smile during an interview on television, it means I’m having
fun. I’m laughing.
You are
a superstar, Shah Rukh. You can walk through any door, be anyone. Yet
you allow yourself to be seen in such shallow spaces. Subhash K. Jha
interviews, marriage performances, you call yourself a performing monkey,
a capitalist pig…
I don’t see Subhash K. Jha. I don’t talk
to him. I hate him. I’ve never liked him. I haven’t spoken
to him in two and a half years. I don’t give interviews to even
Khalid Mohammed, though he’s a friend. See, I’ll tell you
what, Shoma, when somebody asks me something which I can’t explain
because I believe their intelligence level does not match mine, what
can I do? You have to understand what I mean when I say I am a performer.
I do not dance at weddings. If you are intelligent enough to understand,
I will explain, but if a Subhash K. Jha says, (mimicking in falsetto)
“Eh Shahrukh, you were dancing at a wedding,” I’ll
say, **** off, yes, I was. So to answer your question, I do perform
at weddings. But it is very difficult to afford what I demand. You have
to do it like a show, it has to be in an area where nobody drinks and
eats, it will start at 9 pm and end at 11.30 pm, the stage will be 30
by 40 feet, we will make our entries, we will not chat with anyone,
we will not eat your food, we will not take pictures with your daughter
or daughter-in-law, unless we personally want to. We will come, perform,
and we will go away.
It’s
a scale thing.
Yes. A scale thing. And very few people can afford it.
A Mittal can. I don’t dance at like shaadi ka sangeets. Unless
they are close friends. Like an Adi Chopra. What was the second thing
you said?
About setting
yourself up as an unabashed capitalist. You are, in a way, the face
of a new materialist mood in the country. But do you have doubts about
the directions in which the country is headed? What do you want your
life to speak for?
See, I know a lot of places where I think we are not
headed the right way. There are two ways to respond. One, I jump into
the thick of things like maybe Tehelka has. Have that kind of guts and
balls. But all of us are not like that. The second way is to say, I
can’t take the world on, but can I change myself? Can I make sure
I’m above board? So that if a good minded, good thinking person
from my country meets me, he can say, here’s a good guy, educated,
intelligent, leading life above board. Yes, I do believe you should
earn money, should live well. I have a bmw, a huge house, but it doesn’t
have to be a bmw. When I tell youngsters to be like me, I truly believe
that — and I’m not saying this because it’s an interview,
and I wouldn’t say it to a Subhash K. Jha or a Khalid because
they wouldn’t understand — I truly believe I am doing things
I think an Indian should do. You should try and earn, you should work
hard, and in your own way let the world know what India’s about
through your persona. I think if each of us did just that, we’d
be okay. But I don’t have a cause. I’ve been invited to
speak at Davos, but I’ll never go. I don’t have a cause.
I don’t have time for a cause.
Is being
Islamic an important part of your identity? Have recent events forced
you to think more about it?
I’m not an
atheist, I am a believer in God, and I don’t think it is great
fashion to be an atheist. I am Islamic by birth, so I know that a bit
better, though I’ve been brought up by Hindus most of my life,
and I was fascinated by Ram Lila and things. All that hasn’t changed,
but as I’ve grown older, and I see what’s happening to Islam
around the world, I think it’s important that even without full
knowledge of Islam, I need to be very clearly standing for the goodness
of Islam. AR Rahman sent me a message once saying you are an ambassador
for Islam. I think I truly am. I follow the tenets of Islam —
peace, goodness, kindness to mankind. And I’m a normal guy. I
think that is what Islam tells you to be.
