Shah Rukh Khan wasn’t wearing the blue metal body suit — a black tee, “same old jeans” and boots, instead — nor was he soaring in the skies — dashing around in a Merc, instead.
But he did what it takes Supermans and Spidermans to do: bring to life Saturday night fever in daylight on a Monday afternoon in Calcutta.
The proof was at City Centre, Salt Lake, where the official crowd count from the mall management stood at 100,000-plus as Shah Rukh zipped through town on a special Ra.One trip, held in association with t2.
He waved, he winked, he danced, he dived, he did the Chammak challo, he went Criminal… and allowed himself to be locked in a hug by a waif of a girl to a roar of approval mixed with envy.
A couple of hours before Calcutta went crazy at the Kund, Shah Rukh spoke to The Telegraph about the biggest film he has produced being just a baby step to his giant dreams, about being “demotional”, and, hold your breath, taking a bath!
For the last two decades you have been the great romantic hero who spreads his arms and makes people fall in love. But G.One, your latest avatar, is a superhero who goes about his job with a deadpan face. Isn’t that the biggest risk about your Rs 150 crore Ra.One — a Shah Rukh Khan without emotions?
I have always thought of myself as someone who for the last 20 years in his own way — good, bad, ugly, fast, slow — has been able to give you emotional experiences rather than just films. Whether it has been comedy or action or romance. And I think Ra.One will also give you that emotional experience.
I cannot make a film which is emotionless. I myself am very emotional. Here too it’s a father-son story, it’s about the family, it’s got comedy, it’s got action, it’s got enough cheesiness to make everyone happy, and above all it’s got a very good thought — children should be careful what they wish for.
Maybe I don’t emote (as G.One) but the whole concept of a machine or a virtual man getting attached to a family in itself is a very big emotion. The whole ideology of the film is that while superheroes wear masks, this one wears a heart. A machine with a heart is unlike normal superheroes. So, it’s back to being Shah Rukh Khan (chuckles). But yes, I don’t fly with my arms open but like this… (He juts his right arm out, almost like a punch.)
In your Baazigar days in an interview you had said that when you would become a huge star, you would produce and direct a big film like Saudagar (Subhash Ghai’s magnum opus). Is Ra.One that film?
I remember… I remember (laughs out loud). But no, Ra.One is not that film. It is the first step towards that big film. It’s just a baby step. This is my childhood fantasy, this is my dream, this is my offering after the 20 years of work that I have done. I have put all my money in it and I am very happy that I have done that. And I hope people enjoy… it’s not about the money, never is.
Yes, Ra.One is the biggest film this country has ever made. It’s really the biggest in terms of marketing and pricing. It’s the biggest film I have made. But theek hai, Friday (Ra.One is, in fact, releasing on a Wednesday, on Diwali, October 26) aayegi, khatam ho jaayegi… I will take a bath. Sunday aayegi and I will be on to my next… I will make it bigger, better, nicer, more beautiful.
I was telling Arjun (Rampal) on the flight (to Calcutta) that I want to make the biggest films ever. I want to make such big films for the country that people all over the world look at us as the greatest filmmaking nation in the world. Yes, Mr (Satyajit) Ray has done it, Raj Kapoor saab has done it… they have made beautiful films. I would never be able to outdo that. But in the modern times, I want to make films that whether it’s Piccadilly or Broadway, people go “wow” at our films. I am very patriotic.
Does coming to Calcutta remind you of the Kolkata Knight Riders’s defeats? You have tried everything but not been able to win the IPL trophy for Calcutta…
I am a very patient man. That’s one of the qualities I have. I can take a lot of beating. My father taught me that the person who wins in the fighting ring is not the person who can hit hard but the person who can take a lot of hitting. And I am not going down. I have a very simple logic in life: you can hit me but I am not going down. Unfortunately, KKR got surrounded in the shroud of my stardom. If a normal team lost those matches, nobody would have said so much. But because it was supposedly owned by Shah Rukh Khan, we got so many brickbats. And that’s okay. It’s part and parcel of the life that I lead. It’s absolutely all right. I will take the good with the bad but I am not going down. A lot of people told me to sell off the team. But no! This team is going to win. I am going to lift that trophy. And then I will take the bath.
But unlike in a movie, you really can’t do anything about a game of cricket, can you?
But I have to be in that room where the work is happening and I need to talk to the people working on it and I have to give them positive vibes. There are thousands of people working on the film and I am responsible for each one of them. Just like I am responsible for the 11 players of Kolkata Knight Riders. I may not be playing in the middle but it’s my team.
Shah Rukh Khan can’t lose?
What have I to lose? I come from a lower-middle-class family. Allah has given me too much. I had nothing. And I want nothing. I just have the four pairs of jeans. If you look at the pictures in The Telegraph and Metro and t2, you will see me in the same jeans (chuckles). And these are the same shoes. I just keep changing the T-shirts. And whatever else I want, I have my brands… my watch and all. So I don’t need anything. I am just dedicated to this art form called cinema. Yes, I am a bit commercial, I am a bit chhichhoda (lacking gravitas). But I am a today’s guy, I believe in selling the art. Because today the annual measurement of art is the commerce.
Within a week of Ra.One’s release, you turn 46 on November 2. Does ageing change anything about you?
I think mortality is the great aspect of life that man should remember. In fact, mortality eggs me on to do things differently. My parents died when I was really young. I am not scared of death. It’s the only thing God has told us will happen: all of you are going to die. God hasn’t told us anything else. We fight for everything else but forget what’s given. We try and think that we will live longer and we will live healthier but that’s not going to be true.
What God’s telling us indirectly is that in your lifetime do whatever you want to do… take the risks, go wrong. Because sometimes life ends without going wrong. So do the wrong things, do the right things, take the chances; be always aware of the fact that it’s all going to go. I have seen it happen. That’s what I tell my friend, my children, my wife… sometimes they think I am being too philosophical.
But do you really know what is going to happen after you walk out of that door? So enjoy this moment. When people ask me how do you stay so active, how do you look so young, that’s because I live moment for moment. Right now I am here, I am really happy that I am meeting you. I don’t know this might be the last moment. You got to live life like that. When I do something wrong, I go and do it again. I am like a child that way. If I have done something wrong, I have to do it again and get it right.
There’s also a sense that you are very lonely. Is that true?
There’s a word I use for myself — demotional. I am detached and yet I am emotional. I am strangely detached from life and yet I am emotional about the things I do. It has a lot to do with the fact that I lost my parents so early. A lot of people have problems with me because I am not that social. At this stage of my life I only want to be a good education to my children before I go. That’s all that means to me.
Top
Leave a Reply