Shah Rukh Khan in this open, deep and far-reaching interview talked with to Subhash K Jha about career, convictions and insecurities.
What are your convictions as an actor?
My convictions as an actor are very simple. I should enjoy myself in doing a part as much as Michael J.Fox does. I don’t like the role Nicolas Cage played in Leaving Las Vegas, though I liked him in Face Off. I get depressed by serious films. I cry real tears when I see Naam, Imtihaan, Bambi and Awakenings.
How do you react to the allegation that the success of Hrithik Roshan is making you insecure?
If you ask me, I don’t react to all this. With due respects to journalists who write such things I cannot help wondering about the strange prejudices that they display in their writing. Some people whom I know from before my stardom would like to believe I have changed. So, they project their prejudices into their observations.
You mean they are just making it up?
Oh no. It might be true. For all you know I might be finished as a superstar. But my ratings have to be judged by my films, not by anyone else’s film. For me, only my films are important
After the way Hrithik Roshan is being projected as your successor were you 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 patronizing. I don’t think the matter is important enough for me to react. For me the film, not my costars, is important. With due respects to Hrithik, Salman, Aamir, and all my other colleagues when you talk 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 that 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 someone or the other is about to overtake me. When I came I was a nobody. In some ways I’m still a nobody. So overtaking me is no big deal.
How can you say you are nobody when you feel no one can touch you?
No, I’m telling 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 completely. There’s no need to remove one actor for another 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? Whoever is stupid enough to compare me, Aamir or Salman with Amitabh Bachchan, let me tell them even the three of us together cannot be Amitabh Bachchan. We never will be. At the same time, Salman and 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 that game. So, when a magazine writes about where I stand and where I am, I find it very ridiculous. But I guess journalists get salaries for writing what they do, just like me. But the media’s point of view is very different from mine. So there’s no point in discussing this at all.
I have a feeling Devdas is 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 Devdas is Leaving Las Vegas. I may be completely wrong. But that is what I think Devdas is. I haven’t seen Dilip Kumar in Bimal Roy’s Devdas. So that’s out. But I do remember seeing portions of the earlier version with K.L Saigal on television. The dialogue delivery in that was very strange.
So do you see Devdas as a very special film?
I think all my films are very special. It sounds like a cliché,but to single any one film out is like playing favourites among my children. There is no difference between Aryan and Suhana.
But surely there will be a difference between Badshah and Devdas?
Content wise,yes. In all other respects, no. I have equal regards for Abbas-Mustan’s regard for Badshah, Sanjay Bhansali’s regard for Devdas and your regard for, say, Dr Zhivago. I cannot discriminate between my films. I love to win an award for Devdas when it is made, as much as I have loved to win an award for Duplicate.
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 like him. 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 that I was a star. I realized I had been given a special position. That was about a year-and-a-half back when I accepted I was a star and could do no wrong. Then starts the questioning phase. Is he a star?
On stage you told Dilip Kumar Saab that if you could play Devdas with even a fraction of his proficiency you’d be happy?
I said I hoped I could be ten percent as good as him. It’s like this. If any actor is to play Mahatma Gandhi today he would immediately look towards Ben Kingsley. Likewise Devdas has been endorsed and immortalized by Dilip Saab.
But unlike Gandhiji, Devdas is a fictional character?
Yes, but it has been made very real by Dilip Saab. With due respects to K.L. Saigal Saab who came long before my time, Dilip Saab embodies Devdas. Obviously, you can’t touch that performance. Maybe if I had to re-do Ram Aur Shyam I’d play it differently from Dilip Saab. Such lighthearted characters give an actor the liberty to be flexible. But in Devdas, Dilip Saab has set guidelines that cannot be tampered with.
Have you watched him in Devdas?
When I heard Sanjay Bhansali’s script I hadn’t seen Dilip Saab’s Devdas. I worked out my own interpretation of how I was going to play the character. I spent hours with Sanjay working out my Devdas. After that he suggested I see Dilip Saab in Devdas. Having worked out the character I’m now going to take it up from where Dilip Saab left it.
How do you see Devdas?
I don’t see him any more. I just let him be. I ‘m just playing him the way I feel like. I’ve also read the novel. I’ve my ideas on Devdas. To me, Devdas is like the cop in One 2 Ka 4, only a little more modern. I look at Devdas from where I am– a guy born in the 1970s. Looks, attitudes, morals , values have changed. The Devdas of my era would be completely changed, though I don’t mean he would be wearing jeans and boots. It ‘s like the difference between the street gangs in Mere Apne and Josh. Gulzar looked at the student unrest in the 1970s while Mansoor Khan took it to the 90s. But they both belonged the same ethos. It’s like Balraj Sahni, Dilip Kumar and Ashok Kumar were the heroes of the 1950s. Just like Salman Khan, Shah Rukh Khan and Hrithik Roshan today. We are doing more or less the same things that they were. Akshay Kumar still fights, though not like Dilip Kumar used to do in Ganga Jumna and Azad.
Most of us are fighting all the time?
Though not all of us are winning all the time, like I am.
Karan Johar sees a father figure on you?
I think they all take my age too seriously. Both Farah Khan and Karan Johar think of me as a father figure. It isn’t my wisdom. It’s just my clear-headedness about the things I do and say. I’ve had a fairly long experience in life, most of it wonderful. They all get bored with my advice. But finally listen to what I’ve to say because many times I’ve proven right in my instincts. Yes, they do give me a lot of respect.
You have always been close to the Johars and Chopras?
I think we’re close because we don’t step on each other’s toes. And we all want the very best for all of us. We share a great equation. Our personal equations don’t clash with the professional. If I’m not in a film by Mr Yash Chopra I’m still there to help in every way possible. The same is true of them. The other day the screw of my camera-magazine broke. I just called up Adi (Aditya Chopra) and he sent me, not one magazine but two, just in case. There’s a lot of love and trust among us. If I’m stressed I call up Karan or Adi and they reassure me that all’s well.
The Khan-Chopra-Johar group dominates the film industry?
The power comes not from the fact that we’ve collaborated over a number of successful films but from our genuine comfort level. The Chopras, Johars and I are really really wonderful friends. We’d have been as close even if we weren’t making films.
How religious are you?
I feel very strongly about souls who are misguiding people in the name of religion. When I see pictures of Saddam Hussein as a rat hiding in a hole I’m troubled. He’s not a good human being at all. But you can’t use that as propaganda against Islam. It’s very unfortunate that people are doing so. I’m reading the Quran. I’m beginning to understand its message of peace. I have to. I’ve to answer questions that my son would one day ask me.
