Shah Rukh Khan: I have never tried to play an anti hero and make him lovable
Only those who have met Shah Rukh Khan in person would know that the man exudes star power. From the moment SRK walks into a room he owns you - with his dimpled smile, warm hug, intense eyes, chivalro
Only those who have met Shah Rukh Khan
in person would know that the man exudes star power. From the moment
SRK walks into a room he owns you – with his dimpled smile, warm hug,
intense eyes, chivalrous ways, wit and gift of gab. The
actor who was doling out interviews after interviews continued to have
the same enthusiasm as he shifted from one setup to the other. Stardom
certainly suits this actor coz he doesn’t take it lightly and listens to
you intently even though he might have already been bombarded with
similar questions. What’s beautiful is that Shah Rukh manages to make
each of his interactions different, coz even though you may have similar
questions he has a different and equally interesting answer each time.
It is indeed a pleasure for any journo to talk to King Khan, not only
coz he churns out quotable quotes one after the other, but coz he
manages to mesmerise you with his charm and attention.
A room that was buzzing with impatient reporters and cameramen suddenly turned into a theatre with all eyes following SRK and ears glued to the soft yet strong voice. Shah Rukh Khan talks to us about Raees’ delay, Mahira Khan missing her films promotions and his kids Suhana and Aryan Khan loving his Miyan Bhai act for different reasons of course. But this interview has more than just all of that, here read excepts…
Raees got delayed and is finally ready for release. What are your thoughts at the moment?
Well, der aae durust aae (Better late than never). It’s nice it is coming out now. It was unavoidable. I got injured, I felt really bad. Because it has happened a couple of times that films have got delayed because of my injury and you know it’s like keeping the whole unit on wait and we had to wait for 7-8 months before we could reshoot because of my knee and we just finished it a couple of months back. I felt bad. But it also gave us the opportunity to relook at the film and revisit it and small bits and pieces which we thought we could improve upon. There is Farhan involved with it, Rahul has been sitting with the film, it requires patience and they have that but I think we might have done tightening a little bit and tried to make it the best film that we could possibly within the storyline that we have. Now it’s nice. It’s over and tonight it got censored so we are kind of out now.
The promos have been very well received there is one this particular dialogue, “battery nahi bolneka”, which everyone is talking about. Any one particular thing people told about you that you were really annoyed with?
No, I have lot of patience. If I didn’t have patience, I wouldn’t become such a star. People say so many things about you, you can’t get annoyed about everything. I do remember from Delhi where people did wear reading glasses then you know Delhi is very famous for ched (tease), we call it ched (nickname), I don’t know how to say it in English but people would call you according to what you looked like, what your hair looked like, or how you ran. I was called Mela, mail gaddi, because I used to run fast. And I hear people say because I stammer in I Love you K…K… Kiran, I am called hakla on social media. So people have cheds like this and they did say chashmish, chokha or battery. I remember it from childhood and it was quite nice that Rahul had it in his film. It is quite a main stay in the film that you can say anything to him unless you are a girl. You can’t say battery to him, then he gets very angry, battery nahi bolneka. But I never get annoyed at what people call me.
Mahira feels really sad that she cannot promote Raees with you in India, will she be a part of the international leg of promotions?
I have no idea. For me the promotion of a film is the trailer and songs coming out and pieces coming out. Those are promotions, those are inherent bits and pieces. To make a big thing about who is present and who is not, there are many actors who are not present even now. I think as and when whatever is convenient. If it happens it will be nice, if it doesn’t I think the promotions are on as they are going on.
Mahira said that her mom literally cried when she got to know that she was working with you. Did she talk about it to you?
No, but I have that effect on moms.
She never told you about this episode?
No.
Nawaz said that Raees is going to be your best film and it will be worth the wait, do you agree with him on that?
I hope so. Nawaz bhai is really sweet and he has really added on to the film to make it an extremely palatable in the reality zone and even Zeeshan. All of us, myself, Mahira, Zeeshan, Nawaz bhai, we have a long run in the film from childhood to growing together in the film. So we do form the core of the film. And I hope Nawaz bhai and I think he has done am extremely…it is really patronising for me to talk about such a wonderful actor, but I think because of him I’d look even better. And I hope he is right that people will like this film. I don’t know if it’s the best film I have done or not but most certainly it’s one of the best films I have done and one of the best actor’s Nawaz bhai himself.
You are known to play anti heros and make them lovable. Do you think Raees is going to be in that genre as well?
I have never tried to play an anti hero and make him lovable. I think if you are doing an action which socially or otherwise is inept or incorrect I do not think you need to justify it whether it was a psychopathic character like Darr or even Fan, he was bad or real or even Baazigar. I do not think we justify it by saying oh he is a bad guy and you got to like him because otherwise he is doing really good stuff. He is endearing. Don I think is the meanest human being on earth and we never tried to justify him by any which way. He is smart, he is slick, he is sexy and really mean. If people are to like him you know I remember when I was young I did Baazigar and people told me this is a very strange film to do and people won’t like it. And I used to meet kids and they used to love Baazigar and I was like oh really?! And I was not such a good guy in it. Each one to their own. I am in no way promoting badness. I don’t want to, now yes Raees is an endearing guy. If you like him good, if you don’t him it’s even better. He is doing bad things and he is a bad guy and there is no justification for what he does. And his actions will be such, which are not acceptable to normal people like you and I and hopefully he will be responsible for them and pay for it and if you like that good and if you don’t I am in no way promoting this is the way to be. I don’t promote Raj, Rahul either, I am not telling you to be that person either. I am an actor, I just want to make you believe in that character, I hope you take back something of him or her when you watch the film. Do I want you to live your life by him? No, I don’t think so. If you do, it’s your problem and not mine.
Have Aryan and Suhana watched Raees and what is their take on it?
Yes, that have. They liked it. But it was very incomplete with green screen and background wasn’t there. Very shoddy screen in Excel, which I have to tell Excel to change. It’s really a shoddy screen in Excel viewing theatre and we need to change that actually as soon as possible. I think my son liked it a lot because it has a lot of guyness in the film, it is a boy-boy film and he does some boy things. And I think my daughter really liked it because she found it extremely sensitive in the second half. She thought that without trying to overdo it we still say a part of sensitivity of a person, who could be a bad person but everybody has got a heart and somewhere down the line she saw through that.
There are lot of dialogues which have become popular, but one dialogue if you could mouth for me right now?
Din aur raat logon ke hote hai, Raees ka zamana hai.
One reason why people should not miss Raees when it releases on the 25th?
Because it is there now and you might as well go and see it. It is a day off and it will be a holiday next day. I can invite people to my work, I don’t know how to force them to go and see my work. If you feel like please do go and see it and I hope you like it. I don’t know the reasons. For us filmmakers there is 1.7 billion reasons why Raees should have been made, I hope you find one of them to see and enjoy.
A room that was buzzing with impatient reporters and cameramen suddenly turned into a theatre with all eyes following SRK and ears glued to the soft yet strong voice. Shah Rukh Khan talks to us about Raees’ delay, Mahira Khan missing her films promotions and his kids Suhana and Aryan Khan loving his Miyan Bhai act for different reasons of course. But this interview has more than just all of that, here read excepts…
Raees got delayed and is finally ready for release. What are your thoughts at the moment?
Well, der aae durust aae (Better late than never). It’s nice it is coming out now. It was unavoidable. I got injured, I felt really bad. Because it has happened a couple of times that films have got delayed because of my injury and you know it’s like keeping the whole unit on wait and we had to wait for 7-8 months before we could reshoot because of my knee and we just finished it a couple of months back. I felt bad. But it also gave us the opportunity to relook at the film and revisit it and small bits and pieces which we thought we could improve upon. There is Farhan involved with it, Rahul has been sitting with the film, it requires patience and they have that but I think we might have done tightening a little bit and tried to make it the best film that we could possibly within the storyline that we have. Now it’s nice. It’s over and tonight it got censored so we are kind of out now.
The promos have been very well received there is one this particular dialogue, “battery nahi bolneka”, which everyone is talking about. Any one particular thing people told about you that you were really annoyed with?
No, I have lot of patience. If I didn’t have patience, I wouldn’t become such a star. People say so many things about you, you can’t get annoyed about everything. I do remember from Delhi where people did wear reading glasses then you know Delhi is very famous for ched (tease), we call it ched (nickname), I don’t know how to say it in English but people would call you according to what you looked like, what your hair looked like, or how you ran. I was called Mela, mail gaddi, because I used to run fast. And I hear people say because I stammer in I Love you K…K… Kiran, I am called hakla on social media. So people have cheds like this and they did say chashmish, chokha or battery. I remember it from childhood and it was quite nice that Rahul had it in his film. It is quite a main stay in the film that you can say anything to him unless you are a girl. You can’t say battery to him, then he gets very angry, battery nahi bolneka. But I never get annoyed at what people call me.
Mahira feels really sad that she cannot promote Raees with you in India, will she be a part of the international leg of promotions?
I have no idea. For me the promotion of a film is the trailer and songs coming out and pieces coming out. Those are promotions, those are inherent bits and pieces. To make a big thing about who is present and who is not, there are many actors who are not present even now. I think as and when whatever is convenient. If it happens it will be nice, if it doesn’t I think the promotions are on as they are going on.
Mahira said that her mom literally cried when she got to know that she was working with you. Did she talk about it to you?
No, but I have that effect on moms.
She never told you about this episode?
No.
Nawaz said that Raees is going to be your best film and it will be worth the wait, do you agree with him on that?
I hope so. Nawaz bhai is really sweet and he has really added on to the film to make it an extremely palatable in the reality zone and even Zeeshan. All of us, myself, Mahira, Zeeshan, Nawaz bhai, we have a long run in the film from childhood to growing together in the film. So we do form the core of the film. And I hope Nawaz bhai and I think he has done am extremely…it is really patronising for me to talk about such a wonderful actor, but I think because of him I’d look even better. And I hope he is right that people will like this film. I don’t know if it’s the best film I have done or not but most certainly it’s one of the best films I have done and one of the best actor’s Nawaz bhai himself.
You are known to play anti heros and make them lovable. Do you think Raees is going to be in that genre as well?
I have never tried to play an anti hero and make him lovable. I think if you are doing an action which socially or otherwise is inept or incorrect I do not think you need to justify it whether it was a psychopathic character like Darr or even Fan, he was bad or real or even Baazigar. I do not think we justify it by saying oh he is a bad guy and you got to like him because otherwise he is doing really good stuff. He is endearing. Don I think is the meanest human being on earth and we never tried to justify him by any which way. He is smart, he is slick, he is sexy and really mean. If people are to like him you know I remember when I was young I did Baazigar and people told me this is a very strange film to do and people won’t like it. And I used to meet kids and they used to love Baazigar and I was like oh really?! And I was not such a good guy in it. Each one to their own. I am in no way promoting badness. I don’t want to, now yes Raees is an endearing guy. If you like him good, if you don’t him it’s even better. He is doing bad things and he is a bad guy and there is no justification for what he does. And his actions will be such, which are not acceptable to normal people like you and I and hopefully he will be responsible for them and pay for it and if you like that good and if you don’t I am in no way promoting this is the way to be. I don’t promote Raj, Rahul either, I am not telling you to be that person either. I am an actor, I just want to make you believe in that character, I hope you take back something of him or her when you watch the film. Do I want you to live your life by him? No, I don’t think so. If you do, it’s your problem and not mine.
Have Aryan and Suhana watched Raees and what is their take on it?
Yes, that have. They liked it. But it was very incomplete with green screen and background wasn’t there. Very shoddy screen in Excel, which I have to tell Excel to change. It’s really a shoddy screen in Excel viewing theatre and we need to change that actually as soon as possible. I think my son liked it a lot because it has a lot of guyness in the film, it is a boy-boy film and he does some boy things. And I think my daughter really liked it because she found it extremely sensitive in the second half. She thought that without trying to overdo it we still say a part of sensitivity of a person, who could be a bad person but everybody has got a heart and somewhere down the line she saw through that.
There are lot of dialogues which have become popular, but one dialogue if you could mouth for me right now?
Din aur raat logon ke hote hai, Raees ka zamana hai.
One reason why people should not miss Raees when it releases on the 25th?
Because it is there now and you might as well go and see it. It is a day off and it will be a holiday next day. I can invite people to my work, I don’t know how to force them to go and see my work. If you feel like please do go and see it and I hope you like it. I don’t know the reasons. For us filmmakers there is 1.7 billion reasons why Raees should have been made, I hope you find one of them to see and enjoy.
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