I'm like a bad habit, you can't kick it: Shah Rukh Khan

In a candid chat with City Times, to promote his new film 'Zero', SRK attempts to explain his universal appeal.

In this age of 'perfectionism', it's endearing to watch a Bollywood superstar, whose charm transcends generations and cultures, literally be cut down to size, to play a vertically challenged character in his latest film. Because let's be honest, at this stage of his career, Shah Rukh Khan doesn't really have to bend over backwards to appeal to his die-hard fans - all he has to do is spread his arms, showcase his dimpled smile for hearts to break and romance to bloom. But then again we are talking of Shah Rukh Khan, the actor who has over the past 30 years managed to strike afresh at the box office with every attempt of his, whether it be Darr or Baazigar or the more recent Raees and Fan.

"It is very challenging," Shah Rukh Khan admits to us regarding his new role, during the recent Dubai promotion of the Aanand L Rai directed Zero that releases this Friday all over the world. "But then I also feel at this stage of my career - after 30 years of working, if I don't release a film which I am nervous about, then it's a regular job. And I believe being an actor is not a regular job. It has to fly. It has to be a superhero or a superzero!" (Watch the interview here)

And Zero is exactly what he is offering up at the theatres this weekend as he plays a vertically challenged man, Bauua Singh, in search of love. Anushka Sharma and Katrina Kaif, star as a cerebral palsy affected scientist and a glamorous Bollywood star, respectively, in this drama that celebrates "incompleteness". So what prompts Khan to sign on for movies such as Zero that demand a certain level of physical discomfort? "I don't know how to answer that," he candidly admits. "I am actually rather confused - should I be doing what people say? I've never believed that. The 30 years I have worked, I've just woken up in the morning and my wife and everyone keeps asking me, how do you have so much love and happiness going and doing something. It's never been for money or stardom. but people don't believe that. People have their own reservations about how and why I do a film. 'He must be doing this to earn money, for commercial success.'
"I just wake up - I've always been an actor that way and I get tired sometimes explaining it. I wake up and say, this is what I want to do.

"You know I have the opportunity to wake up and be somebody else and I like being somebody else. There are days when I want to be X or Y or Z and if I get an opportunity I do that. None of the backend of it - will it work, won't it."

Back to the basics
Listening to Khan, it is almost like the actor has a dream run with none of the reservations other mortals have about the decisions they have to make in life.

"Initially everyone told me Baazigar won't work. Everyone told me Chak De India won't work; people said, Devdas is too ostentatious, etc etc. I hear so many people say so many things about my films. Some of the ones I love the most don't work, so that's why I'm confused. I don't know what to do. So I have to go back to the basics."
"If it ain't broke, don't fix it - this is how I have done it for 30 years."
"Would it have been easier for me to do some other film? Maybe."
"Would it have been as satisfying? Not at all.
"Is this a mistake? I hope not. It's very challenging."

Role play
Khan might have had his ups and downs at the box office but no one can deny he hasn't attempted in every film he has signed on to do what he loves to do best. Entertain.
"I need to have something to talk to myself 30 years from now," he continues.
"I was a vertically challenged person who loved life.
"I was a superhero who failed."
"I was a Fan who didn't go down too well with the audience."
"I was an alcoholic that people loved."
"I killed people and they jumped for joy!"
"It's schizophrenic but I have to work like that."
 "I could have chosen an easy film, Aanand could have chosen a better film for ease of work, Himanshu Sharma could have written a simple film. But we didn't want to be simple."

The number game
Not that his fans are complaining of course. Khan even admits to having the jitters ahead of his film's release. When we wonder, what a superstar like him, who rules over millions of hearts, has to be worried about, he retorts, "That I don't let you down. That I don't invite you for two and a half hours of an emotional experience and leave you unfulfilled.
"It has nothing to do with the box office," he stresses. "I keep hearing about X amount of money-hundred crores and 200 crores. Everybody has a bloody number... I used to say this that only telephones have numbers. Not movies. Not life. Not even sportsmen and sportswomen. There is no number. You just play the game. The nervousness is only that I don't let you down emotionally. Not any other way. You invest in a film. As an audience I just go and see a film for a lark and sometimes it makes you very happy and sometimes they make you forget the issues in your life - emotionally, happily, sadly whatever and you are like thrilled for those two and a half hours - in whichever way and I hope I can do that everytime. Sometimes I am not able to and I feel very sad that I have let people down emotionally.
"Sometimes it does much better than what I expected and I feel really thrilled that it went through."
"The only thing I don't know is how to do it every time, so that makes me nervous."
Then after a pause, "A lot of other actors do I am made to understand - they know when the film is right. But I don't know."

Cinema is the charm
But then a Shah Rukh Khan movie is just the icing on the cake for his fans who consider him a superstar. Over the last 30 years, Khan has built himself into such a strong brand, be it through his movies, the products he endorses, his business acumen or most importantly his endearing charm and humility when it comes to his interaction with his fans worldwide, that the takings of the box office hardly matters, does it?
His movies might not always get stellar reviews but there is no taking away the fact that come every November 2, the fans who throng his house Mannat just to catch a glimpse of their idol on his birthday have been steadily increasing over the years. It can of course be attributed to his on screen persona or the genuine charm and emotional connect he has with fans or it could be the fact that Khan's super success in an industry that is painfully known to promote its own at the cost of 'outsiders' is a huge inspiration for millions who dream of replicating just a tiny bit of the success he has made of his life ever since he left his middle-class existence in Delhi to try his luck in Bollywood. To what does he attribute his appeal?
"I think it's got to do with the fact that (with an impish smile) I tell everyone I'm like a bad habit - you can't kick it! You have to accept it (with a smile) you know it's not the right thing to do many times, but you are like, listen; I'm stuck with this habit!
"I also say sometimes I've worked so long that there is a whole generation who've grown up watching me. Somewhere I am part of that nostalgia; sometimes I'm part of that experience. Sometimes I am part of marriages, or the love lives of people. Or they assume so. They give me that importance. I have become a feeling that you can't deny.
"But I know the core of it is the cinema you went to watch when you were 7 years old or 10 years old  - that's how you started liking this persona. I don't even know what that persona is. I just work for that persona. I hope I don't let you down.
"You know when you start liking someone your expectations become much higher of that person and then you have to keep working harder to keep up to those expectations. So I know the work in certain films of mine is quite good though people found it even better. That's a good life to lead. That you are challenged by your own.. to do better for them. So it's very personal love and you have to work hard for it."
Message for Khaleej Times' readers
"Thank You Khaleej Times for always being so gracious and wonderful whenever we come to Dubai to work on films or otherwise. I hope you enjoy the experience of watching Zero. It celebrates the incompleteness of life. It celebrates life because I believe everyone has some incompleteness within them."
ambica@khaleejtimes.com