The King of Bollywood: Shah Rukh Khan's Journey Shah Rukh Khan, the Indian movie star, is flying in to Locarno, a Swiss lakeside town, on a high summe
The King of Bollywood: Shah Rukh Khan’s Journey
Shah Rukh Khan, the Indian movie star, is flying in to Locarno, a Swiss lakeside town, on a high summer day. He is the king, the emperor, the Baadshah of the movies, with a fanbase-headcount that makes him one of the world’s biggest stars.
Early Success and Breakthrough
Starting as the Bollywood bad guy in early 90s films such as Darr and Baazigar, Khan made a sensational breakthrough in 1995 as a puppyish romcom lead in Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (The Brave-Hearted Will Take the Bride). From here, he became a Bollywood superstar in all manner of genres: musicals, melodramas, thrillers and comedies, including the 2001 family saga Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham (Sometimes Happiness, Sometimes Sadness), the romantic drama Devdas and the action spectacular Jawan. Shah Rukh Khan is his own genre.
Awards and Recognition
Khan is fit and toned, quietly spoken and relaxed, his unmistakable leonine presence a little occluded by dark glasses. Before we start, he unselfconsciously submits to his team as they fuss around him, checking his clothes, moisturising his skin a little, spraying his luxuriant hair, for all the world as if this is a TV appearance. This is the second time I have seen him in the flesh. The first was when I was one of a crowd in Mumbai, where Khan has a home and sometimes playfully appears on the balcony to salute his fans. That day, the fans went wild.
I ask Khan if he enjoys awards ceremonies. "Yes," he says, beaming. "I enjoy it. I am very shameless about this! I love getting awards. I love the ceremony. I get a little nervous if I have to give speeches. Especially with international awards, because then I need to make sure Indian cinema is presented well. I have to be on my best behaviour. I have to control my sense of humour. Because cinema for India is such an important thing." I ask if he has a trophy cabinet and his eyes gleam: "I do. It’s bigger than this room! I have 300 awards. I have a nine-storey office and on every floor I have some of the awards. Actually, it’s not a trophy room. It’s a library which is designed like an English library."
Day-to-Day Life
It is when I begin to ask about the day-to-day life of a hard-working Indian movie star that my inevitable simpering begins and I start telling him it isn’t the first time I’ve seen him. "Waving from my house?" he interrupts with a smile. Sheepishly, I nod. Khan smiles and inclines his head a little, as if to accept the tribute. Then it’s back to the day job. "When I’m given any role, comedic, bad guy, good guy, lover, I get very nervous. Will I be able to deliver? Am I getting it right? Is the comic timing right? Am I being mean enough? Have I got the voice right? I love doing roles where I could be mean, but I have a heart of gold. I’m not given too many roles like that. They’re normally roles where I am loving to women."
Action Hero and Fan
In Jawan, he relished the role of the action hero. Might he, like Tom Cruise, just go fully into action? Khan’s answer takes in his recent break from the public glare. "When I came into the industry I was an athlete. My life’s dream was to have a six-pack, wear a white vest, have a lady with my arm around her, blood on my face and a gun in my hand. My dream was to enter a room, someone says: ‘Who are you?’ and I shoot them.
He tells me about what the film means to him. "I come from a very ordinary lower-middle-class background. But now I am the star, I am the ‘king’." (He makes a self-deprecating air quote gesture.) "But I am a very simple person at heart. That guy you saw waving to people … that’s not me." He leans forward: "I’ve not done an interview for two years now. I would like to break your heart and tell you … if you think you are interviewing that star, he’s not here. You got the wrong Shah Rukh."
Future of Bollywood
I ask him about the future of Bollywood and put to him my theory that it is potent because it carries on with something Hollywood abandoned: the musical. He says: "Indian cinema like a cabaret: music, comedy, drama, a mishmash, it might be dancing, people falling down. I do believe it’s a more difficult art form. It doesn’t isolate film into comedy, romance, horror, musicals. It tells the whole story." The current anxiety about people deserting movie-going for streaming TV, is, he says, just a "settling" period, like the invention of VCR. But Bollywood will be at the forefront of the new wave of cinema-going.
Conclusion
With my time just about up, Khan leaves me with his key insight: "Emotions are the darkness that surround you in the theatre!" And with this elegant phrase, accompanied by a beaming smile, the interview is concluded. I am ushered away and the retinue descends once again on this complicated and charming man.
FAQs
Q: Do you enjoy awards ceremonies?
A: Yes, I do. I am very shameless about this! I love getting awards. I love the ceremony.
Q: Do you have a trophy cabinet?
A: I do. It’s bigger than this room! I have 300 awards. I have a nine-storey office and on every floor I have some of the awards.
Q: What’s your daily regimen like?
A: I generally eat only one meal – a personal choice that has nothing to do with intermittent fasting – and hits the gym for just half an hour a day.
Q: What’s your favorite film?
A: I have three or four films which are close to my heart, because they didn’t do well. Fan is one of them.
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