| Shahrukh Laughs Back |
He's a volcano in human form, occasionally the lava spills over. This year he has
blazed his way to the forefront of leading male stars yet again. With
recent box-office successes such as Yes Boss, Pardes and Dil To Pagal Hai, he's back to
where he was over a year ago - at the top of the heap. He's suddenly inches shy of
superstardom - the first actor amongst the present lot to get that far in tinsel town.
He's clearly on top of the world as Shah Rukh Khan talks about his recent hits, impending
fatherhood and his next big release, Duplicate.
Deep in Mehboob Studios, Shah Rukh Khan enters the sets of Karan Johar's Kuchh Kuchh Hota
Hai. His arrival prompts warm attention. The energy on the set changes. There's something
really amazing about him, his generosity of spirit. Everyone wants to say hello, slap his
back, make a crack, make him smile. Shah Rukh's in no hurry. He soaks it in, slaps his own
share of backs, whispers a few naughty jokes, grins the grin. He feels like a brother, a
younger brother, masculine yet nonthreatening. He likes to laugh on a set, to be creative
and collaborative, and if he can't, he'd rather not do the show. He loves not just the
satisfaction of having completed a role but the actual process of acting and the sense of
community that develops between the actors and the director while making a film.
"Thank you, boss," he says affectionately as a unit hand brings him a chilled
soft drink. The unit hand beams. He shines because Shah Rukh is that likable and cool,
which sets him apart from whole legions of leading men. tinsel town is really lucky. He is
a man's man, which makes him a woman's man, which makes him box-office manna.
Someone once said that success allows people to be what they always were. Shah Rukh has
always been kind of weird. Now he has the freedom to be weird when and where he wants. And
people don't say, 'what?' anymore. They say, 'Ahhh'. Much has also been made of his looks.
The camera doesn't just love him - it ripens him. On film he is himself, only more so.
And,yes,he is a looker- with an awkward, fleshy mouth that sends him smiling sideways,
like a school kid. His face reveals his energy; it is alive with a thousand expressions
and questions. He's primal, passionate, pulsing with raw rebellious energy. He's so
unbelievably exhilarating to be around, at least you'll never be bored.
Despite the accolades and awards, Shah Rukh's friends and colleagues all mention a
wildness, a fury, within the star. He seems by nature a pretty angry man. Maybe it's to do
with perfectionism in his craft. He can't bear not to be on top of his game all the time.
All he basically cares about is acting, and whenever he falls short he becomes incredibly
angry with himself. His ferocious energy and relentless sexuality offer a welcome relief
from the studied types. He's extremely fast and alert..and funny. He thinks deep thoughts
and pulls silly pranks with his friends. The intellect and the power that comes with it is
what women find sexy. He has reached new depths as an actor, but a teenage devil still
lurks inside. Thus, he's weaned the audience away from their living rooms and exposed them
to things exciting and new on the big screen. He's got that unbelievably magnetic screen
presence.
Some cherish those few performances of his that are not nervous or hurried. In most of his
films, like Darr or Ram Jaane for example, it was wonderful acting, but it was all about
the expenditure of a great amount of energy in a short space of time. He was sort of like
a live wire. But in Dil To Pagal Hai and Pardes he is completely in control of his craft
and of his feelings. In it he seems as consummate an actor as one has ever seen. On
screen, he has been tenderness incarnate, of late: The way he consoles Karisma in Dil To
Pagal Hai and Juhi Chawla in Yes Boss and Mahima Chaudhury in Pardes. The sad, sad eyes
and the little smile that flickers across his face in Dil To Pagal Hai when he learns of
Madhuri's marriage. Thus, he likes to move on, regenerate and doesn't stay satisfied with
one genre - or one routine. At present, he couldn't be better situated. Fresh from a fat
action movie (Koyla), a romantic comedy (Yes Boss) and a couple of mushy romances (Pardes,
Dil To Pagal Hai), he's proved himself to be as versatile as he is ubiquitous.
Shah Rukh has everything all other men could want - talent, looks, money, respect,
freedom, fame, a loving wife and a cast of loyal old friends. Until now, constant work had
seemed as necessary as oxygen. He simply enjoyed the stimulus, the energy, the day-to-day
business of working. He really lived the crazy life of a movie star, but now he's ready to
settle down, start a family and remain successful. He's turned into a man with the
strength to commit himself to his wife and family. And so he's actually taking time off
and the respite is voluntary. Fatherhood beckons, you see. These days, because of Gauri
and the soon-to-be-born baby, he's much less apt to drive himself nuts. He's lucky enough
to have a wife he loves so much but now the baby could probably become the center of
everything.
He's obviously relishing every moment of the good times he's going through. With a smile
so ravishing, it could melt a stone, he asks brightly, "Will you have a soft
drink?" Watching him eye the scenario around him, you notice no cloud of brood or
hostility that usually comes with a thirty something man-child. There is no stink of fear,
only the mind-addlingly seductive presence of jejune enthusiasm. Usually when Shah Rukh
talks, his words spill out in a torrent and one has the sense of his motor racing very
fast underneath. But unlike most artistes, he is an intense listener too. He leans
forward, as though English weren't his first language, as though he needed to breathe your
words through the pores of his skin, and his face locks in an all-absorbing gaze. He sucks
on his cigarette until his dimples touch. Edgy as ever, he explains why this has been the
most fabulous year in his career. "What's most gratifying is that within this year
I've had four markedly different releases with pretty varied roles. Koyla was an action
film where I feel I did a great job. Yes Boss was a romantic comedy where such a character
hadn't been essayed before. In Pardes I gave quite a low key subdued performance while in
Dil To Pagal Hai my role was very mature and intense. I'm proud of this fact because very
few actors have had the chance to do such varied stuff in one year. Therefore, it has been
one of the best years of my career."
However, the year didn't exactly start on a good
note when Raakesh Roshan's Koyla failed to live up to its expectations. The lean patch
that he went through last year seemed to have spilt over. It must have got him perturbed
for sure since Koyla was such a prestigious venture. "Why should I be
perturbed?," he counters vehemently. "Nobody believes me when I say that the day
I finish dubbing for a film, I cease to bother about its fate. There's no point worrying
about things that are not within your control. And anyway, Koyla was a fantastic film. It
was my favourite film this year along with Yes Boss. And I don't think it was a disaster.
It was sold for a very high price of 2.4 crores per territory, much more than the 1.75
crores that other films garnered. Despite that it not only recovered its investment but
also turned out to be one of the top 10 commission earners of the year. Now if it had been
sold for a lower price, it would certainly have been a hit too. According to me, it was a
decent grosser which did well in the areas we expected it to."
Thus, it was in the latter half of the year that his fortunes actually revived with the
success of Yes Boss. It did prove to be a saviour of sorts after the low phase he'd been
through. But did it do as well as it was expected to? He explains instantly, "When
you do a different film like Yes Boss, you don't expect it to be a grand success
commercially. And since it's a classy, city-based film, you know who your target audience
is. So despite it all, the film has done much better business than expected. It has earned
about 4-5 crores in every city which is amazing business for a film of this genre. The
music too was very popular and a lot of people loved me in the film. I too loved myself in
it."
But there were many others who actually didn't feel one with his character in Yes Boss
although it was such a believable role. "Probably people could not accept a hero to
be such a slimy character. A lot of people told me that he seemed like a pimp. Maybe they
were scared to accept the reality. You do see guys in real life who are always thinking of
devious means to fulfil their ambitions. Such selfish, self-centred go-getters are very
much at large today. However, the audience should be thankful that somebody's actually
playing such characters and not just doing the star act in every film."
Meanwhile, Subhash Ghai's Pardes has proved to be yet another feather in his cap. Though
the film opened to an average response, It picked up business in the following weeks,
thanks to the tax redemption, and has now been proclaimed a hit and still going strong.
But many feel that Shah Rukh was sidelined in the film. "I don't think so," he
defends, "I don't know why the media in particular puts it like that. Pardes was a
girl- oriented film. I had heard the subject and liked it. For me it was a chance to do
something different or rather not to do something I had always done. I hadn't done a role
where I'm simply flowing with the tide like Aamir Khan did in Hum Hain Rahi PyarKe. I
wanted to play subdued and mature characters. It's not necessary that I hog the limelight
everytime. And it goes to the credit of Subhash Ghai to have made a successful film
without the usual, popular Shah Rukh Khan scenes. And, of course, becoming tax-free also
helped the film a lot. The tax redemption is given only to a deserving film which meant
Pardes was so and that's why it has done quite well."
But is it true that he refused to do Subhash Ghai's next film? "I don't know what
you're talking about," he replies quite perturbed by the suggestion. "We haven't
had any discussions on his next project as yet. I think he hasn't yet worked out a
subject. If he needs me, he'll call me. But I don't have any dates for him right now. I
had given him dates for Shikhar and Trimurti which got exhausted mid-way through Pardes
due to the delay with Trimurti. I was supposed to do just two films with him and I've done
that."
Coming to his third success of the year, Dil To Pagal Hai, he was pretty much in control
in the film. His performance was the perfect balance between his spontaneity and
restraint. And even though the film has a thin storyline, it was pretty engrossing right
till the end. He must surely be satisfied with his work in it. "Not really," he
says and takes us by surprise. "I feel I could have done a better job. Since I was
trying out something new, I still feel I lacked something. Probably if I were to do a
similar role again, my performance will be more polished. However, on the whole I liked
myself in the film. My mature characterisation fitted well with the film as it was a film
about normal people. Everything was in the right amount. The jokes were good, so was the
intensity of the emotions. And as far as the storyline is concerned, then you'll realise
that some of the nicest films even in Hollywood have such weak stories. In these films one
knows right from the start what it's all about. There's no mystery or suspense. It's how
you present the film ultimately that's important. I think only a good director has the
guts to rely on the screenplay and make a successful film. "
His next release in all probability is Yash Johar's Duplicate. Slated for a February '98
release, it has Shah Rukh trying out something new once again. This film has him playing a
double role for the very first time. So how differently has he delineated the two
characters? He explains meticulously, "Duplicate is a film with the usual dose of
confusion and comedy of errors that you see in most double role films. One character is
quite comical while the other is a bad guy both of which I've played in the past in
different films. But what sets them apart from my past efforts is that in Duplicate the
comic character is a complete dimwit, a total nerd which I've never played before. While
the bad guy is the typical Gulshan Grover kind of villain you see in films. The dark
characters I've played in the past had a purpose behind their mean streak. Whereas this
guy is simply made like that, an unscrupulous fellow. He's a typical villain who looks
lecherously at women. What's fascinating about the film is that it's not like other comedy
of errors where the good guy falls in trouble due to the bad guy's misdeeds. Here the
villain's life becomes miserable when he tries to step into the nice guy's shoes to
achieve his nefarious deeds. He doesn't realise the mess he's getting into before it's too
late. And by the end of thefilm, he's pulling at his hair roots. The motto of the story
here is - it's more difficult to be good while it's easier to be bad. On the whole,
Duplicate is turning out to be a fabulous film."
Finally, things are also looking brighter in his personal life. He's on the verge of
becoming the proud father of a son who he's already named Aryan. Is he experiencing . any
pre-natal jitters? "Not really," he confesses, "but I've already made plans
to spend time with my kid. I'm taking a month-long break from work to be with my
family." By the time you read this, he will already be in the throes of fatherhood.
He falls silent for a rare moment. Then he sighs happily, downs the remains of his soft
drink and gets up to greet an acquaintance. Minutes later, he plops down, smiles
contentedly, lights up a cigarette, leans back and exhales a fog of smoke. He looks at
once defiant, like a rebellious little boy who hasn't forgotten what it feels like to be a
kid. By: Ravi Somaiya Tinseltown
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