Interviews:

Shah Rukh Khan: Tried, tested, triumphant

The trade pundits proclaim he’s not just No.1 but No.1 to 10 among heroes. That’s the closet the competition, including the other Khans get, they reckon. But the reigning Baadshah attempts a huge gamble, playing a bungling detective in the laugh riot, Baadshah. Can the Khan pull off another spectacular winner?He is the hottest Khan in Mumbai filmdom today. Within a span of a mere eight years and all of 27 films, Shah Rukh Khan has emerged the reigning Baadshah in Hindi cinema.

So how does he feel when he looks back upon these eight years in films?

"I feel exactly the same way I used to feel eight years ago. Nothing’s really changed for me where works is concerned. I’m having fun, I’m satisfied with the kind of roles I’ve been getting. Things can get scarcely any better than this, I guess, careerwise. My films have been coming out trumps at the box-office, too. So I’m not complaining!," quips the Khan.Today, everyone agrees, Shah Rukh’s the biggest star in Hindi films. Those in the movie trade aver he’s not just No.1 but NO.1 to No.10. That’s as close the competition gets, they reckon.

How does Shah Rukh react to all this adulation in the trade?

"I don’t set too much store by it. Those in the trade look at things purely from a commercial perspective. For me every film I do is always a new film, a first film. Now, for instance, Baadshah is ready for release. As always I hope it does well. these releases are regular exams you keep writing. But unlike being in school, here, you never passout. No release is final. You keep having to prove yourself over and over again. I guess with every success you have to keep trying to do better. So all these ratings are really immaterial. "Only yesterday a lady came over and said all my films flopped at the start of one year, but that at the end of it I had a resounding hit. Was it planned, she wanted to know! That’s the kind of strange ideas people have about stardom. "For myself I keep trying to make every film better than the last. You’re glad when you succeed and sad when you don’t. when it does happen, the problem is, you have to make your next film even better. You can only keep trying. The rest isn’t in your hands," shrugs Shah Rukh.

Shah Rukh has tried his hand at variety, where roles are concerned. But in commercial films, after a time, you’re apt to run out of choice. After all there’s very little variety in roles to go around. Suffocated at times by having to play the stereotyped hero over and over?

"Obviously I do," he admits. "But I have thinking directors to work with. Obviously, the films may seem the same, but the directors keep trying to add new elements to it. Directors like Aziz Mirza, Aditya Chopra, Karan Johar and Abbas-Mustan work well for me and I work well for them. The styles may not differ because nobody can radically change their style of working. Unless you sign a film with a radically different director like Mani Ratnam or Ram Gopal Varma, variety, you’ll find, is in short supply. After all, like actors, directors have limitation, too. But working within the parameters of the commercial movie set-up, we keep trying to dish out surprises every now and then. Badshah is a case in point. It is the story of a bumbling detective, told with a great deal of comedy. Abbas-Mustan are essentially thriller directors. So we’ve come up with a combination, comic thriller. It would have been easier for us to make another Baazigar, a whodunit. Since murder stories seldom flop in the first week we could have made a thriller. In fact, we started out with such an intention. By then, Abbas-Mustan had made thrillers. Like Khiladi, Baazigar, Darr and Soldier. But they had not made a comedy yet. So, we decided to make a film on that format," explains the Khan.

So what was it like, working with Abbas-Mustan again after Baazigar?

"Exactly the same! They are wonderful guys. For me Abbas-Mustan are one of the best directors I have worked with, honest. In the last 27 films I have worked, I’ve never had more fun that I did with them. They keep springing surprises on you with their technique. Their films are slickly edited. They make things happen. I only wish they’d make one film at a time. That way I’d have more fun working with them. We are planning another film together, you know," he says.

Judging from the promos, people assume Badshah is a duplicate, a Duplicate clone. Does the agree? "Not at all," comes the reply. "It is a comedy but it is not the Duplicate kind of comedy. People like to think they’re smart and predict a film’s story even before they’ve seen it, and decide the fate of the film even before it released. Badshah has a very involved story line. It is a very difficult film to make because it has so many elements, so many characters. Yet it holds your interest. It is a very crisp, laugh riot."

"Shah Rukh feel it is strange that in India, if an actor does comedy, he never wins an award for best actors. He is considered only in the category of the comedians."

"An actor is an actor. And everybody should be given equal importance. I know in India Johny Level can never hope to win a best actor award. Mehmood Sahab never won a best actor award. I think it is really difficult to do comedy. Pick the top heroes and heroines over the last 10 years, and ask them to do comedy. Then you’ll know what I am taking about but for Govinda none of us can carry of comedy roles just as well. Before him, way be Mr. Bachchan could carry off comedy. Coming as I do, from theatre, I know that for a fact. Even among the heroines, very few who could just as convincing with comedy as with any other genre. Yet nobody quite appreciates their worth. And it is downright shocking that comedy gets such a step-motherly treatment." Shah Rukh feels that even whacky comedy will work in India. "But you have to develop the state for it. If you try something new, people may turn away the first time. But soon, they will begin to appreciate such films. Duplicate was a disappointment. Let’s hope Baadshah isn’t. I am sure if films like Andaaz Apna Apna and Duplicate are shown on TV, soon there will be a market for comedy films in India. For instance, in the promos of Baadshah we have a rose coming out of a gun. But it had to be withdrawn because people rejected it. They said they did not quite like it.

I think we ought to have persisted with it. Baadshah is meant to be a comedy. If the audience approves of it, it would be a bonus. If not, we shall have to try again. But I think Baadshah will do well commercially. I don’t mind if it is not as big a hit as Kuch Kuch Hota Hai. Because it is of a different genre. Every film cannot be a Titanic. You cannot keep making the same kind of films. I want to do films which cater to everybody, including the lowest common denominator, the front-bencher. I’m sure Baadshah is such a film. In any case, I can’t go on working in films like Kuch Kuch Hota Hai till even my fans desert me," concludes Khan.