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| Shah Rukh in a royal blue bandhgala by Manish Malhotra at a fashion show that accompanied the trailer launch of Happy New Year |
How do you tell Shah Rukh Khan that he’s got this cherry red lipstick mark on his right cheek? A couple of young girls, who had waited for hours to meet him, wanted to make a deeper impression on the man, who himself hopes his new film Happy New Year makes a deeper impression on the world. Not count crores but make every Indian everywhere proud of Bollywood cinema. Wearing a spotless white shirt and black trousers and munching on thin-crust margherita pizza in a boardroom at the Sahara Star hotel near Mumbai’s domestic airport, Shah Rukh Khan opened his heart to t2. One more time.
Now that your big reunion film with Farah Khan is ready for release, would you like to clear the air about what had soured between the two of you?
You know, people over the years believe that the reasons they do what they do are right. There was a point in both my life and Farah’s life where we thought we should go our separate ways. That she should do a film with someone else. Which she did (Tees Maar Khan with Akshay Kumar). I wished it well. Sometimes when two people who are very close do films with other people, everyone thinks that the relationship has soured and they give flight to things which are perhaps not true or very little true. It becomes bigger.
She has reasons to say what she said. Unfortunately I had an altercation with her husband (Shirish Kunder) also. It had nothing to do with her. I am sorry about that. I don’t think it was fair. In my position and how I am, I shouldn’t do half the things that normal people do. I should just keep quiet and go back home sometimes. But sometimes, it gets difficult. Especially with people like Shirish and Farah, you take it wrongly. What the hell... you’re like my babies yaar!
Maybe I shouldn’t have done it publicly. She came over and I realised that there’s a lot of personal love. And my emotion towards her and Shirish are not for the public domain. I should have been careful. Maybe I made a mistake! What maybe? I did make a mistake. I am more of a public figure than both of them are. So I chatted with her. She said ‘I’m sorry’. I told her: ‘You don’t have to be, I’m sorry.’
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| Team Happy New Year at the film’s trailer launch in Mumbai on Thursday |
Was Happy New Year planned right then and there?
Soon after that, I was driving to Pune to launch my friend Rajiv Bajaj’s new motorcycle and on my way I felt that I missed her. I called her. I said: ‘Thank you for coming home... what are you doing now?’ She said: ‘Nothing Shah!’ I asked: ‘Will you do a film with me?’ She asked: ‘Which one?’ I said: ‘The film you had told me about six years ago... make that.’ She asked: ‘When?’ I said: ‘Now!’ She was like, ‘Really?’ I said: ‘Yes, make it for me. You should make films. You are a great filmmaker. You have made two of the most wonderful films (Main Hoon Na and Om Shanti Om) I have done in my life.’ She came to meet me. I didn’t even hear the story. She went about casting the film. And we made it.
With Chennai Express you worked with Rohit Shetty, who wasn’t part of your friend circle and who came in with his own style and team. Does someone like him challenge you more as an actor or someone like Farah whom you have known for ages?
I don’t work with anybody I am not comfortable with. And I don’t think anyone should work with me if they are not comfortable with me. Rohit is one of the most hardworking directors of Indian cinema. And he is fantastic at what he does! So, he came to meet me. I had never met him before. He came with a film called ‘Angoor’ and we talked. And in 10 minutes I was so impressed with him. Such clarity he had! I said: ‘I will do your film’. Then within two days he came to me saying that there’s another script which three actors have refused, but I want to make it with you. I liked it and I said: ‘Let’s do it.’
I am not saying who’s better than whom but sometimes two people make one plus one more than two. Each one of us singularly is fantastic. But together we are explosive. Adi (Aditya Chopra) told me this one day. And he’s not an emotional guy. ‘Yeh jo magic hota hai, woh kuch logon ke saath mein aane se hota hai.’
We will all be excellent on our own because we are hardworking, true to ourselves and believe in what we do. But together we make what I call jadoo! I am fortunate that I have created jadoo with so many people. Karan (Johar) and I made some wonderful films. Aziz (Mirza) and me made some wonderful films. Adi and me, Yash Chopra and me, Farah and me... that unison is most important. Rohit and me have made one and we will make more magic. I think I can create magic with (Sanjay Leela) Bhansali. And you can’t explain it. It just happens. It’s a chemical reaction. Poof! [He gestures with his hand like a magician.]
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| Deepika Padukone, who plays Mohini in Happy New Year, walked in a Manish Malhotra sari at the show |
Your Chennai Express trounced 3 Idiots at the box office. Then there was Dhoom:3. Now Kick is notching up the numbers. Happy New Year should challenge Kick. Then there’s PK. Has the fun gone out of movie-making because of all the crore-counting?
Not at all. I don’t count! Just go and make your film. Don’t count the crores. When things are indescribable or unexplainable, human beings by nature try to categorise them, otherwise it gets difficult to recognise them. Kikar ke ped ke paas mat jao, wahaan bhoot hota hai. There is no bhoot; you don’t want to go there at night because mosquitoes will bite you. When you can’t explain something to the unaware, you make up things.
Filmmaking and its success are 100 per cent inexplicable. Otherwise you would have made 250 superhit films every year. I have one line in Happy New Year: ‘Saal mein banti dhaai sau filmein; phir bhi unnees saal se dekhe Dilwale; hum hai Indiawaale!’ Why do we keep watching that one film? No one knows. Somebody will come and tell you: ‘It did well because in the 1990s the NRI quotient and the ideology of the nation wanting to go bigger and blah and blah...’ Come on!
Now corporates have come and they have to categorise cinema. Anything which you can’t categorise is a ghost, a Loch Ness monster. The gentleman asking the questions has no idea about creativity. The last time he was creative was at the golf course! He understands the crores. The Rs 100 crore club. And we filmmakers, who are creative people and do not understand anything about business, are like 100-200 crore ussi ko publicise kar do.
The other day I shouted at someone that no critical review and no collection figures will ever be put up at our office. Because we don’t understand it. We don’t play for it. Because if we put it, we will learn it. And if we learn it, from next time we will only be making films for the reviews or the crores.
But there was a party when Chennai Express broke the 3 Idiots record. You are a Scorpio. You are known to be an extremely competitive guy. Are you trying to say you are least bothered about how Salman’s and Aamir’s films are doing?
I compete with myself! When I wake up in the morning, I believe there’s nobody better than me. I don’t know you. I don’t know any other actor. I don’t know any other director. The only person I know is me. And I am highly successful. Perhaps one of the most successful people in the last 20 years. I want to compete and beat me. Every morning.
There might be people better than me. And here in your interview I am telling you there are at least 10 people in the industry who are better than me... 100 times better than me. But I don’t know them. So I don’t compete with them. I just want to beat me. Let my today kill yesterday. Let my tomorrow kill today. I am going to make it bigger, better, huger.
So, what is your goal for Happy New Year? What would make you happy after it releases in Diwali?
My goal is to make it the ultimate Bollywood film. In the last 20 years, I have travelled all over and met the biggest of people from the world of showbiz. I don’t talk about it. The Hollywood studios meet me and when they talk about Bollywood, they are like your films have dancing, your films have revenge angle, your films have people falling in love, they are not character-driven... everything’s like a cabaret. I was never ashamed of it. This is what I do. I am in a position now where I can make a film which has dancing — with logic — singing —— with logic — revenge — with logic — love story — with logic — fighting — with logic. It’s got everything that a Bollywood film should have but at a scale never seen before.
I want to make every Indian proud of Bollywood with this film. I may fail completely on the Friday this film releases, but the thought is there. When they make ‘Ocean’s 14’, they should aim to try and make it bigger than Happy New Year. I have been given too much by Indian cinema. Can I give something back to Indian cinema as a producer? If I win an Oscar, that’s for me, I’m not giving it to anyone! [Chuckles] But maybe I can push the envelope a little more every time and unless I push it, I would never know if we can some day conquer the world.
It is also the first film where Red Chillies hasn’t partnered with a UTV or an Eros. Are you that confident about Happy New Year?
UTV didn’t buy it. To be honest, I offered it to them. But they had the Disney takeover happening then. [He asks someone in the room for some crushed red chillies for the pizza. What impeccable timing Mr Khan!] Happy New Year is the most expensive film ever made in India. Ra.One was. Now it’s this one. I have always maintained that I will never put upon anyone the risks of my creativity. I don’t want to be told by anyone: ‘We put money in your dreams!’ I put my money where my dream is. So when UTV couldn’t take it, Venky (Mysore, the CEO of Red Chillies) asked me what should we do. I said let’s make it ourselves. Adi told me: ‘You’ve made some wonderful films Shah Rukh. You’ve made them for Yash Raj. You are a wonderful filmmaker. You’ve made too many films for outsiders. Now make it for yourself. Take the chance man!’
But does a heist film as a genre excite Indians enough? Don 2 was a heist film too...
We were too sophisticated in that one. Because Don couldn’t be comical. This one has all the tech-savvy bits but it is also funny and entertaining. Even the lady of the house will go: ‘Kamaal chori kiya hasaate hasaate!’ There’s nothing wrong in being able to please everyone. It’s very difficult to please everyone in a room but if you can come close to it... that’s the challenge. I try to do that. It’s a heist film made by a woman! That must be a first. The dance part is okay. Farah can do that sleeping. But the heist part, and there’s not much of it in the trailer, is mast yaar!
What’s your character Charlie like, with the beard and the golden streak in the hair?
She wanted me to be broody and sexy. That’s not difficult for me. [Laughs gleefully] With the beard and two buttons open, that’s not difficult. To be honest, in a commercial film, you don’t develop characters. You just develop the film. And I am unabashedly honest about it. If you want to see character, see Kabir Khan (Chak De! India), see Swades, see Asoka. But in a commercial film like this, you succumb to playing to the gallery. And I am okay with it. I am an actor. So there are scenes where I have done comedy which Charlie shouldn’t do. But it’s funny and people will laugh.
Happy New Year talks about losers coming together and winning in life. This in the 25th year of your career, if you look back, which were the times when you felt like a loser?
There was a time during Mohabbatein (2000) when India Today carried a cover that I am over and done with. Anupama Chopra wrote that article. I felt very sad. Because I wasn’t over. It was after Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani. I was the first actor who made a production company. And this magazine cover killed me. That I didn’t know how to make films. And my days as a star were over. I was very, very disturbed. And what do I do? I made a film even more contrary — Asoka... 9/11 happened and it didn’t work... whatever. But it didn’t dissuade me and we made Chalte Chalte. And since then, we haven’t made a bad film... in terms of commerce.
The other time was KKR constantly losing year after year. I was very sad and upset because I couldn’t control it. But I have come to the conclusion that if things go wrong with me for two or three years, I have to wait and things go right! Now you can’t mess with me. The first two years you can, but by the seventh year I will kill you!
Finally, would you want to react to what Jackie Shroff said about you at the Happy New Year trailer launch: “Beedu, woh bachha bahut akela hai”?
[Uncanny silence for moments which feel like hours] I don’t have a lot of people to share things with because there aren’t too many people at 48 who are doing things like me. And I am not talking about contemporary actors. I am talking about everyone. And if you don’t have similar people, you don’t have company. Actually, I can’t express my desires to anybody. My dreams are so different I can’t make others understand. Maybe I am just a retard.
I have always believed that creativity can only be done in loneliness. Creativity is a job done alone. When you are writing an article, you are not partying, you are not chatting with your wife. There’s a part of me which thinks he is creative. Because if I wasn’t creative, I wouldn’t last so long. And if I am creative, I am alone. And I am happy being alone. There is no sadness, no pain in it. You have to do it alone. You have to sit down quietly. Whether it comes as a light or it comes as a poem or it comes as a thought, it comes when you are alone.
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TWITTER TALLY
Salman Khan
@BeingSalmanKhan
Jst saw happy new year ka promo, its Kick ass.
Amitabh Bachchan @SrBachchan
T 1578 - BAADHAAAMMM !!! The trailor of @HappyNewYear!! Just simply stupendous.. Wohooo!! Farah and SRK .. and the entire team!
Anil Kapoor
@AnilKapoor
@TheFarahKhan papaji! The trailer is absolutely fantastic!! My type commercial..
Farhan Akhtar
@FarOutAkhtar
@TheFarahKhan Nice one Capri 9. Love the @iamsrk & @bomanirani ‘world dance championship’ mumbling moment.
Karan Johar
@karanjohar
Huge congratulations to @iamsrk and the entire team of Red chillies.... and you nailed it Faru!!!! @TheFarahKhan!!!!
Anupam Kher @AnupamPkher
AMAZING Trailer of Happy New Year. Loved it. Proud to be an ‘Emotional’ part of this cinematic extravaganza.:) @iamsrk @TheFarahKhan.
Uday Chopra
@udaychopra
ThS looks mindblowing! Killing it! @juniorbachchan @TheFarahKhan @iamsrk
Pratim D. Gupta
