3.30pm, Monday. Audi 2 of INOX, City Centre, Salt Lake. The Badshah walks in with the Bad Guy. In the next half an hour Shah Rukh Khan is actor, producer, dreamer and... wit. Arjun Rampal is Ra.One, but there’s no mistaking who the boss is. Snatches of SRKspeak from the Calcutta press meet of Ra.One.

On coming to Calcutta topromote Ra.One: It feels nice to be here again — my second home. I especially wanted to come and tell everyone that hope you like it (Ra.One). Bengal has 250-plus prints already. No film has ever released with 250-plus prints in Bengal.

On making Ra.One: The film has been special not just because it is a big film or it is my film.... I think what we have tried to achieve is to take the next step forward so that in the cinema-watching experience we can compare ourselves to international cinema. I do really believe that if you do not keep on enhancing this experience, very soon the younger generation may stop watching Indian films.

It is a simple film, a comic-action film, as widely appealing as a family Diwali film can be. It has some new technology and new story-telling thought...

The main focus of the film is just one line for children — be careful what you wish for. If those wishes are bad and they come true, you will pay very heavily for them. You should never sell your soul to the devil. That is the whole essence of the film. Goodness will always triumph over evil.

I have given it my best shot. Bahut mehnat kiya hai so that I look like a superhero. It was very difficult. I think we are flying well, fighting well, talking well.

Action in Ra.One: We have about five action sequences. There is one with Sanjay Dutt, Priyanka Chopra and myself, which is a little more comic. I have not made the action bloody, mean and macho… not something that the children and women will not enjoy. It is very stylised. I specifically like the climax with Arjun (Rampal) and me, which is on three different levels, hand-to-hand fight. There is a car chase, which perhaps will be the first time in India on that scale and a train sequence where we bring down a whole building, which I think is quite spectacular. We have tried to push the bar. There is a comic action sequence with Kareena (Kapoor) and Rajinikanth Sir which is very nice.

We had to train… me and Arjun. Arjun and me, we got injured… sprains and dehydration. The experience was difficult, but somehow we really enjoyed that. We are both very physical guys — he is an athlete, a swimmer and I have been an athlete. And somehow we knew that at the end of it all, it would look quite awesome. Now, we have forgotten how hard it was. We both lost 6kg in 10-12 days. It was very strenuous but given a chance of doing it again, Inshallah, we would do it with as much gusto.

Arjun has worked very hard in my film. He is the protagonist. So have Kareena, Tom Wu and the little boy Armaan (Verma).

On Ra.One being a father-son story: It is a new kind of a genre in India. I am personally at a stage and age when children become very important. This film is dedicated not to children but to youngsters, the whole family. If you see the humour, it is not childlike. Beyond that my own relationship with my father, who I lost very early and now with my son… I believe because fathers are out of the house most of the time, fathers and sons seem to have a strange relationship as they are growing up. And somehow in my own house, I think the kids like the mother more than the father. But fathers are very cool and loveable also. It is just that they do not know how to express it. I believe that after this film, every son should feel that his father is a superhero for him. He may not look like G.One. He may not have the powers of G.One, but just being a simple, noble gentleman… your father is a superhero.

On the promotional blitzkrieg a la Aamir Khan: At this stage of my life, all this doesn’t bother me. I am Shah Rukh Khan. I am very happy being who I am. I am not being pompous and I say it with all humility. All of us have our own special qualities. I have always said this ke main kisi ke saath compete nahin karta hoon.

On whether he will makeanother film of this genre: Tomorrow! I was just telling Arjun that tomorrow I want to shoot part two. In India, I think we can make bigger, better, faster, beautiful experiences in films now with this experience. I want to make this film bigger and better. It will be comparable to Iron Man, X-Men.

If the film flops: This will not flop. If you want me to say honestly, this film will not flop. This is a superhit film.

SRKisms

I am a dude yaar — a walking talking dude! I had to do the opposite. I had to undudefy me for this film.

There are another 30 years for me to work. There is a long time to go (till I can say how I want people to remember me). Abhi toh I have not even started acting.

I like Batman but I have not copied Batman Begins. I used to like Bahadur comics.