Shah Rukh Khan rocks the 150,000-strong crowd at City Centre New Town for Get on the Express, presented by Emami Fair and Handsome and Osaa, in association with t2, on Saturday evening. Picture by Anindya Shankar Ray

Shah Rukh Khan was in “his city” on Saturday to talk and dance Chennai Express. He spoke exclusively to The Telegraph during a half-hour drive from ITC The Sonar to City Centre II where he brought Calcutta to a halt with “Get on the Express with Shah Rukh Khan”, in association with t2. Excerpts from the chat, about AbRam and Rahul, Salman and Yeats… between cigarettes and black coffee!

You called Calcutta “my city” in your tweet this afternoon adding that you “feel so happy touching the ground of The City of Joy”. Is this because of the Knight Riders or the city in general?

It sounds cliched and people think that just because I’m here I’m saying this but I feel really at home here. Trust me I don’t like to stay anywhere; I like to get back to my kids. But the first thing I asked as I touched down: “Are we staying here?” It’s nothing that I’ll do here but I like the vibe. I had just gone to the bathroom of the hotel and I was like: “Ab main ek kamra le hi loon hamesha ke liye!” I really feel at home. You pass a law so that I can be adopted and kept here.

When I had initially started working in Mumbai and I used to land at Delhi airport, I had this strange sense of ease. Dropping into Mumbai airport used to be awkward and then I had to take a taxi to go to the shooting. That feeling of awkwardness has stayed whenever I go to a city for work. Whether it’s one day or five days or 10 days. But I get off here and my chest swells with ownership. I go everywhere and from New York to China, they look after me wherever I go. Here, it’s like even if there is nobody to look after me, I’m okay. Not as a star. As a person. In case I wasn’t recognisable…. Yaar yeh apni hi jagah hai, kahin na kahin ghoom phirke pahunch jaoonga. Even now when I go to Delhi, I am like, just drop me anywhere and I’ll find my way. I’ve become like that with Calcutta.

You wanted to take up a place here. What happened?

Inshallah, I will. I don’t have money just now. I have told Venky (CEO of KKR) and the others that we must have a permanent office here. They are a little corporate and so everything happens in a planned way. Let them do that. But I’d love to have a place here. I am really thinking. I told my wife the other day, let’s take a place here. Ek apartment ki baat ho rahi thi. But maybe a small bungalow. Next time I’m here with some time in hand, I’ll look around seriously. Something which can be looked after on its own. I may still come and put up at the hotel… par ek hoga toh apni feeling achhi hoti hai.

You yourself admit that the lines between Shah Rukh Khan the star and Shah Rukh Khan the human being have been long blurred. That must have been really tested during the last few weeks when your child AbRam was born?

It’s not that I want to hide something or not talk about something. It’s not that I am some enigmatic star trying to control things around me. I just get amused at the analysis of every action of mine. It’s my baby and it’s very difficult times that we are going through but somebody has to come up with a sex-determination nonsense. It’s a sad moment for the family at that point of time. Mashallah, all is improving and all will be good. I do believe that when you are eating food or using the bathroom, people will say excuse me before talking to you. It’s just etiquette. And it’s the question of a baby here!

I get a little… what do I say… angrily amused. What is wrong? Are we going to be like this just because I happen to be a movie star? I have another parallel self — I am a father, I am a friend, I am a husband… there are so many roles I have. And I am an educated guy and you have to respect that. It’s been 22 years that I am working here. I have made the country proud as much as the country has made me proud by making me who I am. I am very proud of that lineage. I work very hard to entertain the people of this country.

If you have followed my life for the last 15-20 years, since I’ve become famous, I have never made a personal comment about my personal life. My life is an open book. You can ask me anything. But I have never talked about an issue with an ex-actress when the film didn’t take off, I have never talked about the reason of my fallout with a director who is working with me now or my altercation with her husband. I have never talked about it. I have always kept quiet.

There is a WB Yeats poem which I don’t remember verbatim. But what it says is that be like the still water, let others surround you and be around you, who care for you and love you, let them come and see their reflection in you, but the quietness of that water does not mean that you do not feel anything. I am quiet about things but it does not mean I don’t feel about them.

It’s quite depressing, yaar, when people talk about your unwell baby wrongly! And then you come to the point where you are like: What clarification do you want? My life! My baby! Nobody’s talking to me about this! This is not a matter of discussion. This is not 1,2,3,4… get on the dance floor! You are not paying 200 or 500 rupees for this. Yes I am part and parcel of the Indian psyche whether you like it or you don’t like it but you’ve got to have that little respect.

Shah Rukh at City Centre New Town. Picture by Pabitra Das

How’s AbRam now?

He’s getting better now.

There must be lots of excitement in the house around him?

Actually, the well being is the main concern. As soon as he is all right, we’ll all be very happy.

You’ve also been mum about the so-called reunion with Salman Khan…

Like I said I’ve never spoken about my personal altercation or friendship with anyone. And to be honest, neither has Salman ever. Publicly. We have never talked about it. There’s nothing to talk. We know what the truth is. And some truths need to be that personal and that beautiful. It’s gracious… it’s nice… it’s a good mauka to have met him. But beyond that what our relationship is has never been discussed by us in public. But everyone else has. It was like national news for two days…. Come on!

Coming to your Id film (releases August 9), why didn’t the train come to Calcutta instead of Chennai? Why not make a Calcutta Express?

If it does well, yes! We were actually discussing that har sheher mein karte hain. Why not go to a city where neither of the two characters knows the language. Because Chennai Express is basically about not understanding the language. We have so many languages and it’s quite amazing that in your own country you can land up in a space where you don’t know the language or culture.

And you are back to being Rahul here…

It’s a joke actually. I asked Rohit (Shetty, director): “Naya kya karaoge?” He said: “Naya kuchh nahin karaoonga; Rahul hai aapka naam.” He was like, ‘I am a fan of the original Shah Rukh Khan when you were just you’. No hair change, no moochhi, no daadi, same T-shirt-jeans, same Aviators. In fact Karan (Johar) was doing the clothes and he wanted to do something more and Rohit was ‘no, I want him as he was’. Initially I started wearing boots kyunki Deepika lambi hai. But then I got back into my sneakers. And I loved that introduction line of mine: “Rahul, naam toh kabhi sunah hi nahin hoga!” It could have been any name actually.

Is it a good thing to reach that stage in your career where directors want to bring back the old Rahul and the old Raj?

I think it’s a blessing. Yes, it’s a little bit of an issue sometimes. Even directors from other kinds of film-making come to me with my kind of films. Arey bhai, love story toh main Karan ke saath banaoonga, naa? So many directors now come and tell me: “Sir main bada hua hoon aapki picture dekh ke; main aapke saath sabse badi love story banaoonga! I’ll make you love differently!” So, it works both ways.

Finally, anything you are planning to do as the Bengal brand ambassador?

I’m open to anything, anytime. Sometimes, I think, they show me too much kindness and don’t ask me to do too much. For me, it’s like my motherland. They’ll ask me and I’ll come and do it. Maybe when I get a little time, I should come here one day and take the onus on myself. Because it is my forte… the advertising part, the ambassador bit. I should come and have a chat. I should show some initiative.