During the KBC launch in Delhi on Monday, Sameer Nair, CEO of STAR Entertainment, was asked: “If you were to consider a lady host for KBC, who would it be?” Sure enough, before Sameer could take a crack, one hand went up to pitch for the post — that of Shah Rukh Khan

Sameer Nair (CEO of STAR Entertainment): Having Shah Rukh on the show is a huge thing for us. We are really excited to do Kaun Banega Crorepati with him. It’s like, it’s like… you remember there was this Thums Up ad when we were really small which went like: “Happy days are here again”.

SRK: No Sameer, it is “Yeh dil maange more”! Don’t get the product wrong. (SRK, of course, endorses Pepsi, while Thums Up is from the Coke stable.)

Media: How do you feel now that you are being reduced from 70 mm to the television set?

SRK: I live in everybody’s hearts. And now I will be coming to everybody’s bedroom. So you can imagine…

Q: What are the negative sides of being famous?

SRK: Staying in the biggest hotels, travelling in the best cars, getting paid lots of money… (laughs). Seriously, to me, there are no negative points of being a film star. If Allah asks me what I would like to be if I am born again, I would like to be someone like Shah Rukh Khan. Yes, God has been very, very kind to me. I sincerely believe that being a movie star is the greatest job in the world.

Q: How much are you getting from STAR for KBC?

SRK: We have decided that I am not going to answer the questions we are going to ask on the show. And this is one such question.

Q (from a lady): How much are you getting from STAR for KBC?

SRK: The next time you ask me that, I will ask your age.

Q: Will you enter the sets on the launch episode of KBC just as you did in Don? What will be your look?

SRK: Yes exactly, Siddhartha (Basu, producer of the show), Sameer and I were just planning that I should be coming down in a helicopter. As for my look, it will be the Tarzan look.

Q: How much say would you have in the way the show will be conducted and designed?

SRK: The letter ‘K’ is very important in our industry. So, Siddhartha is the “Kreator” of the show with the ‘K’ of KBC. The ‘C’ of KBC is Sameer because he will be giving out all the “Crores” to the participants. And I am the “Bachcha” with a ‘B’.

Q: For Amitabh Bachchan, KBC was the turning point of his career. What will it be for you?

SRK: Learning point.

Q: How are you preparing for a knowledge-based show like KBC?

SRK: As soon as this conference is over, I will go up and start reading newspapers of the last one or two years and I will continue doing that for the next one or two months till the time the show is ready to be shot.

Q: Bachchan agreed to do KBC at a time when his film career was not going anywhere. Do you fear the same now, with Hrithik and Abhishek around as the next badshah?

SRK: You should ask ‘Agla badshah kaun?’ only when the throne is emptied. This King is going nowhere. It’s just that this King is coming to your bedrooms.