Here is an excerpt from Anushka Sharma's and Shah Rukh Khan's interview with Film Companion's Anupama Chopra:
I was watching the promos I was really thinking like why do we love watching you fall in love? (To Anushka) You are going to start a fourth film with him have you figured this out?
Anushka Sharma: I think it’s the dimples. I mean what else, I think it’s the dimples
Shah Rukh Khan: What else could it be? Definitely not talent...
Anushka: I think it’s the smile.
Shah Rukh: ...not the looks either. It could only be the dimples.
Anushka: I think... yeah, I think it’s the dimple, I think it’s his uh...
Shah Rukh: Well, I think it's my mother's blessing.
Anushka: It’s his smile, you know.
But really if you think about this do you really think about this?
Shah Rukh: See, you asked me last time.
No, but why do we only want to see you fall in love again and again?
Shah Rukh: I am getting really embarrassed about this yaar… I don’t know. Really.
Are you blushing?
Shah Rukh: Yes, I’m blushing.
Anushka: I think it is the memories.
Shah Rukh: Yes, that could be it.
Anushka: Because we have seen him falling in love and making women fall in love with him for a long time. Then maybe we imagine that only if we too had a chance to fall in love like this... and then you want to see it again and again, because whenever you watch him falling in love, you get that feeling.
Shah Rukh: Yeah, I think that I am a manly Mills and Boon...walking, talking Mills and Boon. You have read Mills and Boon na?
Of course!
Anushka: Nope.
Shah Rukh: Aah, you wouldn't have read it.
Are you serious?
Shah Rukh: It was before her time. So whoever has not read it, I work with them and make them feel the feeling and whoever has read it...
... you remind them of that feeling
Shah Rukh: It is like a habit now
I feel like your brand of love is totally different from Imtiaz Ali’s brand of love. Yours have been more about nobility, there’s a sort of sooni sense to it - it feels more responsible, in a sense. I feel like Imtiaz’s love is more messy, it has harder edges. It is more about existential issues that people have with each other, with themselves. So for this film how did you guys arrive at what the tonality would be?
Shah Rukh: To be honest, I really don’t have a personal brand of love. Whatever love stories I have participated in, I just follow the direction of the filmmaker because I really don’t have an idea of love. So I could be a Devdas lover, because Sanjay thinks that way, or that’s how the character’s written. I can adjust my mannerisms accordingly. It is the same with Imtiaz.
Karan [Johar], Yash Chopra Ji and others have seen me in a certain way, so I’ve done it all in the way they believe. But when Imtiaz asks me to do a scene in a certain way, I listen only to him. Whenever we rehearse, I am only listening to how Imtiaz is saying this, what is he feeling.
Sometimes I don’t understand it. I’m like "Why did you say it like that?" and he asks "what do you feel sir?". And I'll be like "no, but why did you say this? Just tell me what you felt." And Imtiaz would give me this absolutely existential explanation like "the other day, I was climbing the stairs when I saw a red light flashing at a distance and I felt like a girl was walking towards me. But then the light came nearer and I saw that it was a police car... and I realised that light is like love..." or something like that. From that I'll understand what mood Imtiaz was in, what he is feeling...
I’m like an empty vessel, which you can fill and I will take the shape of love. If you need it to be an Imtiaz vessel, I'll be that. If you need to be a Yash ji vessel, I'll can be that too.
And I really believe that I’ve never been the same lover - be it with Yash ji or Karan or Aadi or right now Imtiaz. And you’re right it is very edgy, it is very strange. I personally feel that this is better than the swooning, good-boy lover that I have portrayed. Not that I am a bad boy here or that I won’t swoon - I always swoon when I see Anushka... it is just that I understand Imtiaz’s lover much better after getting to know him and discussing the film with him for a year. So it is really close to me.
So you can do whatever the director needs you to...
Shah Rukh: Yeah, whichever way one wants me to love, I will. I really believe it. If you talk to me for sometime, or if she talked to me for sometime and told me about her concept of love, I can be that person within my limitations as an actor. I really feel the emotion of love very strongly.
Was that a convincing answer? Or is it just the dimples? It’s just the dimples.
I was wondering... does doing so many love stories, even you, Anushka, have done plenty, have any impact on real life because you guys have been in so many characters heads in so many situations of heartache - have you become better partners?
Shah Rukh: (to Anushka) You want to go first? Or should I?
Anushka: I am thinking about this.
Shah Rukh: The partner part, you should ask the partner because I'll obviously be like "I'm awesome!". But having done quite a few love stories, I feel that most of the love stories are beautiful if they are seen from a woman’s point of view - what a woman wants, or doesn't want, desires, feels....
Even today, when you see 'Dilwaale Dulhania Le Jaayenge', you feel something inside you. So there must be something nice to that story because it was from a woman’s point of view - 'Mere khwaabon me jo aaye...', from the knight in shining armor, to the way she stands up for her lover and stands up for the family, the traditions and everything.
I have also noticed that I’ve become more gentlemanly, I’ve become more regardful, I’ve become genuinely more aware of my actions from smallest of things to bigger things. Have I become a better partner, I don’t know.
But you are more sensitive to what women feel
Shah Rukh: A lot more. I know I just claim to be that, but I’ve been brought up by women. And the ladies who work with me, they are beautiful and fantastic and they have been really sweet to me. I think somewhere along the way, I have come to understand women a lot better. Actually, understood is the wrong word - I feel women much more in every way. The physical appearance of a woman has taken the second spot. It is not about the regular "wow, she’s a 10/10". All those things have gone out...
What about you Anushka?
Anushka: I think that is probably true, what he said. Maybe every boy should become an actor and do love stories. I think boys understand love in a different way.
Shah Rukh: You have to empower a woman’s emotion for a love story to work, not just empower women. I don't think Raj or Rahul would have worked if the female protagonist's emotions were not empowered. It is the small things. I didn't even realise how important a lot of the things I did was - I just did them because someone wrote them.
For instance, during 'karva chauth', my character goes and sits with the woman not just because it is sweet. It is because the character understands that she is keeping that vrath for you, so the least you could do is be with her and give her company.
It is not like "you are starving, so I am starving too" - it more emotional and supportive.
Anushka: I don’t think boys walk out of love stories thinking 'I'm gonna love like SRK does." But I think the women watch these stories and then tell them "I want you to be as romantic as Shah Rukh."
To watch the full interview, visit www.filmcompanion.in
