Shah Rukh Khan is at one of the most hatke phases in his recent life as a superstar. He is playing his own fan in a film of the same name by young filmmaker Maneesh Sharma. Is playing a bootlegger in prohibition State Gujarat with cop Nawazuddin Siddiqui giving him a good chase in Rahul Dholakia’s Raees ?
In the pipleline
There’s more — an unusual relationship film with Aalia Bhatt being helmed by Gauri Shinde and future projects with Imtiaz Ali and Anand L. Rai. Suddenly the name synonymous with the films of Aditya Chopra, Karan Johar and Farah Khan is romancing an entirely different set of directors.
“They (Adi, Karan) must be wondering ab kya banao iske saath yaar (what new to make with this bloke), it’s good for both of us to extend our horizons,” says SRK.
But courting the new, young brigade is not a matter of whim or fancy. “One needs to get the films in the first place,” he says, claiming that he did work with Mani Kaul and Ketan Mehta in the early stages of his career.
The shoulder injury and now the problem knee have been proving to be hindrances in being wholly adventurous but at 50 he wants to “jump, fly, be Robin, Batman, do anything”.
The only thing is that the director should be someone whose knowledge of cinema he respects more than his own. “A film belongs to these hardworking men and women though I might be the best part of the package,” he says, tongue firmly in cheek.
The exciting future notwithstanding, the focus at the moment is entirely on Dilwale directed by Rohit Shetty, a director who made a recent entry in SRK’s résumé with Chennai Express .
There is a commitment and steadfastness towards him after the success of the previous film. And why not. “To sustain things in the film industry one needs commerce and he has been highly successful for the company,” he says.
Shetty’s brand of masala mainstream is a genre that one has not quite associated SRK with. “I am the kind who always played a college-goer at 30,” he says, the self-deprecatory humour that everyone knows evidently programmed in his DNA.
But there is also the confession that he always wanted to do it for the longest time. “I missed out on working with David Dhawan and Manmohan Desai,” he says.
‘Fast and furious love story’
Shetty too came from a different school of cinema, had never done romances of the Kajol-SRK variety. “Our legacy as eternal lovers is the kind of stuff he had been a fan of but never worked on,” says SRK.
So now in Dilwale, SRK and Shetty both go in a zone they haven’t been before: SRK romances Shetty’s cars along with Kajol and does some action beside romance, drama and comedy. “We have mixed it all very well; it’s a fast and furious love story,” says SRK. In which a family gets displaced then comes together again.
After Karan Arjun it is his most action-oriented film ever; he goes on to count, “two car action sequences, one gunfight, one hand-to-hand combat…” Action that is slick, cool and urbane. “Bond in Bulgaria” is how SRK describes it. And then goes on to call it “our very own way of making superhero films.”
He, Kajol and Shetty might be the mainstay but the ensemble is as important, if not more. So the youngsters, Varun Dhawan and Kriti Sanon, matter a lot to SRK. And it’s not about humility or about being patronising.
Ultimate star vehicle
He is aware that he is the ultimate star vehicle of the film and not modest about it either. “But as a producer I feel responsible for all my actors. I make it sure that they are not short-changed even though I may have two extra moments and one more song,” he says.
Some things about him don’t quite change. Even now there is that special thanks reserved for his on-screen women and a higher billing in his films’ opening credits for them. According to him a strong female character and an established actress always make a film work better. “Years ago I made Paheli which was about a woman’s choice and desire,” he says. He feels he owes his career to women, especially Madhuri Dixit and Kajol who even helped him learn to dance.
His parting shot makes a good last word: “Girls are more hardworking than men.”
SRK romances cars along with Kajol, and does some action beside romance,drama and comedy
