(SRKs dad – Meer Taj Mohammad, <BR><br><p class=clear>&nbsp;</p>Image Courtesy: Renu Poswal) <BR><BR><br><p class=clear>&nbsp;</p>One of the most poignant aspects of the book is Shahrukh’s idealistic handsome dad Meer. Here was a man who aspired to be an actor, failed professionally most of the time but loved his wife dearly. Ironically many unfulfilled dreams of Meer have been fulfilled by the son. Don’t you think SRK is similar and dissimilar with his dad in many ways? <BR><BR><br><p class=clear>&nbsp;</p>Yes he was. If you see the pictures in the book, Shahrukh looks a lot like his father. His father was a really really handsome man, very tall, very good looking. Curiously one thing that I didn’t know before I started writing the book was that Meer also wanted to be an actor though it was more like: Let’s try it because he was a good looking man but not in a very focused determined way the way his son did it. I thought that was a very very interesting parallel that Meer came to Bombay, made a half hearted attempt, was friends with Dilip Kumar’s brothers, stayed around for a while, good friends with Anil Kapoor’s father and then left. It’s ironical, it’s also interesting that then the son made the same journey and did it with such success. Shahrukh himself says that his father didn’t succeed at any of the things that he tried to do. His son has succeeded so enormously that it’s an amazing parallel and it’s very sad that his father never saw the success. <BR><BR><br><p class=clear>&nbsp;</p>Meer was very idealistic and steadfast while Shahrukh Khan has broken ideals. When he entered the film industry it was being said that the kind of filmmakers he started off with (Aziz Mirza, Kundan Shah) had socialistic leanings and hence Shahrukh will strive towards serious meaningful cinema as well. But today he is known more for his Raj-Rahul brand of cinema that you have talked about in great detail in your book. <BR><br><p class=clear>&nbsp;</p>(laughs) A lot of people see the Raj Rahul roles as propagating Indian values and Indian culture but of course that is a very narrow view of what Indian culture is. But I don’t think he broke values. I think what he broke was the stereotypical and very old fashioned rules of Bollywood like when you come in you shouldn’t be married, you shouldn’t do negative roles. I find that very admirable for this completely outsider guy, makes up his own rules and succeed. The values propagated in Raj Rahul roles for some is Hindu culture, for some it is regressive values. There’s always a debate on what is being propagated. <br><p class=clear>&nbsp;</p>