SRKs cockiness has mellowed over the years - Anupama Chopra : Bollywood News

You have this chapter in the book: Peshawar and the street of story tellers. Dilip Kumar was born there and Shahrukh Khanâ€™s grandparents belonged to that place. Itâ€™s ironical that the man whom SRK was said to have tried to emulate had its roots in the same place.

I thought it was fascinating. There was a street in Peshawar which was called Kissa Kahani Bazaar which literally translates into the street of the storytellers. It was a space where there were people who gathered at this meeting point, drank kahwa and told stories. And from this little neighbourhood, little little gullies comes the family of Shahrukh Khan, the family of Dilip Kumar, the family of Prithviraj Kapoor. So, these great storytellers of Hindi film industry have come from one space. I thought it was an incredible co-incidence and a remarkable thing. I really wanted to go there myself but it wasnâ€™t meant to be.

Before SRK came to Bombay one of the things that he told his would be in-laws was that Amitabh Bachchan has retired and Dilip Kumar doesnâ€™t work any more.

(Laughs) Thatâ€™s right. I thought that was incredible. Actually Gauriâ€™s Mama Tejinder told me this story. He said that his confidence was just shocking. Mr Tejinder Tiwari was the first confidante in the family. He told me this story that Shahrukh said that Mr Bachchan has retired and Dilip saab is not playing the hero any more so whoâ€™s there, thereâ€™s only me. I asked Mr Tiwari if he said it as a joke because it sounds comical but Mr Tiwari said that he was completely serious. This man had this confidence and determination when he was no one. He was just an actor on Fauji.

What one expected before reading the book was that there will be detailed passages quoted to Shahrukh Khan. But itâ€™s not like that. SRKâ€™s passages are few and far in between. What kind of research did you do for the book? I read somewhere that for your book on Sholay you had long sessions with Ramesh Sippy.

It was the same for this book as well. In fact most of the stories came from Shahrukh himself. I spoke to him, interviewed him and drove him completely mad (laughs) for about two years. I emailed him on every corner of the globe, I SMSed him. All of the information comes from him. For me as a writer itâ€™s not interesting to just have a first person quoting. I think you have to massage the information a little bit, bring it into the context, I think you have to analyze it. If I would have merely quoted him it would have been a magazine journalistic piece than a book. Apart from him, there were around 80-90 people that I interviewed. The main bulk of the book comes from first person interviews that Iâ€™ve done myself. And itâ€™s exactly the same way I researched for my Sholay book. The best way to get the stories is when you go and talk to people.

Check Video - SRK in conversation with Anupama Chopra: Part 2

"SRK's cockiness has mellowed over the years" - Anupama Chopra