SRK talks on his IPL win, movies & more

By Screen Weekly -

June 11, 2012 - 11:01 AM IST

"In a 50 over match, there is enough time to rectify your mistakes, in a 20-20, there isn't. It's unpredictable. That's the beauty of the game." That was proud team owner Shah Rukh Khan speaking passionately to a group of mediapersons about cricket. Well, as it turns out, T 20 cricket and all that's associated with it, is a little like that. Just days ago, Khan was in the midst of a raging controversy about flouting MCA rules and before you could say 'not out', he was part of the IPL's winning team! Truth be told, the mercurial star is a bit like the game - one can never predict his next move. For starters, he's reported to have picked up stakes in the football club Dempo. And all talks of selling his stakes in KKR have been put to rest what with the impressive victory. If at all, he would like a sports outfit like ManU to buy stakes in the team to make it even more professional.

But for the time being, the star is happy praising KKR captain Gautam Gambhir who he credits for the victory which has come after a long and hard wait.

"Gautam is very steadfast and very disciplined. In addition to the fact that he's a very nice person and accepts his mistakes, he doesn't carry victory or defeat for more than two hours. Sometimes it happens in the lives of captains that they make an odd decision and it turns out right. Sometimes it happens in the lives of captains that the same odd decision starts going wrong and we start saying, 'isko hatao, yeh bekaar hai.'

"So I think Gautam with all his experience is now on a phase where he knows things instinctively. It is so strange that when I went for the auction, he called me and said, 'I don't want any player in the team. What I have is a fantastic team but just get me Sunil Narayan'.

"Jab woh players ki list aayi thi toh everyone, even cricket specialists were wonderingwhy Sunil Narayan? It was very strange because even we didn't know why we had taken him! But it worked," said the superstar.

As for his involvement with the game strategy, SRK says it was peripheral because cricketers view it in a very technical way.

"I never speak to the captains about the game because it's like people telling me how I should have handled a particular scene. I find that really stupid.. Never. The only time I did was when I told dada (Sourav Ganguly) that if we win the toss, everyone is saying we should take fielding first because it's going to rain. Jay (Mehta) and Juhi (Chawla) toh never talk. The staff has their own talks-like I am sure Wasim (Akram) would be saying something."

SRK talks on his IPL win, movies & more

The distant approach worked, in addition to a well-balanced team according to cricket writer Ayaaz Memon, went a long way in ensuring the team's victory.

If he had been bitterly disappointed by the past losses and the chain of controversies, the actor did not let it show in his hour of victory. He was gracious with the winning team Chennai Super Kings and their captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni. "I hugged Dhoni and told him, 'yaar tu bahut jeet gaya hai so it's okay that we won.' And he was very sweet about it. Most of them are very nice guys."

As always it was some frank speak from Khan who is getting back in form. Excerpts from the post victory chat.

On the quirks of IPL

As an owner, you feel your team is the Indian team playing for the World Cup. In IPL, I might be praying that the best player of the opposite team should get out and four days later I could be praying that he should not get out because he may be playing for my favourite team. I have realised how an audience watches the film. As long as he is satisfied with the film, he doesn't care who it is.

Praying for success

I pray a lot but I have never been in this zone wherein I have prayed so much. In my head and heart, I had to make it happen.

Fracas at Wankhede and the outrage

I go to the stadium and I get angry and it's like the worst thing that could have happened after Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

I am not trying to justify the incident. I apologise for the sake of my kids but you can't say non secular things to me. Ever. Because my kids are not brought up like that. Every day I wake up and there is some news that I have to make a joke of so that my kids know it's not serious.

I realise I have never been able to learn cold blooded objectivity about things-that this is how I should behave because this is what people think of me. Or that I am a role model as people say I am.

I realise that people exist in very small boxes of judgement and limitations. I was watching TV the other day, about MCA etc and I realise the boxes are smaller than my 42 inch plasma TV. And that hurts me. They have no power over me, yet they hurt me. When I see them, they symbolise my hurt because all I have wanted as an actor is universal love. It's an issue I have. I have always given and they have taken. I have given not because I am scared but because I feel this is how I will be liked by them.

Flights of fancy

I know it's very narcissistic to say "I can fly." Or that "I am King" ... It's like saying I am God but I truly believe I can fly because people believe in me. I was going to take a flight from where I was, to the victory stand to show that it is possible but my sister and Gauri, they all stopped me.

The imperfect role model

I don't tell my children to be like me. I don't think even my wife tells them to grow up to be like papa. A role model is one who can face the onslaught of being in the public eye and still play the role of perfect correctness. It is a role that you play; a perception of perfectness that the world expects from you. I am not that at all. I will do a cartwheel with my underwear showing .

It's a fact that I am politically incorrect and now everyone is turning around and saying "please be correct." I guess now it's boring that I am successful. It's like Dhoni -he is famous, rich and a great player. He's making you win and suddenly, in the last four-five months, we have decided that he's not good enough. Sachin (Tendulkar) is smart. He is the perfect human being. He is what a role-model should be. I am not.

Bollywood life

I don't stand for what people perceive Bollywood to be from outside--drug, sex, Rock n Roll.You can be happy without drugs. You can be happy without alcohol, you can be happy without f****** girls. And I am like that. I don't have to find a reason (to be happy).