“SRK’s cockiness has mellowed over the years” – Anupama Chopra

Read More">You have this chapter in the book: Peshawar and the street of story tellers. Dilip Kumar was born there and Shahrukh Khan’s grandparents belonged to that place. It’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 wasRead More

You have this chapter in the book: Peshawar and the street of story tellers. Dilip Kumar was born there and Shahrukh Khan’s grandparents belonged to that place. It’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 wasn’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 doesn’t work any more.
(Laughs) That’s right. I thought that was incredible. Actually Gauri’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 who’s there, there’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 it’s not like that. SRK’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 it’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 I’ve done myself. And it’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

“Amitabh Bachchan has retired and Dilip Kumar is not working as a hero any more so there’s only me, ” were the super sure words of Shahrukh Khan as he tried to convince his would be in-laws as to why they should let their daughter marry him. Moreover, Read More">in a typical filmi style while standing onRead More

“Amitabh Bachchan has retired and Dilip Kumar is not working as a hero any more so there’s only me,” were the super sure words of Shahrukh Khan as he tried to convince his would be in-laws as to why they should let their daughter marry him. Moreover, in a typical filmi style while standing on a Marine Drive flyover, he had said, “one day I shall rule this city.” And he did. In fact, he does. In this second part of an exclusive interview with noted journalist Anupama Chopra on her book, King of Bollywood Shahrukh Khan and the Seductive World of Indian Cinema, find out the traumatic experience of SRK during the era when underworld played havoc in the film industry (Here it must be added that a few of the news channels who glorified his underworld connection in a few recent news reports have got it all really wrong. They should have read the book before hiking up their TRPs). Also find out why SRK fans are crazy about him and how he is not afraid to admit his failures. There is lots more juice…so, just keep on scrolling. You don’t get all this anywhere except IndiaFM.

You start the book with the dream of a fan Bhavesh whose wish came true when he dances with SRK at a concert in US during the Temptations tour. Why did you start with him?
That story of Bhavesh really fascinated me. Of course all I knew was what I saw in Nasreen Munni Kabeer’s documentary ‘Outer World of Shahrukh Khan’. He is on stage and it’s a couple of minutes of the documentary but it just amazed me. Bhavesh had such innocence and such reverence and it just encapsulated the unique relationship Indian fans have with their idols. I don’t think any other fans across the world have the same reverence. The way he bent down and touched his feet, and it was not a giggly fourteen year old teenager, this is a grown up man. And I was amazed as to how that whole interaction played me. I and my research associate Leo Mirani went mad trying to find Bhavesh. It took us months and months to find that man and connect with him. Then I interviewed him and he was in Ahmedabad flying back to US. He lives in a small town Dalton in Georgia and I interviewed him on the way from domestic airport to the international airport. But he was fabulous. I’m very grateful for his story.

Check Video - SRK in conversation with Anupama Chopra: Part 1

SRK on the sets with Gauri and Suhana
Photographer Ayesha Monani, Courtesy: Dharma Productions

What is interesting about the book is that it’s not merely a book that goes on praising Shahrukh Khan. There are sections, passages where you are talking about what’s going on in Bollywood like the Gulshan Kumar incident, Read More">the transitions that Bollywood is going through. It’s not merely Shahrukh Khan is great kind of book.Read More

What is interesting about the book is that it’s not merely a book that goes on praising Shahrukh Khan. There are sections, passages where you are talking about what’s going on in Bollywood like the Gulshan Kumar incident, the transitions that Bollywood is going through. It’s not merely Shahrukh Khan is great kind of book.
Thank you, I’m so glad you enjoyed those parts because I was a bit worried that Shahrukh Khan fans may say why we are going in other things. But that was the whole point to tell many stories through his. It has been published by Warner books, an American publisher who wants it also for mainstream American readers many of whom do not know who Shahrukh Khan is. But they are interested in Hindi film Industry, they are interested in the popular Indian culture. It really is a popular Indian culture book. I always wanted to tell many things through Shahrukh.

One more very interesting aspect of the book is the underworld chapter. Shahrukh has never commented on it openly. But here one gets to know how he was told by Rakesh Maria that he was on the hit list of underworld and then how he tackles the abusive language of an underworld don.
That was actually an eye opener for me. We all have lived through the underworld years. Vinod (Anupama Chopra’s husband, Vidhu Vinod Chopra) had threats as well. We lived with protection around the time when Mission Kashmir was released. We’ve all experienced it first hand. It was very unpleasant, very very terrifying time but I did not know to what extent they were involved in his life. For somebody like him getting calls daily….I remember when I visited him on the sets of Duplicate, I saw a guard with a gun. It was the first time I saw a bodyguard but after a point of time it became an accessory. It was an eye opener for me for the extent of harassment he went through and how frightened he was and how terrifying it was for his family.

SRK, Juhi and Aziz Mirza sat in the conference hall and wept when Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani flopped

Abu Salem in one of the phone calls said to Shahrukh that we thought you are a proudy person but you are not. That is one persona that SRK carries. A lot of people find him arrogant but he is also a very simple person on other occasions.
Absolutely! I think there is certain cockiness though that has mellowed over the years. I used to see that a lot earlier. But I don’t see that any more. I am completely amazed that how normal and down to earth he is. I’ve never had this experience of the old style megalomania that one associates with old fashioned film stars. It’s just not there.

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

SRK in Annie
Courtesy: Pradip Krishen

Read More">You’ve also spoken about Shahrukh Khan’s failures especially the aftermath of Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani Another area which surprised me and how open he was about saying that maybe it was not a good film. That’s very hard. I come from a film family; I have a first hand experience on what happens whenRead More

You’ve also spoken about Shahrukh Khan’s failures especially the aftermath of Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani
Another area which surprised me and how open he was about saying that maybe it was not a good film. That’s very hard. I come from a film family; I have a first hand experience on what happens when a film flops. How painful it is when people criticize it while you think it is brilliant after all you’ve spent 2-3 years and one Friday people say it is rubbish. He was very open about how hurtful it was. As Juhi says that it was not merely a film, it was an izzat ka sawaal. Nobody even said that it was a good film that bombed. I was moved when he told me that all three (SRK, Juhi and Aziz Mirza) sat in the conference hall and wept. He was very open about talking about his failures, about Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani or Asoka which earned critical acclaim but both didn’t work.

There are passages in the book that talk about Shahrukh Khan’s love life, his sexual ‘preferences’. The passages where he talks about how he courted Gauri, how he came to Bombay in search of Gauri…all this makes for interesting reading.
It’s the great love story that has overcome so many hurdles. It’s a Hindu Muslim match. The girl comes from an upper middle class family while the boy’s parents were dead who had no obvious income revenue, who wanted to be an actor in times when nobody wanted to be an actor. People wanted to be doctors and engineers. It’s a Hindi movie style love story. I also talked to him about talks if he is bisexual or gay. He just laughed and said that I am just more comfortable with women and that’s why even the male friends that I have are not the really macho men that’s why these rumours. He has this great line when people ask him if he and Karan Johar are lovers, he just says that how did I have two children…Heavy petting.

Check Video - Anupama Chopra On SRK And His Bollywood Love Affair: Part 1

Shah Rukh and Gauri at a party in 1985,
Courtesy: Vivek Khushalani

Read More">He has had a good relationship with media and except for this bizarre incident where he bayed for a Cine Blitz journalist’s blood about whom you’ve spoken about in detail. He has. He is a supremely articulate speaker. You just don’t get tired of listening to him talk. Most of the journalists including me loveRead More

He has had a good relationship with media and except for this bizarre incident where he bayed for a Cine Blitz journalist’s blood about whom you’ve spoken about in detail.
He has. He is a supremely articulate speaker. You just don’t get tired of listening to him talk. Most of the journalists including me love to interview him. He is quotable quote. You ask one question and he is on it. I think he is the master of sound byte.

I think he is the master of sound byte. He is quotable quote.

One thing that comes across is that here is a man who made most of the opportunities he got. He was not the first choice for playing the lead in Fauji…but when he was offered he made it count. He was the second lead in Deewana but he got all the accolades, he was not the first choice for Darr and with Baazigar he was playing a negative character which could have backfired.
In his career he interestingly has had many roles that were supposed to be done by others. He said that he was hesitant about doing DDLJ and Aditya Chopra was contemplating on casting Saif Ali Khan. But the earlier roles were not even offered to him. In fact he was the last choice for a few of the roles especially Darr and Baazigar which every hero had turned down. It’s kismet as well.

You must be having a lot of research material and a book on Shahrukh Khan would have been looked forward to even if it was a 500, 600 pages book. But, it’s a book close to 300 pages. So, how did you manage to cull all the information?
You have to keep it interesting and pacy as not many people read books any more. I think if it’s not interesting why would they care, who has time? Everyone has so many time pressures so unless you make it sort of entertaining and informative why would anybody care. I dread boring the reader.

Are there pictures and other interesting things in the book?
Yeah, in the finished books there are pictures but it’s not essentially a picture book. There’s a picture insert that goes from his grandfather to him becoming King Khan. But it’s only 6 or 8 pages of pictures and that’s it.

Which is your favourite chapter that you enjoyed writing?
You know I really enjoyed the parts about his parents, his childhood, I really enjoyed writing that. I was really interested in the parts involving his parents, his childhood. I was really interested in his mother, his father as characters, as people. They seemed fascinating people. His mother was a very strong willed, fierce woman who braved such an enormous loss. She lost her husband with two small children. I found all that most interesting.

Check Video - Anupama Chopra On SRK And His Bollywood Love Affair: Part 2

Class 12th farewell in 1985