Shahrukh Khan Interview

It was Shahrukh Khan who launched the trend of Indian film stars dancing at high-budget weddings. When people criticised him for lowering his status, he coolly confessed, tonguein-
cheek, that he was only a performing monkey.

The evolution of this ordinary-looking, fortysix-year-old man, from a middle-class family in Delhi and with no industry network, into the formidable Brand Shahrukh is not a happy accident but the result of clear, strategic thinking. When Shahrukh Khan’s first film Deewana was released in 1992, he was already a married man, and proud to be one. Unlike most other male Bollywood aspirants who suppressed information about their families with a view to projecting an irresistible romantic-hero persona, Shahrukh Khan fl aunted his. Setting out with this novel approach, he maximised every opportunity that presented itself, and applied his keen business brain not just to advance his career but also to create a sterling public perception of himself that everyone, across socio-economic boundaries, could aspire to. The first milestone was establishing himself as the embodiment of stability, cast-iron priorities, and traditional Indian family values. Everyone knows the story of Shahrukh Khan’s family: the tragic loss of his father to cancer when he was just sixteen, and the family’s financial trauma. He talks freely about how much he cried when his mother died; about the games he plays with his children; about how much he loves his wife. In nearly twenty years, his name was never tarnished with romantic links to any of his heroines – no matter how romantic or sexually explicit their onscreen antics. His super-clean image was reinforced by his prominent secularism: His Hindu wife, his education in a Christian school, and his loyalty and seamless devotion to Islam – each without confl ict to the other. Whether he was a hero or a villain or a comedian in his movies; whether his name was Raj or Rizwan; he never hesitated to come out in public as just himself – with his family in tow. No Bollywood hero before him had ever created such a determinedly wholesome image for himself. Even Amitabh Bachhan, who Shahrukh Khan duelled in public for prime position in the late 1990s, was not free of moral blemish. Shahrukh Khan sidled past ‘Big B’ and instated himself as ‘King’ of Bollywood – applying his shrewd understanding of human psychology to have the title brandished so frequently that it soon lost its ludicrous tone and began to ring naturally. But Shahrukh Khan never tried to gloss himself with trappings of pretentious royalty. He masked his formidable intelligence, choosing to pitch himself as a personality of mass appeal rather than a darling of the wannabe intelligentsia (like, say, Aamir Khan).

And he shamelessly paraded his monetary goals – another tick in the box for the idol of wish fulfillment. It was he who launched the trend of Indian film stars dancing at high-budget weddings for enormous sums of money. When people criticised him for lowering his status by doing so, he coolly shrugged and confessed, tongue-in-cheek, that he was only a performing monkey. Examples of Shahrukh Khan’s PR genius abound – in the early 2000s, the front page of Times of India gave extensive details of his surgery in the US! Its most glorious peak was his 2009 tear-jerking film Billu Barber in which he plays a superstar who seeks out the long-lost friend of his impoverished childhood from amidst thronging masses of fans. What a paean to Brand Shahrukh that was! Working towards his single-minded goal of legend-status in the Hindi fi lm industry, it was his PR skills that helped him enter and stay in the big league to which most have access only by virtue of family connections. And, having restricted the number of fi lms he acted in, he took another strategic decision – to stay in the limelight by offering himself for product endorsements, a decision that opened a lucrative avenue of employment for other out-of-work stars. As Shahrukh Khan’s career progressed, his entrepreneurial side continued to identify new opportunities in his domain. In the early 2000s, he invested in a production house. Within a few years his production business had established itself and his next step was the IPL cricket team. In superb crossutilisation of each platform, his product brands sponsor his movies and cricket team; their sponsors use Brand Shahrukh to endorse their products. Today, when Shahrukh Khan looks at Hollywood, it is not by gratefully grasping at bit roles as many other Indian actors have, but rather by partnering with Hollywood studios. In the new Indian economic scenario, with even the middle-class looking for their slice of the luxury pie, it is the maturity and planning that went into the creation of Brand Shahrukh that has so many women professionals aspiring to buy Tag Heuer watches for their men without the faintest idea of their price – simply because Shahrukh Khan wears one. A Saaz Aggarwal is the author of the newly released The Songbird on my Shoulder

ECO-FRIENDLINESS

BEGINS AT HOME

Does King Khan live responsibly? In a quick chat with ATELIER’s Medha Shri, he says he has made it a point to keep his surroundings clean and would never litter. “I don’t know if this is a major act of living responsibly,” he says in his mock self-effacing way, “but I don’t throw wrappers or packets on the road. I’d rather keep them in my car and wait to throw them in a dustbin than litter. I teach my kids to follow my example too.” He also shares that his daughter Suhana is taught to avoid using plastic or polybags. When it comes to conservation, even little acts go a long way.

Atelier Magazine