`I am not an actor, I am an entertainer and I have no shame in saying that'

`I am not an actor, I am an entertainer and I have no shame in saying that'

They have been waiting and wilting outside stage III at Mehboob studiossince 10 a.m. Five hours later when Shah Rukh Khan emerges from theshoot, they crowd him: autograph, photograph, handshake pleeease. Briskly,politely he obliges without looking anyone in the eye before disappearinginto his air-conditioned bus for a break. Love!! Aaaiyaa!! He wrote: `Love,Shah Rukh.' Clearly, the matrons are in ecstasy.

In the nine years that he has been in Bollywood Shah Rukh Khan has emergedas the undisputed superstar of Generation X, his charismatic performances inlove stories like Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge, Dil To Pagal Hai and KuchKuch Hota Hai have created hysteria and an unlikely heartthrob. Now on thethreshold of releasing his most ambitious film, Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani,a co-production with Juhi Chawla and Aziz Mirza, the actor, puffing on histrademark cigarettes and battling exhaustion (``haven't slept for more thanfour hours in the last one month'') talks to MEENAL BAGHEL.Excerpts:

You did your second television serial with Aziz Mirza, Circus, andnow, Phir Bhi Dil hai Hindustani. Nine years later do you think you've comea full circle, in your equation with him and in your growth as anactor?
I am not anyone to comment on my growth as an actor. It's for others toperceive it. I've consciously made no effort...Growth happens, you don'tdecide to grow to 21 years. You don't decide to grow two more inches. As formy equation with Aziz, it's really half a circle after two films as anactor with him, here we are producing a film together. PBDHH is about twopeople who fall in love and come together for a cause. It's set in thelarger backdrop of what you can call Indianness. In their hearts Indiansare the most beautiful people in the world.

You say that you haven't consciously worked towards your growth butsurely in these last few years you have worked very hard.
Of course. But I don't get up in the morning and say today I am going togrow a nuance or grow an expression.

And yet, over the last five or six years you've really created thisaura, this style: Your hair has become less unruly. In public you're seenonly in tuxedos... Haven't you worked towards creating that image?
You know this is a strange thing. An aura, a persona is something you haveand you only have it as long as you don't realise it.

Surely you are aware of the stupendous popularity that youcommand.
There are two ways I get to know of it when I personally come acrosspeople all over the world during shows. Second, when distributors tell methat my films do well, that they fetch a good price so that way I am asaleable commodity, right now in demand. Beyond that is there a consciouseffort? I don't know. I won't be able to open a school to teach people howto get an aura, a persona. I wish it were as simple as wearing tuxedos andcutting your hair short.

You deliberately misunderstand...
No, I don't. I just cut my hair when I did the music video for my film andpeople say my hair is nice. I didn't know my hair would look nice and thatpeople would notice my hair instead of the essence of my video.

You've often said that acting is really like a 9-to-5 job, on aslightly different scale and you have talked about your fidelity to yourwife, your child at length. Is there a conscious effort to be a star and yetto try and escape the delusions it can create?
The awesomeness, the enigma of stars is something that other people make youaware of. I come from a background which is not related to films and I amnot aware of what a star is, of the fact that if I walk into a party, headsturn.

Even now you don't know?
No. If I am on a stage, if I am made to perform I can handle it. It's likeif you put a lathe machine worker in an aeroplane and tell him to fly it,he'll be lost. I do not think there is anything awesome about being a star,anything brilliant about being an actor. Being a star is not about the factthat your personal life is mysterious. If you're married, you're married,you have a problem, you have a problem.
The only thing special about being a star is that you're blessed by God.That somehow you fell in that line where more blessings were beingdistributed.

Do you think that at a particular point of time, especially giventhe kind of films we make, the line between an actor and an entertainerblur?
I'd be fooling myself if I said that I am a pure actor. As soon as you havea song in a film you are no longer a pure actor. Characterisation, research,nuances, immersing yourself in the method I'd be lying if I said that I ama perfectionist and any way what am I being a perfectionist for when my filmis not perfect, when my character is imperfect. I am not blaming anyone.
This is the genre of films that we make. If within this world you can createsomething special I think that's nice. You just have to be very clear aboutthe fact that you're a bhand and I think (enunciates slowly) I am not anactor, I am an entertainer and I have no shame in saying that. I think it'swonderful to be a.. a...a street singer.

Have you ever tried to figure out why you're so popular?
I don't know. I thought there was a limit to where my talent could take meand that was reached four-five years ago. My popularity in the last threeyears has been much beyond that. I think my hair, my eyes and my dimplesalso could have carried me at the most for two and a half years, that's it.Sometimes I turn to my co-stars and ask, `Do you think I am good looking?'and they say `Eeks! No.' Then I say, `How do you think I am such a bigstar?' and they say, `We wonder how. But you give us hope!' (laughs) Ithink, and I am being serious, I am successful because I am very honestas a person and as an actor. I don't hold back. Sometimes I go overboardsometimes it's not liked, sometimes it's loved immensely.

There is another interesting thing the stress on youth. The heroestoday seem so boyish as opposed to being, well...men.
I think I am quite a man (grins).

No, you know unlike say an Amitabh Bachchan or a Dharmendra.
You mean they had more hair on their chest? Actually, I know what you meanwhen you say that. I remember when I was in class XII, I looked like thisbut when I was in class VII, the guys in class IX and X looked really old. Iremember names. I don't know if they'll ever read this interview but therewas Shakun Khanna, Kohli, big guys. They looked like men already. I guessthe new generation just looks younger.

At 34 do you feel young?
I feel about 23-24. Ya, ya I feel young and silly.

Silly? On screen?
You see me do the things I do on screen, do you think I could feel any otherway? To do physical, comic slapstick stuff you have to believe it otherwiseyou can't do it.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.