Shah Rukh Khan, the Badshah of hearts, the Baazigar of showbiz has been winning hearts for more than 2.5 decades. Starting off with theatre, he ventured into television with shows like Fauji, Dil Dariya, Circus and Doosra Keval.
He debuted in movies with Deewana wherein he romanced a widowed Divya Bharti but catapulted to stardom with Baazigar after pushing his ladylove (Shilpa Shetty) off the terrace. When SRK entered showbiz, he changed the traditional definition of a goody-good hero as he showcased different shades of romance from obsession to tender love in films like Baazigar, Darr, Anjaam, Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jaayenge, Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi among others.
Baazigar, Darr, Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jaayenge, Pardes, Dil To Pagal Hai, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Mohabbatein, Dilwale, Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, Happy New Year, Chennai Express, to Zero, shows the evolution of SRK, the lover boy. Of course, he is known for his performance-oriented roles in films like Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa, Chak De India, Swades, Fan, Zero among others, but it is the romantic genre that defines his career.
Shah Rukh Khan recently appeared on Netflix show My Next Guest with David Letterman and Shah Rukh Khan and shared some interesting anecdotes.
Shah Rukh Khan shared on the show that he began his journey by acting in plays and his motivation was to work with a lot of girls. The actor recalled how he was part of vaanar sena (monkey army) in Ram Leela and the only line he had to say was ‘Jai’ after Hanumanji’s lines ‘Siyapati Ram Chandra Ki’.
“I started acting in a play. When there was an audition they said ‘there’ll be 90 girls in the play and we need ten boys’. And that kind of encouraged me to become an actor and I said ‘this is what I want to do’. I used to work on something like Ram Leela where the depiction of Ramayana is done, you know, blockwise or citywise. So I used to be in the monkey sena. So we have Hanumanji, the monkey god you can say. So Hanumanji used to say ‘Bol Siyapati Ram Chandra Ki’. I just said ‘Jai’ and jump around with my tail. So those were the lines I was supposed to say. I happened to be the right person at the right place, in the right scenario at the right time,” SRK told David Letterman when he asked him about his motivation to become an actor and his early acting days.
When asked about his children and their future careers, Shah Rukh Khan said that his son Aryan was not interested in acting, also because he fears comparisons with his father.
“My son is here at USC in LA. He is learning how to make films. He’s 21. My daughter turned 19. She’s coming here to study at NYU. My son doesn’t want to act. I don’t think he can. But in India it’s like if you are a movie star’s son, you can become a movie star. He looks nice and he’s tall. But I don’t think he has what it takes perhaps and he realises it himself., But he’s a good writer. Wanting to become an actor should come from within. It’s something you really feel like doing, wanting to do and then find a set of skills and then learn it. I realised it from him. He came and said–“I don’t think I want to act. And his issue was, which is very practical and honest. He said, every time I’ll be compared to you so if I do well, it will not be like I got skilled at this and hence I did well. It’ll be like, ‘oh, obviously, he’s his son, so he will do well. It’s in the genes.’ And he said, ‘if I don’t do well, it’ll always be like, ‘my god look at him. What his father did, and look at him, what he’s doing’.”
Shah Rukh Khan likes to be involved with his children Aryan and Suhana and wants to live a long life for them because this is what he missed in his life. His father passed away when he was 15 while his mother few years later when he was 25. The actor on the show said he even buys gifts for Suhana’s boyfriends and also gives her relationship advice.
“I hate it when they have boyfriend, girlfriend problems. I just wanna say ‘just kick the person out’, but I say that in life it happens that you have to give and take in relationships. I want to tell her ‘this guy’s no good’, But I have to choose presents for him which is the worst thing. ‘Papa what do you think he’ll like’. And I am like, ‘he’ll like this (showing a punch)’.
SRK is also learning cooking as he finds it a “good excuse” to connect with his children.
“I am learning how to cook for them. They have reached an age where they wanna be with friends and I’m not obtrusive. I have huge respect was people’s private spaces, so I don’t even go to their rooms till they call me. So I thought this was a good excuse. Because they keep awake with their friends when they come back on holidays so they always want food at 2 or 3 in the morning and I sleep only at 5 am. I sleep very late. So I’m learning Italian food. So I’m on the phone in my bedroom and whenever that nine number of the kitchen goes, I say, yeah what do you want. Do you want some pasta?” he said.