"Sorry for being late. But when you're a superstar, you tend come late," SRK

He kept the audience waiting. He came an hour late. But it must be part of his innate charm, which explains his immense popularity, that Shah Rukh Khan, while apologising for his tardiness, openly joked about it and still managed to draw guffaws of laughter. "Sorry for being late. But when you're a superstar, you tend come late," he muttered impishly. "You know, I'm staying in the hotel. I've been here two days, and still I managed to come late. That's a record."

The Bollywood superstar was in town to launch the music of Om Shanti Om, his latest movie directed by Farha Khan, on CDs and mobile in the UAE. The film's heroine, Deepika Padukone, dressed in a flaming red chudidaar, was also present at the event organised by T-Series, Viva Entertainment and Hungama Mobile at the Jumeirah Beach Hotel.

Dressed in a black trouser and a white shirt, his long hair dangling behind in a pony, the actor was like a laid-back, cool dude — flippant, mock-serious and hilarious. His fast-delivered jokes drew repeated laughter. He also looked absolutely toned up, with all abs, pectorals and a hard, flat belly.

He admitted that this body-type was a script requirement for Om Shanti Om. "The actor that I'm playing in the film is an actor of 2007. And I feel that young guys of today are very aware of their physicality, of having abs, being dudish etc. So in the film I'm like a young star," he said. Then joked, "I'm still working on the younger part. But I'm not going to take off my shirt for every second movie that I make."

When asked why he chooses Dubai for the launch of many of his events, his immediate retort was, "Why not? Dubai has grown, in every sense. It's the biggest hub for business and entertainment. And it's close to home. Besides we have friends here. Confirming the buzz that he owns property in Dubai, the actor admitted that he has a place at The Palm. And he hopes to get it by November this year.

When asked whether his preference for the kinds of roles has changed what with films like Chak De and Om Shanti Om, which are different from his usual masala films, the actor said, "Actually I'm just an employee of the directors and producers who offer me roles. I don't do more than three films a year. The kind of stuff I get I do from the heart and I continue doing it. I know many a times a film comes along like Chak De and people say, 'Oh, he's now playing different roles.'

I think the media, journalists, film analysts, critics and others, with due respect to them, tend to look for trends. But there's no trend. I get a story, I like it and I just do it off-the-cuff sometimes. A story is what turns me on. If I've a story that turns me on, I do it. But there is no concerted effort where I say, 'Okay, I'm playing a different kind of role.' So my preference has not changed."

He had made a comment recently to the effect that Hollywood offers were not coming his way. When asked whether that has changed since then, he joked, "Since then, nobody has still come. They don't know what they're losing!"

When asked how it feels to be competing against star families, like the Bachchans and the Roshans, he said, "First of all, we're good friends. We don't spend time thinking about competing. I've done films with all of them. Of course, I can't call Sr Bachchan my friend as he's much older to me. Secondly, you know I really compete with myself. I teach this to my kids as well. I think in our line of artistic work, what we need to do is to compete with our last best effort. We need to improve ourselves, to raise the bar for ourselves, to get the expression right for ourselves. We need to have blinkers on, like a racehorse, and run straight and not look here and there. There are no numbers, like number 1, number 2 or 3 or 4. It might sound clichéd. But I just work for myself. It's not a business product. It's a creative thing."

About the success of his offbeat film Chak De, he said, "As I said before, I do a film if I like the story, if it's nice, entertaining, done differently. Chak De was one of those films. It's a different film. And I'm glad that people can take on a film which had virtually nothing: no song, no heroine, with 16 new girls, with me in no romantic lead, and about a sport which is not very popular. So its success is very humbling and it gives you faith that you can make entertaining films which say something different.

When asked how he maintains his passion for film making and keeps himself from becoming complacent, Shah Rukh Khan said, "I've no big pleasures or big distractions in life. I've been working for 16 years now. And it's easy to get bored or complacent. I think everything else that I got, I make sure of my core job, which is to get that one expression right. I don't think much harder than that. My whole dedication is to wake up every morning, go to work, like any other person, and strive to get that one expression right that immensely satisfies me. Sometimes the nicest things that I do people don't even notice them. And I don't get disappointed with that, as long as I am happy that I have done that. I'm extremely detached to the work that I do. I enjoy it. It fails, it saddens, but when it succeeds it makes me happy. And then I think, can I get the next expression right? And these small simple things help me not get complacent. And I have a family and friends who don't think much of me as an actor. Every morning they tell me I suck. And that makes me think: let me try harder. There's no alternative to hard work."

Vijay Dandige, Khaleej Times