Anupama Chopra talks about Shahrukh Khan

An Exclusive Interview With Anupama Chopra - First Part

How will you describe your forthcoming book, King of Bollywood Shahrukh Khan and the seductive world of Indian Cinema? Will you call it a biography?
No, I have always resisted calling it a biography though I suppose that’s the label it’s being given everywhere. It’s more an attempt to look at Hindi cinema and at India through the life and work of Shahrukh Khan. He is in the foreground but I wanted to paint the picture of the film industry. It’s not just him. There are many narratives that are woven through his main narrative. He is the main plot but then there are lots of sub plots.

But when I read the book, it also comes out as a commentary on the socio-political and economic changes in the country over a span of sixty seventy years.
Sure. We wanted to give a context for his rise and why he connects so perfectly with the new shining India. How this new shining India has then evolved and Bollywood has evolved along with that and how Shahrukh is the face of a lot of this evolution. So, that was the grand attempt and I hope I have managed it somehow (laughs).

One of the most poignant aspects of the book is Shahrukh’s idealistic handsome dad Meer. Here was a man who aspired to be an actor, failed professionally most of the time but loved his wife dearly. Ironically many unfulfilled dreams of Meer have been fulfilled by the son. Don’t you think SRK is similar and dissimilar with his dad in many ways?
Yes he was. If you see the pictures in the book, Shahrukh looks a lot like his father. His father was a really really handsome man, very tall, very good looking. Curiously one thing that I didn’t know before I started writing the book was that Meer also wanted to be an actor though it was more like: Let’s try it because he was a good looking man but not in a very focused determined way the way his son did it. I thought that was a very very interesting parallel that Meer came to Bombay, made a half hearted attempt, was friends with Dilip Kumar’s brothers, stayed around for a while, good friends with Anil Kapoor’s father and then left. It’s ironical, it’s also interesting that then the son made the same journey and did it with such success. Shahrukh himself says that his father didn’t succeed at any of the things that he tried to do. His son has succeeded so enormously that it’s an amazing parallel and it’s very sad that his father never saw the success.

Meer was very idealistic and steadfast while Shahrukh Khan has broken ideals. When he entered the film industry it was being said that the kind of filmmakers he started off with (Aziz Mirza, Kundan Shah) had socialistic leanings and hence Shahrukh will strive towards serious meaningful cinema as well. But today he is known more for his Raj-Rahul brand of cinema that you have talked about in great detail in your book.
(laughs) A lot of people see the Raj Rahul roles as propagating Indian values and Indian culture but of course that is a very narrow view of what Indian culture is. But I don’t think he broke values. I think what he broke was the stereotypical and very old fashioned rules of Bollywood like when you come in you shouldn’t be married, you shouldn’t do negative roles. I find that very admirable for this completely outsider guy, makes up his own rules and succeed. The values propagated in Raj Rahul roles for some is Hindu culture, for some it is regressive values. There’s always a debate on what is being propagated.

He broke the rules in many ways for he endorsed products whereas many actors felt that it was below the dignity of a movie star to sell….
He and Aamir were the first two actors to really go in and do advertisements (though Aamir has always been more restrained). I spoke to many people in the advertising world to find out why Shahrukh is considered still effective. They call him a promiscuous brand endorser who sells everything from oil to Tag. They said that he still connects. He made himself into an omnipresent brand. You are right it was not something that Hindi film actors used to do. But then he changed the rules.

One aspect that is very poignant in the book is the detailing of the demise of both his parents.
When he spoke about it, I was a bit wary because no matter how many years distance you from that event it is still a very tough thing. It’s not as if you can ever get used to it or forget about it but he spoke very eloquently and openly about what happened and the way it affected him. I think those two events shaped who he is, shaped his journey. His mother’s death was what really pushed him into films. He figured there’s nothing left for him to do in Delhi any more. Before that he had done Mani Kaul’s film and Maya Memsaab which were art house non stream movies. He said yes to mainstream movies only because his mother died and he had nothing else to do. If you recall there’s a point in the Dilwale Dulhaniaya chapter, where Aditya Chopra talks about Shahrukh Khan as an actor. Adi has this interesting analysis that since he has lost his parents that he is reaching out to the world. The way he acts or connects is in a way related to the death of his parents.

One thing that comes across objectively in your book is that apart from Raj-Rahul kind of hero he doesn’t succeed in other brand of films.
Yes, though there is a whole chapter on Devdas which in a way was his comeback, and his acceptance in a role which was very very difficult. People frankly just laughed that he is gonna do a role that Dilip saab has done. His main success has been in a certain kind of roles. He is frank about saying that I am never the character; I’m always Shahrukh Khan playing the character. But now the kind of films he is doing like Chak De, Don or Dev Saran in Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna was Raj-Rahul gone bad (laughs).

But he was not accepted that well in Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna and people had their reservations about Devdas as well.
He wasn’t. Absolutely! But it really stretched him in terms of image, in terms of what he is capable of doing and what he wants to do. But there are lots of suckers like me (laughs) who wants that one last candy floss, Raj Rahul kind of role. I think he is done with it. If you look at what is coming up like Om Shanti Om is not Raj Rahul while Chak De India is absolutely not. I think he is done with it.

Source: IndiaFM