"Educated Muslim people are the nicest people in the world": SRK

Rajeev Masand: What was your real reason for doing this film? Was it the fact that it was a great opportunity to shed light on a sport or was it a great story to tell, or was it a little of both?

Shah Rukh Khan: Neither of the two. Actually I am not so socially conscious neither do I understand stories. Very simply put is that I wanted to play some hockey after 20 years.

I keep telling my producer and director that I hope after the film is released there are five-six people who say 'oh, I haven't played hockey for a long time man!' Or a father or a mother picks up a hockey stick and tells their children go play the game. So, if people in India start doing that then it is good enough for me.

Rajeev Masand: On one level Chak De India is a patriotic film isn't it? And you play a Muslim coach of the national women's hockey team. Is that symbolic and done to destroy stereotypes?

Shah Rukh Khan: Actually, you can say it in one line that it is a destruction of stereotype – it 's a film about India, headed by a Muslim, playing a game called hockey with a team of women. So, it completely breaks all stereotypes.

I believe in the educated Islamic sect, I belong to it and educated Muslim people are the nicest people in the world. That is my religion and I would like to propagate that through my film without shoving it down your throat. I am not shoving my religion down your throat. I am trying to say that the ideology of an educated Muslim is what my ideology is – that you believe in humanity.

Source: IBNLive