Shahrukh supremely articulate and is a very entertaining speaker, Anupama Chopra

A widely praised new biography of Shah Rukh Khan by Anupama Chopra, author of Sholay: The Making of a Classic, will be released in India in August. Nisha Susan speaks to the award-winning writer

Who gave you the most interesting insights about SRK?

I would say SRK himself! He is by far the most fascinating source and tells the best stories. He is supremely articulate and is a very entertaining speaker.

Does your book overturn received ideas of SRK?

The most prevalent perception about SRK is that he is a bigger star than he is an actor. My book cannot overturn that perception, only a movie can! That notion about Shah Rukh has been a singular note in his career right from his theatre days with Barry John. Despite people laughing at him, his friends making fun of him, that style has been constant. His friends would say, aaj chhath ko uda diya! What was interesting for me was how he used that over-the-top, highly energetic style and transformed it into global superstardom.

Your book starts at an unlikely place — in a small town in Georgia — with an SRK fan who dreams one night that he is dancing with SRK.

I heard bizarre stories about SRK fans everywhere, over and over again. There was one moment with SRK that I will never forget. It was in the rural outskirts of Chandigarh during the production of Veer-Zaara. The scene needed a pastoral setting. The unit had just arrived in this field and I stepped into the makeup van to chat with SRK. We spent an hour talking. Then we came out of the van. First, I stepped out, then SRK followed me. I was suddenly hit by this strange, very loud sound. It was frightening. When I had stepped into the van the field had been empty. Now there were 400 people chanting SRK’s name. It was surreal. More so because I had been sitting for an hour with SRK with very little sense of talking to God. There was none of the old-style megalomania of stars about Shah Rukh. I had forgotten that this guy is worshipped. His stardom is like nothing I have ever experienced. Being around him is nonstop entertainment.

What did you yourself most want to know about SRK?

I wanted to find the ‘X’ factor in the whole SRK phenomenon. Obviously, there really is no key to explain how he arrived where he is or who he is. There is no single factor to explain why he, who to many is a mediocre actor and a mediocre looker, is the face of post-liberalised India.

What is the one thing about SRK that few people know?

I didn’t know that his first movie role was in Arundhati Roy and Pradeep Krishen's In Which Annie Gives it Those Ones. I could not believe it. I dug up the movie and watched him in it and keeled over laughing. There he was, in three scenes, just one of the crowd. He was quite hurt about not landing a lead role in that film.

Does he remain elusive to you or do you now feel you know him well?

SRK will always be elusive to me. SRK is fiercely intelligent. He reveals only what he chooses to reveal. He will only tell you what he wants you to know. There are spaces in his life in which someone like me would never be admitted

Your book explores SRK, the city of Mumbai and Bollywood. How has SRK shaped Bollywood?

I think SRK has shaped Bollywood enormously. I think his presence and the work he did with Karan Johar and Aditya Chopra structured 90s Bollywood. Dilwale Dulhania Le Jaayenge was a watershed moment in terms of the overseas market, stories and how characters were shaped. Then he picked up Karan Johar who was Aditya's assistant director and they did Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, which was another watershed moment. Kuch Kuch Hota Hai transformed the style, the costumes, the look of Hindi films. Shah Rukh is the face of New Bollywood. When I first started reporting on Bollywood even in the early 90s, most of the directors were men in their 50s. It was still a cottage industry and quite unprofessional. SRK and the directors he worked with had a lot to do with changing that.

What is your favourite Hindi film?

My all-time favourite still is Sholay. For people from my generation there is nothing like Sholay and no one like Amitabh Bachchan. That reverential low-angle view we still reserve for Mr Bachchan.

Finally, did SRK stop you from writing up specific stuff on him?

Never. He never told me what to write or what not to write. He made it clear from the start this was going to be my take on him.