Everybody wants to be loved, says Shah Rukh

That’s what Rab De Bana Di Jodi is all about, says SRK who knows a thing or two about being loved…

Shah Rukh Khan does things king-size. With Om Shanti Om last year, he took the promotion of a film to a new level. Then, that became the standard. Now, with Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, he wants to go several steps ahead.

Fact: SRK knows marketing so well, it’s a good thing for many in the field that he chose acting instead. SRK is teaching ‘Hush’ Raj Films a thing or two on how to sell a film. Read on as he talks about his pet project.

You’re actively involved with Rab De. Comment.
Yes, I wanted to start talking about my role and the film sooner, but Adi requested me not to do so before the 2nd.

Is Rab De… anything like Amol Palekar’s Golmaal?
No. I have based my characters in Rab De… on two people I met during Paanchvi Pass. The production house would give me DVDs of all the finalists. I requested them to give me the DVDs of everyone who auditioned.

These are half-an-hour dvds, where the contestants dance, sing, and answer questions. So, in all, you get a good view of this person. I based one character on this guy who didn’t make it to the show. And the other character, on this guy who came on the show. He was from Punjab and he played a guitar. I have forgotten his name, but I remember he called John Abraham, John Ibrahim. And I have also used that in the film.

Are you worried about being accepted as the simple Surinder?
Adi and I were not sure if we should unveil the deglamourised part of the film first to the audiences, but then we decided that ‘this’ is the film. And I firmly believe: Never lie to people about your film in your promos. We should tell them what the film is, let them make a choice. People who are anyways going to watch a film with Adi and me, will come anyway, thinking kuch toh hoga. Because there is a certain quality attached to the kind of work that we do. So we went ahead with that look. We want people to get used to it. I remember for Chak De! India I got lot of backlash for my beard. They said, ‘It looks horrible’ ‘He doesn’t look nice.’ This is because of lack of knowledge of what the film is, then you build it up. I really have no denial about the storyline when people assume things. Adi gets very disturbed. He’s very secretive.

So let the secret out now!
It’s a very beautiful and simple story. Of finding yourself within your own head and heart. I love the tagline Every ordinary jodi has an extraordinary love story. But extraordinary is to them. If you start telling me your love story about ‘how he quietly stole out of the office and got me this biscuit because I was sick that day.’ I will be like, ‘haan yaar theek hai na.’ Even though to you it is a very special memory. For someone else, the story is, ‘he flew to Australia to get me 1968 ka wine..which was not available here.’

And your love story would be…?
To me, it would be that ’she called’. She called me when she was in the middle of whatever. And the film is like that. About a character called Surinder Sawhney who works for Punjab Power and he tries to light up your life.

Adi hasn’t made a film in a long time…
(Cuts in) I am very proud of the fact that Adi decided to do a film like this after Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge and Mohabbatein. Which is only about two people. There is no third character, except for Vinay Pathak, who is there for a bit of the film. There are only three people in the two-odd hours. I just saw it, and it’s very heartening, very pleasant, very nice and it makes you want you to be in love with yourself. I feel 80 per cent of the people look at a star and say, ‘I am like that.’ That’s why you like a star. And the other 20 per cent look at a star and think, ‘I want to be like that.’

I think it’s more aspirational. People want to be like their idols. They don’t think they are like them.
I don’t agree. Otherwise, I would not be a star… I am so normal.

Maybe it is the characters you played that fans wanted to emulate.
When I started out, it was different. Now when you look at me, the persona walks in before I do. But before this, when I came, people said he is too thin, he’s brown, his hair is like a bear, he speaks too fast, he doesn’t dance too well,and his clothes are too loose.

But you still worked!
Yes, but I didn’t work as a pin-up boy. I worked because a lot of people are like me. Every big star in this world has worked because he or she is a mirror, in which people see themselves. I am responsible for creating lots of Rajs and Rahuls. A lot of hip cool guys. But I am not a hip, cool guy. I am actually Suri (Short for Surinder, his character in Rab De). Adi is Suri, Karan is Suri but we have a persona, which we like to be and we become comfortable with it and start living it. I live it. I live like a king. I am King Khan. But I am not actually King Khan.
I want people to understand that. I have given audiences, guys they would like to be. Now I’m giving them the guys they are. And I want every woman to fall in love with her lover and say kaisa bhi hai, yeh hi hai.

So the tagline should be, come fall in love… with your man.
The whole beauty of the film is a woman feeling about her man: Itne interesting nahin hain, itne handsome bhi nahin hain, actually thode boring hain… lekin this is it. I don’t know why, but I love him. It’s like a parent feeling my kid is so damn special, but maybe he is not special. Your husband may be so special to you, but maybe he is not special… try and sell him as a speciality outside. He won’t. I see women who love their husbands so much. You see 90 per cent of the really pretty ladies loving very simple-looking men and you wonder what she sees in him? Even my wife yaar… who am I in front of Gauri? She was always a much hipper person than I ever was. This film is the answer to the world’s query of what she sees in him. She sees him. That’s the answer.

So, what does Gauri see in you?
There’s something more to a man that you love. Than a good father, brother, husband, and being caring and sweet, has a great sense of humour. Ask any girl what you like in a man and she will say He should have nice eyes, he should be honest, and have a sense of humour… Very few women will say, his butt. In Rab De, the girl’s only criteria is: he should love me. That I think is the honest truth. We have forgotten that one basic trait that includes it all, including the attractive butt. Everyone just wants to be loved. There’s a guy we are trying to create in Rab De. A guy a woman can say: Can you just love me, can you just spend time with me. I ask so much girls that I know, why do you like me. They say: you are just nice, you like us back. You respect us. That’s what I think it’s all about.

Sarita Tanwar, Mid-Day