WATCH EPISODE 06: Living with a Superstar - Shahrukh Khan

PART 01

PART 02

Aishwarya Rai digs the past, talks about Shahrukh Khan

It wasn’t a simple interview but a candid tete-a-tete with India’s famous socialite and writer Shobha De for the third anniversary issue of the Hello magazine. And Aishwarya Rai seemed in a mood to bare her soul.

What exactly did she reveal? Well, the actress, who is now happily married to Abhishek Bachchan and is certainly in the best phase of her career, talked candidly for the first time about Shahrukh Khan and why they stopped doing films together.

As a tabloid comes up with the extracts of the interview, let’s read through:

It was the time when both SRK and Ash were offered Munnabhai MBBS, “When SRK decided he was not doing Munnabhai MBBS, they (Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Rajkumar Hirani) did come to me and say (Sanjay) Dutt saab had agreed to do it.

“But because I was attached to SRK’s company, I said my dates will be decided by him, if he is doing Munnabhai I will do it. But once that incident happened with SRK (when Salman created a ruckus on the sets of Chalte Chalte and SRK threw her out), and I was out of his movies, I dared to make the choices I did.”

And, what happened after that?

“It’s really weird with him. Whenever he would meet me socially during those days, he’d apologize which was never taken up in the open. Never in public.

He said it wasn’t right and he couldn’t tell me all his reasons for what had happened... he was awkward about it.”

Now, she doesn’t want to judge SRK.

Is SRK a better investor or an actor?

Korbo, Lorbo, Jeetbo Re Korbo Lorbo Re Jeetbo. This is the theme song of the high profile team Kolkata Knight Riders owned by the King of Bollywood Shah Rukh Khan. Juhi Chawla Mehta and her husband Jay Mehta are co-owners of the team. The theme song has been composed by music composer duo Vishal-Shekhar and since then this song has been played in all the stadiums where KKR has played.

Even before the auctions of IPL were initialized and it was in the stage of planning, SRK was sure who he wanted as the captain of his IPL team. Team India was playing an international match against a visiting team and SRK was also there to watch the live action. When Team India was batting, a television grab of Saurav Ganguly walking from the pavilion to the VIP stand to meet SRK seemed normal as the actor had been friends with many cricketers. Well, rest is history. Shah Rukh Khan bought an IPL team and made Saurav Ganguly the face of the team.

There were loads of expectations riding on KKR as Shah Rukh left no stone unturned in making his team a high profile brand, with theme song, TV commercials, tie-ups with other brands, thus earning a huge fan following in the process. One of them being Shatrughan Sinha’s son Luv Sinha, who debuted inSadiyaan. Luv says, "Mr Khan is great at whatever he does because he does it with passion”.

Brendon McCullum was not even in the playing 11 for his national team, New Zealand. But at the opening night of the first season of IPL, he smashed the ball at all the corners of the park scoring 158 runs. This record is still not broken by any cricketer in IPL. Also, this knock guaranteed his place in the national side.

SRK jumped with joy when his team did well. He threw lavish parties for his team when they lost. Also, television TRP’s were considerably high during KKR matches as SRK ensured his big family of Bollywood was also there at the stadium. Sometimes, he also used to sit with the team in the dug out but ran into trouble when the ICC (International Cricket Council) issued a notice that no team owner will be allowed to enter the dressing room when the match was in progress.

With such hype around the team, controversies were bound to happen. A fake IPL player blog helped many electronic and print media to fill up their spaces as lot of inside information was leaked through the blog. There were also rumors about rift between SRK and Dada. However, the blog died with the end of the first season of IPL and KKR finished at number of 6 out of the 8 teams. Too bad for a team where the owner has always been a winner. That year, SRK only had two release; Bhootnath and Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, both of which failed to set the cash register ringing at the box office.

If IPL season 1 was bad, IPL season 2 was worse for Shahrukh Khan’s team. Team not performing well was just one side of the story. The team was in the news for all the wrong reasons. Saurav Ganguly was stripped of his captaincy and Brendon McCullum was made the captain overnight. Australian coach John Buchanan also introduced a new concept of multiple captains, which was completely thrashed by the experts. The fake player blog returned again with lots of more sensational information from the dressing room.

However all this did not stop SRK from what he does best, marketing his brand Kolkata Knight Riders. He also organized a talent hunt show and picked cheer leaders through that show. SRK has been known for coming up with unique marketing ideas be it in films or for his IPL team. Yes, he was grilled with questions about the controversies but he tackled all the problems with his chin up. The second season of IPL was shifted from India to South Africa due to security concerns. In the first quarter of 2009, the actor had only one release, Billu.

In spite of nursing a shoulder injury, he didn’t leave the team alone. He travelled with the team to South Africa and cheered them all the way. This time, it was a different Shah Rukh Khan in the stadium. Unlike dancing in the stadium in India when the team did well, this time he was calm. He clapped when the team put up big runs on the score board and did the same when they lost.

Shah Rukh Khan is someone who follows his heart and is not scared to take risk. That is clearly visible from the kind of roles he chooses to setting up a production house with VFX technology. Chandan Roy Sanyal, Kaminey fame says, “I have always been his fan for being the entrepreneur he is. He took a risk by acting in Baazigar opting for a negative role unlike other hero's who would have gone for a positive one. So it comes as no surprise for his IPL team Kolkata Knight Riders. He is a risk taker and he also gains benefit from it, something to take a leaf from his life”.

It is not a cake walk to keep the fans happy and also maintain consistency in doing well all the time. But he makes it so easy inspiring millions of people. It is the humor that he has in himself which helps him sail through troubled waters.

A nation where cricket is considered as a religion had reason to cheer for. IPL grew bigger year after year and the big news was that the third season was going to be in India and not in some foreign land. After the 26/11 attacks Pakistan players were kept away from the IPL action. Not that any rule was passed, but none of teams bought any Pakistani player during the auction. It was only Shah Rukh Khan who voiced his interest to include players from the neighboring country.

Shah Rukh Khan starrer, My Name is Khan, one of the most anticipated movie of the year was dragged into problems by a political party in Mumbai. They demanded an apology from the actor but he did not bow down. Even though he couldn’t include any Pakistani player in the team, he had his way by hiring Wasim Akram as a bowling coach for Kolkata Knight Riders. He held his ground and gave a loud message stating sports is above all religion.

IPL 3 came in with a lot of changes. Firstly, Saurav Ganguly was made the captain again and secondly, the team jersey changed from color black to purple. So far the team is doing decent winning 50 percent of the matches played so far. “The weight of huge expectations is off KKR’s shoulders and the good thing for the team is that Dada is back with a bang. As for SRK, he is just better than the rest at everything he does”, says Vaibhav, one of the young actors in Teen Patti.

The league matches are going to end soon and now it is at the business end of the tournament, each team eying the semis berth. Saurav Ganguly and his team are on a winning streak and he himself is back in form. In a week’s time, it will be clear which four teams will be in the semis.

Shah Rukh Khan attended most of the matches until lately where he is Goa shooting for his next action thriller. But he is not out of action. His tweets are more than enough to generate breaking news. He wrote on his twitter that he will dance naked if his team enters the finals. It was all said in humor, but the big question is, will KKR make it to the finals? For now, we can only wait and watch.

Coming back to the big question, is SRK a better investor or a better actor, have your say...

SRK offer prayers with Tabu for Juhi Chawla's ill brother

Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan offered prayers along with actress Tabu for the speedy recovery of actress Juhi Chawla's brother.

Bobby Chawla, CEO of Shah Rukh Khan's company Red Chillies Entertainment, was taken to a hospital on Sunday after he collapsed while dining at a restaurant.

"Offered namaaz with tabu the wonderful friend & actress she is, atop the hospital. she is so beautiful and kind to do that with me (sic)," Khan wrote on his Twitter page.

The 44-year-old actor was also elated with the victory of his IPL team Kolkata Night Riders over the Delhi Daredevils.

"I pray & hope both my boys...bobby & kkr want to keep winning the next few days. we can fight life only with belief in positivity," Khan wrote in a post.

"Good news all around. bobby my friend is stable...the kkr boys did awesome. actually its all about who wants to win more on a day (sic)," he added on the micro-blogging website.

Shah Rukh Khan suffers a knee injury

After his long battle with back pain and then a shoulder surgery, Shah Rukh Khan is now dealing with a recurring pain in his knee. The actor had injured his knee some time back and it has been troubling him ever since. This time, he’s not in a mood to take any chances with any quick fix measures — Kolkata Knight Riders’ physiotherapist Andrew Leipus has been assigned the responsibility of treating SRK’s knee.

Earlier, physiotherapist Ali Irani was treating the actor’s knee. Our source said, “SRK is doing some high energy stunts in his home production Ra.One which will be filmed soon. The last two days of the shoot were cancelled because of Bobby Chawla’s (CEO of SRK’s Red Chillies) health scare. The next schedule of Ra.One is drawing near and SRK hopes the exercises Andrew has prescribed will fix his knee problem in time.”

Earlier, Shah Rukh’s back problem had given him a lot of trouble during an energetic song sequence he did for Boney Kapoor’s Shakti.

“Ra.One is a superhero film and Shah Rukh’s character will have to do several high risk stunts and he really needs to be physically fit to pull them off,” added the source.

SRK remained unavailable for comment.