Khan Power - India Today Cover Story

It’s 3.03 a.m. Shah Rukh Khan, donning a white Gucci vest over his six year-old ripped jeans, his Louis Vuitton backpack discarded on the sofa, is just getting ready to hit the dance floor with the Kolkata Knight Riders.

It’s been a long day but you wouldn’t know it. He’s just got in from London in the afternoon after unveiling his wax statue at Paris’s Musee Grevin. The airlines has lost his luggage on the way.

Stopping at Mumbai for an hour, he’s hopped on to his friend and Videocon MD Venugopal Dhoot’s Cessna Citation, come to Kolkata for the match between the Knight Riders and Mumbai Indians, cheered his losing team, done several television interviews, and even gifted a Compaq notebook to each Knight Rider.

Tomorrow is already being planned today, as his secretary Karuna Badwal informs him of the 2 p.m.-shoot for Star Plus’s new show Kya Aap Paanchvi Pass Se Tez Hain?

Eighteen episodes of the show will be shot over the next few days along with work on a quick comedy with Priyadarshan, and then on May 15, he starts filming Aditya Chopra’s Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi. “I haven’t slept since January 21, the day I bought the team,” says the man now better known by his snappy initials.

What’s fuelling all this? A handful of chicken tikkas, two biscuits, half a club sandwich, four glasses of Pepsi and a couple of cups of black coffee?

Or the desperate desire to attain immortality as his reign over Bollywood nears its end? An actor is, after all, known by the movies he does, something that Amitabh Bachchan realised after the debacle of ABCL when he had to travel the distance to Yash Chopra’s home one morning and ask for work.

At the heart of Shah Rukh Khan Inc—in the past two years, the actor has earned over Rs 270 crore from movie fees, endorsements and television anchoring—is a 42-yearold who can’t keep still, whose every minute has to be accounted for by some project, for whom the pressure of an enforced eight-month holiday after Om Shanti Om must have stretched like a gigantic question mark when films with southern director Shankar and Munnabhai director Raju Hirani did not work out.

But now with a Rs 300-crore investment in the Indian Premier League (IPL) team over 10 years (an annual investment of $15.5 million, Rs 63 crore, is expected to give the Knight Riders a return of $12.5 million— around Rs 50 crore—in the first year itself), he has expanded his empire to include virtually every aspect of entertainment.

While his Red Chillies Entertainment has a bustling VFX (visual effects) department and produces almost all his advertisements, his live shows, handled by Cineyug, also form a profitable business.

The last Temptations tour of the US in 2004 , for instance, netted a revenue of $15 million (Rs 61 crore). If Bachchan at the peak of his career was a one-man industry, Shah Rukh Khan is one man, many small-scale industries.

Or as he puts it better: “I am just an employee of the Shah Rukh Khan myth.”

As his IPL partners and close friends Jay Mehta and Juhi Chawla look on, his friend Dhoot, sitting meekly in a corner of his plush suite, calls him a natural-born entrepreneur.

Shah Rukh balks at the description, but in effect taking risks is the underpinning of his life since the time he acted as an anti-hero in Abbas Mustan’s Baazigar—a role rejected by Salman Khan—and in Yash Chopra’s Darr, a part turned down by Aamir Khan.

“Korbo, Lorbo, Jeetbo”, the three Bengali words inscribed in his team’s anthem (and dreamed up by director Sujoy Ghosh for music director duo Vishal-Shekhar), describe his life best.

As he puts it: “We have to do, to fight and to win, or die trying.” It’s a work ethic that has seen him become India’s biggest endorsement machine, with 15 brands at the last count, each earning him a pay cheque of Rs 5 crore.

This in addition to stray assignments like launching the new logo of Shoppers’ Stop recently, for which he was paid Rs 1.5 crore for a couple of hours of work. “When I started building my house, I realised I wasn’t going to do bad films for money. The opportunity cost was too high. It was a Keynesian matter of demand being fulfilled by supply. I decided to dance at weddings or endorse brands for it,” he says.

That has paid off. The 20,000-sq-ft, Rs 100-crore fairytale seaside mansion to which he has added a wing to house his office, gym and a den which can accommodate makeshift television sets (last year for Kaun Banega Crorepati 3 and this year for Paanchvi Pass) is built entirely with his blood and sweat—and he is not always being ironic when he describes it as the most famous address in India, yes even more than Rashtrapati Bhavan.

His competitive spirit is legendary. He hates losing even to friends in board games like Articulate and Trivial Pursuit. “A lot of people think I live in a comfort zone. I do a lot of things not on a whim but on an inner voice that tells me why not,” he says, sounding like his biggest fan.

Anything can be a trigger. In the case of IPL, it was the criticism of appearing at cricket matches to market his production, Om Shanti Om.

“You know, when I was growing up, my mother could only afford to buy me tickets for one match. I remember it was an India-Pakistan match where Imran Khan made 32 runs. I don’t need a cricket match to promote myself but I love it that my son has the opportunity that his father can take him to cricket matches perhaps in a private plane. If my mother could afford a team for me she would have bought it. I could, so I bought it.”

The other trigger was his son’s (Aryan, aged 10) comment to him at 2.30 one morning—in Shah Rukh Khan’s world, food and sleep are rationed commodities and SMSes are responded to till 5 in the morning—that he buy a team on his own.

“He told me, ‘Papa, we are rulers, not servants. Let’s do this alone’. I woke up my wife (Gauri) in turn and told her this. She wasn’t very happy.”

If Shah Rukh is an example to his colleagues (musician Vishal Dadlani says his passion is infectious), it is his children who are his inspiration.

“I play hockey and soccer with them at home. I train them for running. That’s why my daughter always comes first in races. I think sports instill in people the habit of winning, no matter who the opposition is,” he says.

Often they also provide him with the best ideas, which he dashes out on his laptop in his trademark all-caps. The attention to detail is obsessive—from the buttons on the uniforms of the Kolkata Knight Riders to the 145 potential names he thought of for his team (among them were WWEinfluenced gems like The Hitmen, Anti-Matter, Ball Breakers, Dominators, Kolkata Cannons and Hangmen).

Their logo, All the King’s Men, is his idea as well, a play on his status as the king of Bollywood. It is a status magnified when he is taken out of context. In Kolkata, 10 guards surround his slight frame, not his customary two; a 20-ft cut-out graces the entrance of Eden Gardens and entire stands rise when he turns around to orchestrate their applause.

Khan’s can do-isms

* "I’ve heard about my brand. I’m manipulative, I run after money. Whatever. My logic is I’m a brand because I put passion into my work."

* "I’m a bit of a fakir. I wear the nicest clothes because they’re given to me. I don’t think of food, air and water as necessities."

* "I never do a film for money. You can buy me for everything but a film. Films I do for love."

* "I believe in trying something new. The more people tell me I’m wrong, the more I believe I can do it."

* "You have to believe in something. I believe my children are untainted. If they say I’m the best I am."

* "I’ve seen death from very close quarters. After that, failure doesn’t scare you. Only if you fail will you succeed."

Shah Rukh is hands-on with almost every aspect of his work. He has a small team that helps him—the unflappable Badwal looks after his schedule, the three Morani brothers take care of his live acts, the Red Chillies team handles ads and VFX, Sanjiv Chawla (Juhi’s brother) runs the film production, while Mehta (Juhi’s husband and an industrialist) is in charge of the IPL team administration.

Of course, the ecosystem is entirely dependent on the actor, who is in turn a function of his movies. His last two movies have done well at the box office, generating a combined revenue of Rs 150 crore, but as his experience with the Rs 15-crore Paheli showed, not even his generous backing as a producer can prevent a turkey.

In terms of his movie career, he is working less than the slog-master Akshay Kumar, whose four films in 2007 grossed Rs 350 crore, while in the endorsement stakes, the super exclusive Aamir Khan charges more per brand (Rs 8-10 crore, which has gone up to Rs 12 crore for his new endorsement, Samsung).

Where Shah Rukh scores is in his ability to reinvent himself across different arenas, from the inspirational sports leader of Chak De! India to the man with the six pack abs in Om Shanti Om, from the teacher with the smarts in Kya Aap Paanchvi Pass Se Tez Hain?

to the item boy in the sparkly holster of Krazzy 4 to the 12th man who is bigger than the Team XI—no matter who is playing, he is always the centre of attention. In the cult of Shah Rukh Khan, there is room for just one icon. “No one can get tired of me,” he says with his typical understatement.

Brand builder Anirban Das Blah, from a tribe Shah Rukh considers superfluous, puts it in corporate terms: “He is simply the biggest marketing phenomenon in the Indian entertainment industry as he straddles every area of it.” Does this straddling arise from a deep-seated insecurity or enormous self-belief? Even Shah Rukh’s often charming glibness would not have an answer.

He also scores over his contemporaries in his diaspora appeal. Of the top five Hindi box office grossers in the US, four are his films, garnering a collective revenue of $12.7 million (Rs 51 crore).

Last year, he made newspaper headlines in Germany by just showing up at the Berlin Film Festival, while in Paris’s Montmarte this week, he says— and “I don’t like to boast”—even his family was taken aback by the 1,000 people who had gathered there, a few even carrying the “Korbo, Lorbo, Jeetbo” banner.

But more than the 50 films in his oeuvre, his videsi appeal, and his eclectic interests (which range from reading Ayn Rand to watching Manchester United games), there is perhaps one element where he triumphs over others.

He is a great storyteller, the old fashioned village square kind who gathers the no-good fellows around him for a bit of a yarn. Sometimes the Khan ki kahani is about himself, part of the great folklore of struggle surrounding him— the middle-class Delhi boy who loses his parents young, comes alone to the big city of Mumbai, says to the sea he will own it one day, does so, his success as an outsider mirroring the rise of young, aspirational India.

It is a compelling story, repeated in at least two biographies and a two-part documentary, making him the most analysed among his contemporaries.

It’s a story that makes comparisons with the past a tad obsolete. As film scholar Nasreen Munni Kabir says: “It’s a whole new world. You can’t compare the stardom of Dilip Kumar or even Amitabh Bachchan with the 24-hour celebrity-guzzling machine that exists today.”

Shah Rukh’s storytelling is about others as well— friends and rivals alike—told mercilessly with dead-on mimickery, to a posse of pals stretching from recent entrant Arjun Rampal to the old faithful Karan Johar.

The home is ruled by a velvet glove, Gauri’s perma party gloss masking an utterly sensible woman who is as likely to scream at her son for not doing his homework as she is to twit her husband for putting his shoes on the table.

“Mehmannawazi” is intrinsic to her and evident even in the way her husband treats his team, hosting a party for them after every match, unmindful of whether they win or lose. “It is evident in the way”, says friend Farah Khan, “he will drive to town after a long day to make sure he attends the wedding of a Red Chillies staffer.”

“My father used to tell me, be gracious in victory and graceful in defeat,” says Shah Rukh, though it doesn’t stop him from getting into cheeky chatback contests, with an array of notables such as Amar Singh and Akshay Kumar.

Where will it all end? In an IPO, so that he can build his new dream, which could be a studio or a stadium? He doesn’t rule it out, looking at friends Dhoot and Mehta in the room.

“If these guys say so…” he trails off. Will he be able to sustain a movie career that is as versatile as his interests? If it worries him, he doesn’t show it.

“Because you know what, all that I know is that when I wake up at 10, put my make-up on, and go to work, I am still as jittery about what I’m doing as I was 20 years ago,” he says. That anxiety to excel is inscribed in his DNA. And it is one that matches a youthful India that worships success.

SRK's vital stats

* Rs 36 crore earnings from 36 episodes of Kya Aap Paanchvi Pass Se Tez Hain?

* Rs 75 crore annual earnings from 15 brand endorsements.

* $ 12.5 million earnings from first year of buying IPL team at an annual price of $15.5 m.

* Rs 150 net box office revenue of his 2007 releases Chak De! India and Om Shanti Om.

SRK Waxwork Unveiling

Do something different: Shah Rukh

Shah Rukh's quiz show Paanchvi Pass has got off to a good response. However, when we asked him about the current trend of reality shows, he said that he was bored of the same dancing and singing reality shows.

SRK has an advice for his friends from the TV Industry. "I want to tell all my friends in TV and the ones who are producing it - don't do this. One show comes and after the other and they call it Ustaads and all. Same singers come wearing glittering clothes. They all look same to me. Moreover, even the judges are the same. I have been to so many shows and even judged them. I just can't remember which show is which."

Shah Rukh opines that there should be some innovations in the show. "As of now there is no creativity in the shows. If you want to compete with another channel you need something interesting even if you will take the format from abroad."

Expectedly, SRK does not watch reality shows. "I get disturbed with it and luckily I am not part of it. If I would have been a producer I would have taken a stand and tried to make something different or interesting. If somebody now makes smarter than 6th or 4th grader then it would be boring."

We hope reality show makers are listening.

Indya

Team SRK gets Eyeballs Maximus

Shah Rukh Khan's Kolkata Knight Riders might have lost the crucial match to Mumbai Indians at Eden Gardens, but the team still managed to emerge as winners.

His team got over 18.5 million eyeballs across India, which makes it the highest DLF IPL viewership ever, according to Audience Measurement and Analytics Ltd's overnight TV audience measurement system, aMap.

While this is not the first time that SRK's team has managed to get all this attention, what makes it even more interesting is that it's Shah Rukh Khan who is the vital link between IPL and his reality show Kya Aaap Paanchvi Paas Se Tez Hain.

It was a programme that was expected to lure viewers away from the Indian Premier League. But the verdict at least from aMap is out.

IPL is still the King, garnering an average rating of four per cent versus a 2.8 per cent for Paanchvi Paas on the opening night of the game show.

"IPL got 15 million viewership that day and it was a mere 9 million for Paanchvi Pass," said Jiniti Shah, Head, Client Services, aMap.

There seems to be one clear winner in all this, SRK who's brand equity has just sky rocketed.

According to market experts his market value has risen by 25-30 per cent post the DLF IPL and Paanchvi Paas launch.

"SRK is self made, he embodies the notion of the market, the glitter, the allure and the fact that everything is possible," said Santosh Desai, CEO & MD, Future Brands.

There's a reason why brand gurus say celebrity endorsements are critical for instant brand success-at least in India. And a perfect example of this is SRK.

He's endorsed the maximum number of brands in 2007- and is also the most recalled celebrity brand ambassador- ahead even of Amitabh Bachchan! Shah Rukh Khan epitomises every Indian's dream and in this case also every brand that is associated with him.

NDTV

SRK: an actor, a host, a producer, a husband and a father

If you think earning lots of moolah is the only thing on Shah Rukh Khan’s mind, think again.

The actor who already has helped set up a pediatric ward at a city hospital now wants to set up a ward for cancer patients too. "I get embarrassed to talk about such things. The hospital people were kind enough to name the pediatric ward after my mother. I hope to set up a centre for cancer patients later this year," he reveals. But that’s not all, SRK even has plans to set up a hospital.

"That’s my final dream. Though I don’t know when that will be possible. I keep telling my wife that I have to do this and she keeps telling me that I can do it only when I stop doing the other things," he says.
But of course, there’s loads of work to be done too. Besides his role, that of a host in Kya Aap Paanchvi Pass Se Tez Hai?, the actor is back at the studios doing what he does best acting!

His two films this year are Billoo Barber and Aditya Chopra’s Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi. But there’s no denying the fact that we are seeing a lot of SRK on the small screen than the big one. "It’s not that I am too much on TV, it’s just that there’s lot of TV happening these days. Cinema is no more the only form of entertainment. We are talking about watching films on mobile phones. Five years from now, I may be doing a movie that may be released on cellphones. Does that mean I become smaller or has the reach increased," he questions. And the talk of his big comeback on TV, doesn’t impress SRK much. "This thing of ‘you started with TV and came back to TV...’ I have always been on TV."

But aren’t there too many endorsements, shows, etc that he’s doing on TV? "No, just day before yesterday I was thinking I am doing very less," he smiles the famous dimpled smile. Be it films, TV or cricket, SRK has conquered every pitch. It looks like the name SRK is now synonymous with success. "For success you need to know that you can go wrong and yet go ahead and do it. People who do wrong things, like stealing or murder, have overcome the thought that this is wrong. They have found their justification. Positively, if we apply the same, it will work. As soon as you accept that this can go wrong, the fear of failure decreases. If tomorrow I face failure, I hope I can say I enjoyed failure too," he philosophises.

Astrologers and industry people often talk about the brilliant planetary positions that SRK has been blessed with, so is luck as important for his success? "Giving all the credit to luck takes away from the hard work involved. People will say I got a good show and it’s our luck that the show’s doing well. But there’s a lot of hard work involved here. I am not successful by luck, but because I am in the right place. I am not special. Eight years ago I thought I was, but after that, I think there is a set of audience that likes my work," he states matter-of-factly.

And despite spending so many years in the industry, Shah Rukh thrives on one thing, "Giving a perfect shot. Be it in films or TV. For example, when I get the timing of a joke right. I can live off it for 10-20 days." But hosting is one thing that tires even the super-energetic King Khan. "TV work is very difficult. Especially quiz shows. It’s almost live. Also, there are many factors like unknown contestants, dealing with kids, the 200 lights and after all that, there’s a deadline to adhere to. I can work for 20 hours. I can dance, fight, do press conferences and not get tired, but with this I get tired. Also a show like Kya Aap... needs something from the host. There is a certain responsibility and I never shirk away from responsibilities. But yes, it is tiring and I get a headache at the end of the day. But the problem is when I return home, my kids want me to ask them the same questions again. So I have to sit down and do that," he says.

An actor, a host, a producer, a husband and a father. SRK has many roles, so who’s the real SRK? He says, "Honestly, even I don’t know myself. You keep acting the whole day. You do lot of things that are larger than life. Lines start getting blurred after a point. The closest I came to playing myself was in KBC and now this show. On the show I emote the way I would in real life."

I’m a sportsman at heart: Shah Rukh Khan

Later, after visiting the Mumbai Indians’ dressing room and spending some ten minutes there, he spoke to The Telegraph.

The following are excerpts

First Knight Riders’ defeat seen by him in person

(Grins) When we won the first two matches in a row, (coach) John Buchanan told everybody that lots of cricket remained to be played… I’m a sportsman at heart and if we didn’t lose any match, then I’d feel odd… Of course, it would’ve been nice to again win in Calcutta, but our batting became unstuck at the beginning… I’m sure we’ll come back hard in the next match (on Thursday, in Jaipur).

The level of disappointment

There’s never a low for me… I can never feel low… There are times when my son (Aryan) runs a race but doesn’t come first… I’ve myself lost races… I’ve made flops but that doesn’t take anything away from life. It’s not that I like losing, though… I don’t and my team doesn’t like losing either… But, in sports, you win and lose… You pray for a miracle… Look for that one slice of luck coming your way… But that doesn’t happen… In fact, I believe that sports is the biggest leveller and sports teaches you to lead life… There’ll be good days and bad days.

Reaction to defeats

I feel happy for whoever wins… My parents taught me that I’ve got to be graceful in defeat and gracious in victory… So, I do the same things when I lose, like going over to the opposition dressing room… I wish them well and wish them from the bottom of my heart. I’m a winner because I’ve got this sportsman’s spirit… If you’re mean and sad about your losses, then you can’t enjoy your victories that much… It’s because of this attitude that I can, when we win, jump on the stadium’s roof and shout ‘we won’…

On Ricky Ponting and Brendon McCullum leaving for home

I’ll miss them… The boys will miss them… The team will miss them… They’ve been terrific in the dressing room and on the field… (After a pause) At the end of each match, I’ve been showing the team a dance-step… I showed two tonight as I wasn’t there in Chennai the other evening… I don’t talk cricket with the boys… That’s done by John and the others… I only bring positivity.

Having flown thousands of miles to make it for Tuesday’s match

Yes, it was difficult yaar… I was in London, then I went to Paris… From there back to London and, then, Mumbai before making it here just in time (on a private aircraft)… While it was difficult, I wouldn’t have missed coming to Calcutta for the world… I’ll be off tomorrow (Wednesday) morning as I’ve got to shoot for my TV show (Kya Aap Paanchvi Paas Se Tez Hain?)… Nothing stops me from going to all the Knight Riders’ matches… I do have shooting commitments which were finalised a year in advance but I could finish early and hop on to a private aircraft and land up in Jaipur or Mohali for the second half of the match… I was in London when we played in Chennai and I had to go on the stage… I remember becoming anxious and calling Juhi (Mehta, co-owner)… I told her that I wanted to be with the team and not in London… It’s not that I’m the luck factor or something… The reality is that we’ve got a good team and this team will bounce back.

The organisational bit of the second match at home

Like I said after the first match, we’ll be improving with every game… (Adds laughing) Hopefully, we’ll get everything right by the end of the IPL! I’m sure the spectators found it a nicer experience tonight, though the electronic scoreboard was too dim.

Finally, whether he brought traffic to a halt in Paris too the other day

(Laughs) Well, yes… And, you may not believe it, but there was a group of French girls with a banner which read ‘Korbo, lorbo, jeetbo re’… It was absolutely amazing.

The Telegraph India

Chak De India wins US Billie Award

The film has been honored with a Billie Award, which recognizes outstanding contributions to the portrayal of women in sports be it in entertainment or journalism. The awards, named after champion tennis player Billie Jean King, are presented in four categories: breakthrough and innovation, entertainment, journalism and outstanding journalist.

This year the award for entertainment went to Chak De India. Yash Raj, producer of the film said, “The film continues to pay back the faith we had reposed in the movie even when conventional wisdom would have dictated otherwise. To win accolades like this from around the world, especially from places where depictions of women's sport has had a long and established tradition is especially heartening.”

Shimit Amin, director of the film was present to get the award and said, “The reaction to the movie was simply fantastic. You would not believe that this was a foreign audience - comprised of professional writers, critics and industry professionals for the most part - the way they reacted. It just reinforced our belief that the message of the movie and the performances of Shah Rukh Khan and the girls cuts across all boundaries.”

Yash Raj added, “It was an honour to be selected by such a distinguished panel of women's sports historians, journalists and media industry executives. But while we cherish this honour, the greatest reward for the movie was undoubtedly the love and affection that was showered on it by audiences worldwide."

We congratulate the cast and crew for not only making a wonderful film but also an inspiring film that is being recognized for its positive portrayal of women’s sports.

SRK 'waxed' in Paris

It's general knowledge that the English in India and other foreign countries is 'Same-Same but different'. In the sense, in India, we say 'Cat', whereas they say it's 'Kat'. Here we say, 'cheque', they say 'chek', so on and so forth! But there's one name to which not only India, but the whole of the Universe abides by and shall abide till eternity and that's 'Shah Rukh Khan'!

The latest 'victim' of the SRK mania was Paris, a city which experienced a never-before mayhem. The reason? Well, SRK was in France for the unveiling of his wax statue at the Grevin Museum. His wife Gauri Khan and Karan Johar accompanied him.

If you thought that SRK will be a stand-alone in the museum, better think again, coz' he has company from the likes of Marylyn Monroe, Michael Jackson and around 300 odd celebrities. SRK now becomes the third Indian at the museum, the first two being Mother Teresa and Mahatma Gandhi.

Is there anything left for you to accomplish, Mr. Khan? True that 'Impossible Is Nothing'.

Shah Rukh : The Host Rider

Shah Rukh Khan seems to be telling many of his near and dear ones: Be my guest. And most of them are more than willing to attend the cricket matches with him.

Apparently, all the actors who've gone to cheer his team on, have returned impressed with the host that he is.

"He personally looks into everything from the minute you reach the airport – the flight boarding, getting into the bus, a comfortable drive to the hotel and check-in, commuting to the venue, the food and everything. Also, he is extra protective of the ladies who may be travelling – Gauri's friends and actresses, if any," says a close friend of the Khan.

Now, that's our host-rider!

Economic Times India

“It is the overseas audience who have made me the star I am.” - SRK

“London is my favourite, favourite place in the world!” Shah Rukh Khan beamed when he collected his Best Actor award for ‘Chak De! India’ at last Saturday’s Zee Cine Awards 2008 in London.

The ‘Bollywood Bafta’ was presented to him by Bollywood’s original diva, Rekha who stunned the sell-out crowd by reciting the rhyme ‘Jack and Jill’ and singing a few lines from the classic Asha Bhosle track, ‘Dil Cheez Kya Hai’ from the film ‘Umrao Jaan’. Khan performed his ‘Om Shanti Om’ number with at least ten other stars on stage. “Why didn’t you call me on stage to dance with you?” Rekha asked Khan. “Oh Rekhaji, we have grown too old for you!” he cheekily replied.

Khan’s win was no surprise: he was nominated twice in the Best Actor’s category for the aforementioned ‘Chak De! India’ and for his blockbuster ‘Om Shanti Om’. Khan also won the first ever ‘Lifestyle Icon’ award, which broke into half when he collected it. The ‘King Khan’ ended by thanking his London fans: “It is the overseas audience who have made me the star I am.”

Anil Sinanan, Times Online - UK