Shah Rukh Khan: King of hearts The megastar reveals his sartorial secrets, bares his soul, and tells us how he has no notion whatsoever of being special.
Mala Sekhri: You are today the 'King of Hearts'. Did you enjoy this latest 'role' of yours? Shah Rukh Khan: I really enjoyed the Bazaar photoshoot. It was fun because I haven't done too many shoots for magazines. I only do them for films and trade magazines. I haven't shot with models for a long time; I normally shoot with the actresses I work with.
MS: You break our hearts because we keep chasing you for dates...thank you for doing this for us. SRK: I'm really very sorry. You know, I'm a labour-class kind of person, so I'm always working...on films and endorsements. So I get very little time, since I'm always on the run. I flew in from Hyderabad, went to Delhi, came back here, and had a press conference. Last night, I slept at four. I have to go for three other things which will take till six in the morning, but I'm really sorry that I have given you the run around, I feel very guilty whenever I read your emails.
MS: You still look fabulous, though; you don't have any dark circles. The two girls (Angela and Lisa) were smitten, and so were we. SRK: The more I sleep, the worse I look...I've got a reverse cycle, work for me, is the elixir of life. If I don't work, I get headaches, I feel puffy, my eyes go like that (squints) and everyone tells me I look old. But when I have not slept, am unkempt, and completely tired, then I look my best. Like I said, I am labour class, so labour suits me.
MS: I wish there was more labour class like you...Harper's Bazaar is all about personal style. What is your personal style? What do you wear? SRK: I'm mostly in blue jeans. Just like the Richie Rich comics, my wardrobe looks the same. My wardrobe has about 60-70 white T-shirts from the same brand, and 30-40 jeans, also of the same make-Adriano Goldschmied. I love to wear sneakers, normally by Cesare Paciotti. I am a bit finicky about shoes, so I just wear a Paciotti or a Bottega or a Louis Vuitton when I wear formals. I wear Tag Heuer watches everywhere I go, not only because I endorse them but because I love them. And then, I've got black suits! All of them are different shades of black... My clothes all look the same, I like it like that.
MS: Do confess, what do you wear to bed? SRK: I like to dress up for bed, and even like to wear a nice cologne. I like to wear a clean pair of Dolce & Gabanna shorts, or I will wear my lululemon track pants, and a nice, crisp white T-shirt. While getting ready for bed, I don't wear slippers. As soon as I wake up, I put on my shoes. The first thing I do after my bath is to wear socks and shoes and jeans, so I never roam around barefoot, and that's why I have Athlete's foot, I think.
MS: What's your favourite accessory? SRK: The nasal drops I carry! In terms of jewellery, I don't wear any. I had a nice tabeez that I've lost, and my watch. These are the only things that my man Friday gives me when I'm walking out of the room. I've got this case of watches. So he takes it out and he wages a bet, because I invariably pick up the same watch...My Tag.
MS: Do you have a view on what your wife wears? SRK: I am finicky. The fit of girls' jeans is important, and it doesn't just have to be my wife's.
MS: So where should jeans fit? The butt, the legs? SRK: It's not about the tightness or the looseness, but if it doesn't become a woman, and if I know the girl, I would tell her. Women look very beautiful, so my wife, irrespective of what she wears, looks beautiful. Women know more about clothes than us guys. But I don't think they should overdo the tightness of clothes. It's overtly sensual, and I don't like that. Sexiness should be a little covert, a little understated.
MS: Today, you're at the top. Where do you see yourself going from here? Will you act till you drop dead? SRK: I want to drop dead acting. The only dream I have is that one day I'm giving a shot and they say pack-up, last shot. That's the only desire I have as an actor. I do a lot of things. I run a company; I have a cricket team, I have a VFX unit, I am now going into kids' entertainment, bringing amusement parks here. I like doing things for them. Because as a child, I never had much of a childhood. My parents died early so I had to work at a young age.
MS: Did the early passing away of your parents make you closer to the people who are now important to you, or did that make you cynical? SRK: No, I didn't have anyone after my parents died-just my sister. Now I have two kids and my wife. With the birth of my kids, any cynicism I might have had, has been removed. I'm detached. I'm told I'm not a good friend; I get scared that people will leave me and go...so I don't get into deep relationships. I'm courteous; I'm well-mannered; I'm warm. I can make you laugh for three hours when you come to my house and spend time with me. I can sit in your room till six in the morning and play games with you; I can give you the best time of your life, but I am scared to get into your internal space just in case I fall in love with you, and then you die. So that's my excuse for being detached; or it could be just that I'm a self-centred, pompous son of a *****.
MS: And yet there are so many people who want to get close to you. SRK: I'm a means to an end. In this field, I'm an actor. When you work with people-the producer, director, your co-actors; you spend a year of your life together. When I was shooting
Don, I got very close to Riteish, Farhan, Priyanka, Lara, and Boman. The same thing happened with my team at
RA.One, with Kareena and Dalip Tahil. I get close to them, but when the film is over, it's done with. I am bad with phones and emails. I am awful at communicating...sometimes when I wake up in the morning, and open the newspaper, I feel everyone hates me, and this makes me want to be even more successful. I want to keep acting, and I want to keep making you smile. I want to spend six hours in your bedroom and give you the nicest time of your life through television, but I don't want to be related to you.
MS: When you see any celebrity, be it JFK or Bill Clinton, the crowds are cheering; then the camera pans to the wife, and you see a blank expression: she sees an ordinary man. What's the ordinariness that she sees? SRK: Oh, I am very ordinary; I have no notion of being special. There is an Urdu saying, 'mein ehsaan ki kamtali se mukhtala hun', I suffer from an inferiority complex. I don't think I am good-looking or talented enough, nor am I hard-working enough. A couple of days ago my son said, "Papa you are good enough; you don't have to worry." He added, "The only thing not nice about you is when you get angry," which I do very seldom.
MS: How did you feel when your first baby was born? SRK: It was raining, I was in Breach Candy, and it was very scary. I was sitting and writing my book on my laptop. When I saw them for the first time; they looked liked red, wrinkled lizards; I never thought I would fall in love with red tomatoes. Now, I can't think of anything else in life but the two of them. They're absolutely beautiful.
MS: How would you react to your daughter's first boyfriend? SRK: I'll have to kill him (laughs). I'll have to beat him up. I'm really sorry, whoever it is...Rajesh, Ramesh, Abdul, Rahman, Mark, John, Peter, jo hi ho, jab aooge tab pitoge. Jahan se bhi aooge tum maar khaoge. Chahe ho London, chahe ho America.
MS: Why do you think there are so many starry airs and tantrums with so many people in show biz? SRK: You cannot be humble unless you are really great; you have to be great to be humble. Some people think I am arrogant, which I am not, but I like being mean sometimes. It's fun. It's my own personal enjoyment space. I am not an arrogant person, my friends know that. But I like being arrogant sometimes, I like to say I am the best; screw you. I say it as a joke, and initially nobody believed it, they thought I might be actually saying this. I say it because I have been working regularly for 20 years. For me, I have to thank everyone, I even thank the guy who has been cleaning the floor. I thank him because he makes me look like a star. I have to thank the gentleman who does the lights; I have to do that. I only do that not because I am humble, but because I don't believe I can do it on my own.
MS: On to fashion: trends are rapidly changing. People are wearing shorts and short skirts. What do Indian women look best in? SRK: I like a girl in an interesting salwar kameez, like a short kurta with a patiala salwar...that looks very sexy. A sari looks really nice, and for Indian girls or for any girl for that matter, blue jeans and a white muslin shirt looks the best with a good pair of keds, or even high heels.
MS: What about shopping? Do you prefer to go overseas and shop, and do you have a favourite store you go to? SRK: I don't normally shop. I would just shop for my computer maybe, but for that too, I now just call for it, because I have a VFX (visual effects) division, so they get me the best Mac computer. But I shop for jeans sometimes...I might buy toys for my kids. When I go to London, I go to the Dolce & Gabbana store to buy my suits. I enter, and in 30 minutes, I have bought my whole year's supply. Then my stylist Naresh makes other suits which fit me like that. I never buy trousers; I get them stitched. My shopping gets done in one day in London; I don't shop anywhere else. There are three shops I go to. When I enter, they say, "OK, Mr Khan, white shirts, black shirts, and the new jeans."
MS: And which shops are those? SRK: There's Dolce & Gabanna, Armani, and Paciotti. They know me, so they're very sweet and at Gucci, they know what I want. If there's nothing else I want, they will pick it out for me.
MS: Are you an on-trend guy; do you wear what looks good on you? SRK: I just wear what I feel comfortable in, and I think I'm pompous enough to think that whatever I will wear will become a trend...So I'm a little self-centred like that.
MS: Do you think that today, your red pants will become a trend? SRK: (Laughs) That's a long, long shot, that one! But I see a lot of guys wear red pants. I've never done that. This is the first time I've done it...No. Even as a joke, I haven't worn red pants. I shudder to think when it comes out, what my son and daughter are going to say to me.
MS: You looked fabulous. Tell me, when you look at a beautiful woman for the first time, do you look at her face, her clothes, her body? SRK: I actually don't look at women. I'm very shy. That's why I never judge all these Ms World and Ms India contests. I find it a little odd to stare at a woman. I am being conventional, but a woman's beauty is extremely special...and should be appreciated, with respect. So I can't stare. I've never done that in my life.
MS: You blushed. SRK: Yes, I blush. I blush and say it, because it's important to, but it's not like a part of a woman I get turned on by. For me, the woman as a whole makes a great statement.
MS: Tell us something about your look in RA.One. SRK: I have three looks in RA.One. One, is a bare-bodied, six-pack look which I worked hard for. I sport long hair and a very Japanese Manga comic look, because the movie is about video games. Then, I'm a south Indian in the film, so it's an over-the-top, slightly stereotypical look, but it's a commercial film, so he's got curly hair and Dockers pants, and simple shirts. Plus, he's a computer geek, so there're glasses too. And when I turn into the superhero, I wear tights. And in most of the film, I end up wearing a white tuxedo shirt with a cummerbund black trouser...like in
Chamak Challo, and I have blue eyes.
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