He's a volcano in human form, occasionally the lava spills over. This year he has blazed his way to the forefront of leading male stars yet again. With recent box-office successes such as Yes Boss, Pardes and Dil To Pagal Hai, he's back to where he was over a year ago - at the top of the heap. He's suddenly inches shy of superstardom - the first actor amongst the present lot to get that far in tinsel town. He's clearly on top of the world as Shah Rukh Khan talks about his recent hits, impending fatherhood and his next big release, Duplicate.
Deep in Mehboob Studios, Shah Rukh Khan enters the sets of Karan Johar's Kuchh Kuchh Hota Hai. His arrival prompts warm attention. The energy on the set changes. There's something really amazing about him, his generosity of spirit. Everyone wants to say hello, slap his back, make a crack, make him smile. Shah Rukh's in no hurry. He soaks it in, slaps his own share of backs, whispers a few naughty jokes, grins the grin. He feels like a brother, a younger brother, masculine yet nonthreatening. He likes to laugh on a set, to be creative and collaborative, and if he can't, he'd rather not do the show. He loves not just the satisfaction of having completed a role but the actual process of acting and the sense of community that develops between the actors and the director while making a film. "Thank you, boss," he says affectionately as a unit hand brings him a chilled soft drink. The unit hand beams. He shines because Shah Rukh is that likable and cool, which sets him apart from whole legions of leading men. tinsel town is really lucky. He is a man's man, which makes him a woman's man, which makes him box-office manna.
Someone once said that success allows people to be what they always were. Shah Rukh has always been kind of weird. Now he has the freedom to be weird when and where he wants. And people don't say, 'what?' anymore. They say, 'Ahhh'. Much has also been made of his looks. The camera doesn't just love him - it ripens him. On film he is himself, only more so. And,yes,he is a looker- with an awkward, fleshy mouth that sends him smiling sideways, like a school kid. His face reveals his energy; it is alive with a thousand expressions and questions. He's primal, passionate, pulsing with raw rebellious energy. He's so unbelievably exhilarating to be around, at least you'll never be bored.
Despite the accolades and awards, Shah Rukh's friends and colleagues all mention a wildness, a fury, within the star. He seems by nature a pretty angry man. Maybe it's to do with perfectionism in his craft. He can't bear not to be on top of his game all the time. All he basically cares about is acting, and whenever he falls short he becomes incredibly angry with himself. His ferocious energy and relentless sexuality offer a welcome relief from the studied types. He's extremely fast and alert..and funny. He thinks deep thoughts and pulls silly pranks with his friends. The intellect and the power that comes with it is what women find sexy. He has reached new depths as an actor, but a teenage devil still lurks inside. Thus, he's weaned the audience away from their living rooms and exposed them to things exciting and new on the big screen. He's got that unbelievably magnetic screen presence.
Some cherish those few performances of his that are not nervous or hurried. In most of his films, like Darr or Ram Jaane for example, it was wonderful acting, but it was all about the expenditure of a great amount of energy in a short space of time. He was sort of like a live wire. But in Dil To Pagal Hai and Pardes he is completely in control of his craft and of his feelings. In it he seems as consummate an actor as one has ever seen. On screen, he has been tenderness incarnate, of late: The way he consoles Karisma in Dil To Pagal Hai and Juhi Chawla in Yes Boss and Mahima Chaudhury in Pardes. The sad, sad eyes and the little smile that flickers across his face in Dil To Pagal Hai when he learns of Madhuri's marriage. Thus, he likes to move on, regenerate and doesn't stay satisfied with one genre - or one routine. At present, he couldn't be better situated. Fresh from a fat action movie (Koyla), a romantic comedy (Yes Boss) and a couple of mushy romances (Pardes, Dil To Pagal Hai), he's proved himself to be as versatile as he is ubiquitous.
Shah Rukh has everything all other men could want - talent, looks, money, respect, freedom, fame, a loving wife and a cast of loyal old friends. Until now, constant work had seemed as necessary as oxygen. He simply enjoyed the stimulus, the energy, the day-to-day business of working. He really lived the crazy life of a movie star, but now he's ready to settle down, start a family and remain successful. He's turned into a man with the strength to commit himself to his wife and family. And so he's actually taking time off and the respite is voluntary. Fatherhood beckons, you see. These days, because of Gauri and the soon-to-be-born baby, he's much less apt to drive himself nuts. He's lucky enough to have a wife he loves so much but now the baby could probably become the center of everything.
He's obviously relishing every moment of the good times he's going through. With a smile so ravishing, it could melt a stone, he asks brightly, "Will you have a soft drink?" Watching him eye the scenario around him, you notice no cloud of brood or hostility that usually comes with a thirty something man-child. There is no stink of fear, only the mind-addlingly seductive presence of jejune enthusiasm. Usually when Shah Rukh talks, his words spill out in a torrent and one has the sense of his motor racing very fast underneath. But unlike most artistes, he is an intense listener too. He leans forward, as though English weren't his first language, as though he needed to breathe your words through the pores of his skin, and his face locks in an all-absorbing gaze. He sucks on his cigarette until his dimples touch. Edgy as ever, he explains why this has been the most fabulous year in his career. "What's most gratifying is that within this year I've had four markedly different releases with pretty varied roles. Koyla was an action film where I feel I did a great job. Yes Boss was a romantic comedy where such a character hadn't been essayed before. In Pardes I gave quite a low key subdued performance while in Dil To Pagal Hai my role was very mature and intense. I'm proud of this fact because very few actors have had the chance to do such varied stuff in one year. Therefore, it has been one of the best years of my career."
Thus, it was in the latter half of the year that his fortunes actually revived with the success of Yes Boss. It did prove to be a saviour of sorts after the low phase he'd been through. But did it do as well as it was expected to? He explains instantly, "When you do a different film like Yes Boss, you don't expect it to be a grand success commercially. And since it's a classy, city-based film, you know who your target audience is. So despite it all, the film has done much better business than expected. It has earned about 4-5 crores in every city which is amazing business for a film of this genre. The music too was very popular and a lot of people loved me in the film. I too loved myself in it."
But there were many others who actually didn't feel one with his character in Yes Boss although it was such a believable role. "Probably people could not accept a hero to be such a slimy character. A lot of people told me that he seemed like a pimp. Maybe they were scared to accept the reality. You do see guys in real life who are always thinking of devious means to fulfil their ambitions. Such selfish, self-centred go-getters are very much at large today. However, the audience should be thankful that somebody's actually playing such characters and not just doing the star act in every film."
Meanwhile, Subhash Ghai's Pardes has proved to be yet another feather in his cap. Though the film opened to an average response, It picked up business in the following weeks, thanks to the tax redemption, and has now been proclaimed a hit and still going strong. But many feel that Shah Rukh was sidelined in the film. "I don't think so," he defends, "I don't know why the media in particular puts it like that. Pardes was a girl- oriented film. I had heard the subject and liked it. For me it was a chance to do something different or rather not to do something I had always done. I hadn't done a role where I'm simply flowing with the tide like Aamir Khan did in Hum Hain Rahi PyarKe. I wanted to play subdued and mature characters. It's not necessary that I hog the limelight everytime. And it goes to the credit of Subhash Ghai to have made a successful film without the usual, popular Shah Rukh Khan scenes. And, of course, becoming tax-free also helped the film a lot. The tax redemption is given only to a deserving film which meant Pardes was so and that's why it has done quite well."
But is it true that he refused to do Subhash Ghai's next film? "I don't know what you're talking about," he replies quite perturbed by the suggestion. "We haven't had any discussions on his next project as yet. I think he hasn't yet worked out a subject. If he needs me, he'll call me. But I don't have any dates for him right now. I had given him dates for Shikhar and Trimurti which got exhausted mid-way through Pardes due to the delay with Trimurti. I was supposed to do just two films with him and I've done that."
Coming to his third success of the year, Dil To Pagal Hai, he was pretty much in control in the film. His performance was the perfect balance between his spontaneity and restraint. And even though the film has a thin storyline, it was pretty engrossing right till the end. He must surely be satisfied with his work in it. "Not really," he says and takes us by surprise. "I feel I could have done a better job. Since I was trying out something new, I still feel I lacked something. Probably if I were to do a similar role again, my performance will be more polished. However, on the whole I liked myself in the film. My mature characterisation fitted well with the film as it was a film about normal people. Everything was in the right amount. The jokes were good, so was the intensity of the emotions. And as far as the storyline is concerned, then you'll realise that some of the nicest films even in Hollywood have such weak stories. In these films one knows right from the start what it's all about. There's no mystery or suspense. It's how you present the film ultimately that's important. I think only a good director has the guts to rely on the screenplay and make a successful film. "
His next release in all probability is Yash Johar's Duplicate. Slated for a February '98 release, it has Shah Rukh trying out something new once again. This film has him playing a double role for the very first time. So how differently has he delineated the two characters? He explains meticulously, "Duplicate is a film with the usual dose of confusion and comedy of errors that you see in most double role films. One character is quite comical while the other is a bad guy both of which I've played in the past in different films. But what sets them apart from my past efforts is that in Duplicate the comic character is a complete dimwit, a total nerd which I've never played before. While the bad guy is the typical Gulshan Grover kind of villain you see in films. The dark characters I've played in the past had a purpose behind their mean streak. Whereas this guy is simply made like that, an unscrupulous fellow. He's a typical villain who looks lecherously at women. What's fascinating about the film is that it's not like other comedy of errors where the good guy falls in trouble due to the bad guy's misdeeds. Here the villain's life becomes miserable when he tries to step into the nice guy's shoes to achieve his nefarious deeds. He doesn't realise the mess he's getting into before it's too late. And by the end of thefilm, he's pulling at his hair roots. The motto of the story here is - it's more difficult to be good while it's easier to be bad. On the whole, Duplicate is turning out to be a fabulous film."
Finally, things are also looking brighter in his personal life. He's on the verge of becoming the proud father of a son who he's already named Aryan. Is he experiencing . any pre-natal jitters? "Not really," he confesses, "but I've already made plans to spend time with my kid. I'm taking a month-long break from work to be with my family." By the time you read this, he will already be in the throes of fatherhood.
He falls silent for a rare moment. Then he sighs happily, downs the remains of his soft drink and gets up to greet an acquaintance. Minutes later, he plops down, smiles contentedly, lights up a cigarette, leans back and exhales a fog of smoke. He looks at once defiant, like a rebellious little boy who hasn't forgotten what it feels like to be a kid.
