Shah Rukh Khan’s Latest Interview: Top Quotes

Top quotes from Shah Rukh Khan’s latest interview to Huffington Post’s Ankur Pathak. An interview that has gone viral on the internet (link to the full interview is at the bottom of the page)

The actor talks about everything – Udta Punjab controversy, his house, his 3 billion fans, career choices and a lot more.

• In the initial few years of my career, I was driven by materialistic desires. I just wanted to buy a house. Maybe one with a garden in it because, well, I wanted to walk around with my kids in a garden. The reason now is different. At this point now, I just want to make films.
• For me, Dilwale is a garish, blatant, colourful commercial film. And my problem is that I love all films. Is it my kind of cinema? No, it is not. I’d like something much subtler.
• I cannot be cynical about how people will respond. I have done trashy films, I have done good films and I have done some bad ones. There is a huge acceptance for what I have done.
• I am indecisive at times. And I have been wrong about my own choices. Karan Arjun (1995) is one of the biggest examples. It’s again one of those movies which is not my world, with its kuttey kaminey fight. I could just not understand the movie and Rakesh ji (Rakesh Roshan) kept assuring me that it will work. When I went to see the film with distributors, there was not a moment during the entire film when people were not clapping or crying. It’s one of my most successful films after DDLJ. And that is when I realised that I don’t know how a movie will turn out.
• I never thought Swades (2004) would be a great film. I wanted to do Jodhaa Akbar (2008) with Ashutosh Gowariker instead. I told him that Swades is a nice film but it will tank. But he was confident.
• I can be a part of Mani Ratnam’s world. I can sit with fight masters and talk their language. I can sit with the head of states of the world’s biggest countries and chat with them over a formal dinner. I can sit down with Mr. Tim Cook and talk for 2 hours. And I can sit with AbRam’s nanny and really enjoy myself. I can become who you are.
• I won’t do the film if you think it is not my space. But you got bereft of an actor who is versatile. I can do a Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa (1994), I can do a Chak De, I can do a Ra.One (2011), I can do a Chennai Express (2013), I can do Asoka (2002), I can do Swades, I can do Yes Boss(1997), I can do a Baazigar (1993), I can do a Fan, and I don’t even want to count my biggest hits in the history of Indian cinema — Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998), DDLJ, and Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham (2003). I am Shah Rukh Khan and I can do everything.
• I do it (dancing at wedding etc) with the same dignity like that of the lady who cleans my house. I thank her 20 times. I never look down upon her. In fact, I have always told people that the most respect I have is for my chauffeur. I come back home at 6 and sleep. He is called back at 12 and he is ready to take me wherever! I have a security guard 24×7 and I don’t know when he eats or sleeps.
• My father died because we did not give him enough expensive injections that could beat his illness. So my mother told me, you have got to be a little practical. And that changed me. Now I say this to everyone: don’t be a philosopher or a teacher without being rich. Money is extremely important — earn it when you can.
• I have many rooms in this house (Mannat), some of which I myself haven’t been to.
• Yes, I do bad ones. I do good ones. I do some very dissatisfying ones and some satisfying ones. And regardless of what people think, I don’t charge money for acting in films.
• I tell all my producers, pay me the money if you can. And if they have lost money, then I don’t take it. This is from Day 1. And I am not saying it to be pompous. I am the king! Kings don’t take money, they give. But where does a king earn from? He earns from every opportunity that he gets.
• (Question: Do you fear if a day will come when there won’t be people outside Mannat, waiting for glimpse) Yes. But — and there’s a big but — that would be a day when India won’t be making films anymore. That’s the only way this could happen. Till we make films, there’ll be people out there waiting to watch me.
• I drive a hot Ferrari; I live in a palatial bungalow. My only interaction with real people is with people on a movie — a place for fiction. They wave at me and ask for autographs. I oblige sometimes, sometimes I don’t. And then I come home and sleep. But you know what? I can feel all those people.
• When a film does well, there are 700 (outside Mannat), when it doesn’t there are lesser. And it’s been so many years. They are still out there. That’s a reality, not a delusion.
• .. as the years have gone by, I have been working harder than ever before. I have been consistently honing my craft, if not the art. I write more, I read more. I try to do something different, even if it’s within the same setting.
• I am perhaps the most self-deprecating star in the world. And that’s because I’m good. You can’t be self-deprecating if you aren’t good at all. And I’m not being arrogant, I am being honest. I’m good enough to be humble.
• I joke that I have only 5 expressions because I know I have 50. I don’t have to scream my lungs out to prove how good I am.
• I am not even the star who retweets his praises, those tweets that go, OMG! We love you! You’re great
• In the case of Udta Punjab, Pahlaj-ji and team went according to one interpretation of the rulebook and, maybe, you cannot question them on that. The rulebook though is something you can question and work towards changing. The rulebook should be so well-written, so clearly written, so specifically written that whichever government is in power, it shouldn’t have any room for misinterpretation.
• When my daughter’s pictures were splashed everywhere online and when I jumped to get it contained, I wasn’t protecting her from the media — I was protecting her from me. It’s my stardom that was the reason that picture made it to the news — it wouldn’t have if she wasn’t SRK’s daughter. There could be someone running naked and that wouldn’t be news.
• There is a minimum education requirement in this house. If you can’t hold a conversation with me, then you’re not just cut out for it. I am a believer of education — 80 percent of what I am is because of education.
• Suhana wants to be an actress and she says that she doesn’t want to learn it from me. Which is an amazing thought to have. Because it means that she wants to do the same thing as me but with an independent and a unique voice.
• I feel every woman in this industry works three times harder than the men and gets ten times lesser the money. But not in my company. I can’t enforce that in the films that I act in and don’t produce — but the ones that I produce, there’s equal pay. Plus, their name appears before mine in the title credits. I don’t talk about the change. I am the change. In my films, the girl’s name always comes before mine. On my film’s set, the girl is always in a higher position than men – nobody can call them “tu”; it’s always “aap.”
• I am aware of the fact that I enjoy a unique space in people’s hearts and I get more love from them than I probably deserve. But that’s what wakes me up every morning — to ensure that kind of love stays.
• I want to sit with all these people — 3 billion — who supposedly love me and make each of them feel special and worthy of the time and affection they gave me. I want to ask them, “Did I entertain you enough for all the love you’ve given me? Are we good?” I want to know and feel better by hearing that I probably did. That anxiety keeps me alive, keeps me awake, puts me to bed and wakes me up to go to a movie set.

You can read the full interview on Huffington Post