COVER STORY kids off to school. I can’t lift too much weight because I have had a few injuries and two surgeries. I am a no-nonsense workout guy: very little weight. No music. No talking to anyone. No partners. No hanging around in the gym…
That’s quite serious…
TEXT BY SURUCHI DUGGAL, NIKKI DUGGAL
The lunch at ‘Mannat,’ was as unpretentious as the host. It was a bit unnerving: to see Shah Rukh Khan, India’s biggest superstar, playing the role of a gracious person-of-the -house, as he welcomed us into his beautiful mansion in Bandra (personally picking up a chair for one of us when he realised that there wasn’t adequate seating). Over the next four hours SRK juggled between an exhausting photo shoot, chatting with Gauri and Farah Khan (who dropped by to say hello), and playing host to us. SRK didn’t lose his patience once – a consummate professional. But he was more than that: shorn of the cinestar image, and the media hype, we found SRK amenable, witty, intelligent, candid, and remarkably grounded. Was this the ‘real’ SRK? Maybe. He did say, in the course of this interview, that publicly, he is what people expect him to be. And that it’s easier to do that, than be himself. Of course, by his own admission, SRK can put up a convincing act – an actor’s prerogative – and portray himself as whoever he chooses to be. But if this was an act, then it deserves to be taken at face value simply because it was such a good one. He has us convinced – SRK is no Bollywood egomaniac. He is King Khan for a reason: an actor and a gentleman. And don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
What did you have for breakfast?
I normally don’t have breakfast. I go straight for lunch. And usually I don’t take chawal or roti. Not because I’m dieting, just that I am not used to it. I am extremely Pathan like that. My mother was Hyderabadi and dad was Peshawari and both cooked really well. I only have meat – mostly chicken. Not that I am a food person. In fact I don’t find food yummy at all. For me it’s just another process that I go through when I get up. I eat twice a day.
NOV — DEC 2012
What’s your exercise routine like?
Timing wise it’s rather strange. I do it after putting the kids to sleep and once I’ve spent some time with Gauri. I start working out at 3-3:30 am, and sleep very late. When I’m shooting I sleep by about 3:30-4 am and when I’m not I crash by 6 am or after I’ve seen the
Not serious – just that I hate it. Nobody likes to workout. I was taught by my first film producer that you need to finish off the things you don’t like doing first. I was taking a long time to finish this guy’s film because I didn’t like it. So one day he came to me and said “You hate my film?” And I said, “I hate you.” And he retorted, “Look, do you want to keep seeing me for longer? Finish me off fast.” Now he is a friend. So a workout is a bit like that for me. I finish in about 40-45 minutes, but I have my own regimen. It’s a mix of a lot of things. I won’t bore you with the specialties but there is a kettle bell, a bit of TRX, then I do a lot of freehand, but I don’t get big muscles like film heroes do…
You do have a great body…
But I don’t get big muscles. I don’t really like them. I eat just twice a day and because of that they keep giving me all these vitamins and stuff when I work out. I just have black coffee and lots of it.
So you sit with the kids and have dinner?
Actually, if I am at home, I am only ever with the kids. I am very unsocial and don’t take phone calls at home. If I really have to, I take calls in the bathroom. It’s become a joke. If I’m in the bathroom for too long my kids say, “Papa, come out. Stop taking calls.” So I don’t take calls and a lot of people dislike me because they think I am pompous and arrogant, but it’s just that I’d rather be with my kids than talk to them. And if they don’t like that then so be it.
You’re a Delhi boy. Any favourite hang outs?
I have this strange sense of detachment to places and things. My biggest attachment to Delhi stems from the fact that my parents’ graves are there. Gauri’s family is in Delhi too, and I like the kids to go back and meet the grandparents. I lost a lot of my family very early, and I feel that attachment to any space or place is with the people who are related to it. Unfortunately the people related to it, don’t exist anymore. But I make it a point now, maybe because I am getting older, a little nostalgic, to go back to Delhi. I recently went with my kids, and I took them to the house where I used to live. I wanted them to understand that I was a very poor guy. And to me, to be a star; to have a big house, to have a car, to travel first class – is not important. When you are used to not having things, you
don’t get attached to them. People don’t realise it but I am a spendthrift, I blow all my money on my films.
Today I have an excess of everything and in our house my kids have always been surrounded by the likes of Farah Khan, Karan Johar, Hrithik Roshan, Abhishek Bachchan, and the biggest actresses – Katrina (Kaif), Juhi (Chawla), Madhuri (Dixit) and Priyanka (Chopra). So for a long time my kids thought that everybody worked in film. I just wanted them to realise that for me it is so fantastic to know that even today if I see Madhuri or Juhi, it’s like, “Wow I am meeting Madhuri Dixit.” I’m trying to say it’s different for me because I’m not from a filmi background. If I go and see Madhuri today on the sets of Jhalak I won’t be like, “Hi Mandy.” Film people are not like that. They’ve known each other for a long time and are used to each other, but I am an outsider. To me the only thing that seems real is Delhi. Bombay doesn’t seem real. This house doesn’t seem real. I mean it is beautiful, but to me the reality has always been the road that I travelled in Delhi. So it’s not just Humayun’s Tomb, or Karim’s restaurant. My biggest attachment is to the houses I lived in. I have a few memories of Asian Games Village when that was made, because we used to hang out there…
What about with Gauri?
I didn’t hang out with Gauri too much because she was just 14 when I met her, and I was 18.
A lot has changed since those days...
I go to Ferozshah Kotla to watch the IPL matches, and remember the time my mum used to work close by. She was a magistrate in the court there – and would take me to her office, drop me at Ferozshah Kotla and I would watch a match. I remember asking Imran Khan for an autograph once, and that time he had just got out… and he shouted at me. Now I go to the same stadium for IPL and people are screaming my name.
My attachment to Delhi is very surreal. Like when I go for promotions of my films: I was there for ‘Don,’ my friends were there – Farah, Ritesh, Priyanka and all and we decided to meet up at the Taj Mansingh. I remember having coffee there...you go downstairs and there was a coffee shop, with animals on the wall. I don’t know if it’s still there…
I think the Taj Mansingh hotel still holds a
bit of nostalgia…
The other day my family took me to a Chinese place there. It’s strange for me – I know the steps, I remember being there with `50 in my pocket to have repeated coffee refills, and now I go there, without having money, and I know in case I don’t pay, they’ll be all right. They’ll tell