Full Transcript: Walk The Talk With Shah Rukh Khan

Shekhar Gupta: Hello and welcome to Walk The Talk. I'm Shekhar Gupta in Bombay and we are now beginning, in fact, we are well into the second series of Walk The Talk and my guest who makes a return to it is somebody for who I will not use an adjective, because any thing I say, imitable, one and only, super star - it's been used a million times before. So is there an adjective for you Shah Rukh Khan that is not a cliche?  

Shah Rukh Khan: Ah, Shah Rukh Khan trying hard

Shekhar Gupta: That's a cliche. You keep saying all the time, "I work too hard".

Shah Rukh Khan: Work no, trying hard. Work is a cliche but trying hard is new I think.

Shekhar Gupta: Trying hard for what?

Shah Rukh Khan: Trying hard for everything. Trying hard to work hard. Trying hard to get things done. Trying hard to be where I am. Trying hard to go higher than where I am right now. Trying hard not to fall back. Trying to look after my babies. Trying to be a better person. Trying to be uh, everything.

Shekhar Gupta: In fact that's a good point you make because everybody thinks that once you're a star, everything just comes to you.

Shah Rukh Khan: No not at all, actually. The easy part is being a star, I think. I'm sorry I'm not going to be patronizing and say that I know how to be a star. No one knows how to be a star apart from some people who were born with stardom. I wasn't born with stardom. It's difficult to be a star but it is impossible to remain there unless you're trying very, very hard.

Shekhar Gupta: No body is born with stardom because if that were the case then children of the big stars would be big stars. In fact, in cinema it's the opposite.

Shah Rukh Khan: Don't break my myth. I was hoping that my son and daughter will become big stars, don't say that.
 
Shekhar Gupta: Somebody has to break the myth. Since you also follow cricket for a long time, every Indian who scored a century in debut never scored another one until Vishwanath came in. So maybe your children are ...

Shah Rukh Khan: I hope so, I hope that they are born like that because I was hoping that something would have come easy to my family.
 
Shekhar Gupta: Because so far frankly it's the failed actors' children who are doing very well in cinema
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Shah Rukh Khan: So the next ten years of failure then hopefully they'll do well.

Shekhar Gupta: Hrithik Roshan, I mean, I say it carefully but Ranbir Kapoor.

Shah Rukh Khan: No,. I mean, yes.. But I think....

Shekhar Gupta: But on the other hand, Dharmendra's children, here and there.
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Shah Rukh Khan: I think it is difficult in either case. I think being a movie star is difficult. I've met so many people who are extremely talented, hard working. Kuch ho jata hai.. Kabhi kabhi lag jata hai. Kabhi nahi lagta hai. Vo to type hai.. yeh kabhi laga laga, nahi laga aur phir regularly lagta rehta hai vo bohut mushkil hai

Shekhar Gupta: Phir aisa bhi hai ki number 11 batsman hai ki har ball pe bat ghuma do - lag gaya tho chakka, nahi laga tho out hoga. Aisa tho nahi hai. Kuch tho chahiye na.

Shah Rukh Khan:I thinkjo chahiye vo humare paas nahi hota. Vo actually uske paas hai jo aapko dekh raha hai. Mereko. jab shuru shuru mein join kiya tho mujhe Mr. Ketan Mehta saab ne kaha tha ki "I want you to do this film because you have a third dimension."  Mujhe samaj mein nahi aaya ki third dimension kya hai. Tab tho mujhe vo hi maalum thi ki length breadth. Tho meine samjha hi nahi ki what he meant by third dimension. But I agreed with him ki I have it. I didn't understand.

Shekhar Gupta: As long as you said ki you have it. When you don't have it, then there would be trouble.

Shah Rukh Khan:Nai, mein Dilli se tha so mujhe laga ki educated feel hona chahiye, vaise bhi of course that third dimension that I have and then somebody told me once that "you know you have this thing that you can come out of the screen and pull them inside". Abhi ye baathey mein samaj nahi aa rahi thi but kyunki ye intellectual baathey thi I used to keep on agreeing and lage nahi logo ko ye buddhu samaj nahi raha hai tho I said, "Ya, ya of course that's what I work on and stuff like that. But I think he was right. You need to have something, which connects with people in a way that you can't describe. I always tell people that if it was describable, if I was to live my life all over again exactly doing what I had done.

Shekhar Gupta: You would patent it and sell it.

Shah Rukh Khan: I would patent it but I don't think it will still succeed. It might just be, it may not work. Mujhe kahi log milte hai and then they ask me ki "Listen, mera beta hai young actor, kya karu usse?" and I don't know what to say.

Shekhar Gupta: He looks just like you. He acts just like you.

Shah Rukh Khan:Haan, lekin aise dimples nahi hote, aise.

Shekhar Gupta: Aaj kal banaengey aise dimples.

Shah Rukh Khan:Aaj kal tho bante jaate hai.

Shekhar Gupta: So philosophize a bit, since you're an intellectual from Delhi University.

Shah Rukh Khan: Or at least I act like it...

Shekhar Gupta: Okay, pretend to philosophize. What is the third dimension? What is this third dimension? What is it that works with people that may not work for many others?

Shah Rukh Khan:  In my case I can say it. I don't know for other actors because you may question and say ki "ye koi baat nahi. hum log tho aisa hai, vaisa hai", if you know someone personally. But I think in my case the giving worked. You have to just be giving. You cannot be calculating. You can't be planning. You can't be designing. You just need to give. I think that comes from my theater background or perhaps the fact that so much has been taken away from me in my life that I don't know how to take anymore. Mujko aadat hi nahi hai. So you just keep giving. I'm very material minded also like every young person is when you start off. I was 25-26. I wanted to be rich, I wanted to be famous, I wanted to be good looking. I wanted to be known and all those things I wore on my sleeve. Mujko usse sharam nahi thi tho isliye kaafi log mujhe arrogant bhi bhol dete the. "tum kaise actor ho?" "Mein best hoon". I wanted to be the best. I'm still not and I may never be.

Shekhar Gupta: If you have to choose a four-letter description for yourself then best is better than the rest.

Shah Rukh Khan: Absolutely. So I used to talk like that. I used to carry a jhanda in my,.parade hoti thi school mein, Columbus mein, tho usme hota tha, 'do your best and leave the rest', so that's how I believed life was and you know you are utopian and you're young and you're stupid and I haven't changed much. I'm still young, utopian and very stupid but that time I was all gusto and say like "ya mein aise kardunga, yeh kar doonga," there was a lot of positivity. I think that's what you have to be. You can't, I notice people now, of wanting to keep, plan, ki "mein aise karoonga" abhi kya hai uss audience ke liye aisi picture banaooga, iske liye aisa banaunga, vo ye karoonga, I think vo baate mujhe abhi bhi samaj nahi aayi hai, Though from the outside you know when people call me for functions and all vo samajte hai ki kuch bada accha plan kiya hoga, it is an unplanned scheme that works as an actor, I think.

Shekhar Gupta: Do some films also come out like that? Unplanned? Some dialogue, some tamasha?

Shah Rukh Khan: Lots of them, lots of them.

Shekhar Gupta: Give me some examples.

Shah Rukh Khan: Well, bahut sare pictures hai. Jaise Dil waale mein mera sabse favourite scene hai usme scene mein tha tab Kajol bolti hai and I'm sorry but I don't know when this programme comes but it's 1000 weeks of Dilwale, I feel very proud that's why I'm saying it and usme gala kehti hai ki mera shaadi hone wali hai, tum aaogey and line ye thi ki I just kind of say "Ya, I'll see" and you know aanko mein aasu, hoto pe muskaan and say yes to her and go away and the audience should know he'll never go for the wedding. But when Kajol said it, my first reaction was "Click, na, mein nahi aaunga" and I just walked off and Adi said "Wah, fantastic yaar, would you say it to her?" And I said "yeah I will say it to her. I love her too much. Let her go." And so it was never planned and you know scenes are discussed. Kaisa karengey. Tu aanke neeche kar lena. Usko maalum na padegi ki thu dhukhi hai. I couldn't say it. There was another scene where...

Shekhar Gupta: Even in the film you couldn't fake it although you were directed to fake it.

Shah Rukh Khan: At that time I could not. Now perhaps I can fake it. Now I can tell a girl ki "mein shaadi ko aajaunga" I want to know also a few things because, I'm not struggling with it, because you are. I've known you for years and have so much respect for you and you have been, I was just, before I came here so I was telling my people where you come from, and what you have achieved, what you have done, and not in terms of big achievements like that, but the work that you've done and the intellectual that you are and I want to know...

Shekhar Gupta: I've learnt from you. I'll take all compliments now because tomorrow I may not get them.

Shah Rukh Khan: Haan, jab mile, lelo. So what I was asking you was, you have dabbled in every medium, this is television medium, you write I know, you've reported also and I'm sure every aspect of media you've used. Now you're on social media I know and I want to know how you deal with it.

Shekhar Gupta: For about a hundred days! And look, I was afraid of social media.

Shah Rukh Khan: Why were you afraid?

Shekhar Gupta: I was afraid because one, I didn't know it and second, I come from the older generation of journalists so we believe in curated content. We believe in an editor running his/her eyes over everything you do. So even now when I write a column or a story I look around for a good editor ki "Boss zara pad dho isko, Someone should do a check, spellings, it's important. Social media you're on your own so I wasn't quite used to that. That was one. The other thing was, there is a certain openness through social media which means everybody communicates with you directly.

Shah Rukh Khan: And says what they feel like.

Shekhar Gupta: So you don't have that shield of letters to editors who can decide what to use and what not to use. And the third was, which I used to say quite often in public speeches, is social media has one negative, it gives people the bad gift of anonymity and I find anonymity brings out the worst in human beings.

Shah Rukh Khan: Yes, in a certain sense if you can't stand up for what you have said, the belief that you've put across by even saying that "yar meine kaha hai, galat kaha hai, accha kaha hai, gaali di hai, pyaar kiya hai", so how do you deal with that? Do you also block people or write back to them?

Shekhar Gupta: No, I don't. I never abuse anybody. I never respond to anybody, I never block anybody. I take the advice of one of our managers who used to deal with our unions. Every Friday when I was writing my columns, when I used to work for Indian Express I used to write in 5 days, so whenever the union wanted to come and shout slogans they'd do it on Friday evening just behind my window, knowing that I'd be writing it. It would be most effective, "Murdabad! Murdabad!." So our manager would tell me ki "Sir isme koi chinta ki baat nahi hai. Ye log Jitni baar Murdabad kehte hai, aapke umar ek saal bad jaati hai", so...

Shah Rukh Khan: That's a good way to look at it.

Shekhar Gupta: So how does it matter, you know? The only thing I would say is that somebody calls me "Kutta" or something worse or a Pakistani agent, lover of Muslims, anti-Indian, normal.

Shah Rukh Khan: Sounds like we share the same thing...

Shekhar Gupta: Mr. Vajpayee first said to me, "aapka kya gaaliya hai jo mujhe padti hai" or...

Shah Rukh Khan: Now I'm feeling much better. I used to feel ki mujhe wo waali padti hai.

Shekhar Gupta: ..."you should go away to Pakistan, from where have you got your wealth?, you've been amassing wealth". All that stuff naam tho bata do apni, at least if you're saying all this to me don't hide behind some fake identity and behind the picture of a God and Goddess. Put your picture there, there is no problem. People say "sue me, sue me". Why should I sue you? You carry on having your cheap thrills. So I was very skeptical. I am very absent-minded. I am an absent-minded Mr Fast fingers. So once in a month I do something really awful on email or sms. Like forwarding one's sms to the other. A columnist and an editor fighting with each other, saying rude things to each other. I was replying to both on the same phone and I had reversed the order. iska message usko, uska isko, iska reply usko.. Both have stopped talking with me. One of them abuses me on Twitter all the time. She stopped writing for us. So these things happen. In fact my children also said this is a weapon of self-destruction in your hands.

Shah Rukh Khan: But tell me the future of journalism in social media....

Shekhar Gupta: But I'll tell you what. My friend, you also know Farid Zakari ji, who is also younger than me, about your age, maybe a year older than you, he said to me, "Look time has now come when we don't know what platform will take our views, our reporting tomorrow. We don't know on which platform will our audience see us, read us; listen to us. So become totally platform agnostic. And learn to take your audiences with you. Don't do the bad thing. Don't get provoked.

Shah Rukh Khan: And yes, he's quite active on Twitter.

Shekhar Gupta: So that's what I did about 3 months back and I must say that you know, usual abuse goes on but as long as...

Shah Rukh Khan:Vo chalta rehta hai.

Shekhar Gupta: But I find it a good medium of communicating and yes, you have to take your audiences with you as you know. You just crossed a crore followers, what are you talking, crorepati...

Shah Rukh Khan:Haan mein crorepati bangaya abhi.
 
Shekhar Gupta:Aaj kal tho crorepati ye hi hota hai. Rupee ka crore tho khatam ho gaya hai. Vo tho thousands of crores bhi hota hai. Tell me about your experience, you get all these gaalis? How do you deal with it?

Shah Rukh Khan: I don't know, earlier I used to get main wo thoda Delhi waala ho jaata tha.. mujhe ghar ka pata bata do bas, gaali dedo, ghar ka pata bata do, phir aapne jaise bola, crore log hai, main jab ginna shuru hua to meri shayad zindagi kahtam ho jayegi agar main har ghar me jaake gaali waapi dun to I have now I don't look at it but strange human thought hai, main aapse poochna chahta hun aapke ssath hota hai maine apne do char doston se bhi pocha ki10 million followers hai usme ho satka hai kabhi kabar 8 million ne bahut pyaar ki baatien kahin ho, we love you jaan, you are so sweet, aapki film acchi thi. Lekin nazr unhi  char-paanch pe jaati hai baar baar jo gaali dete hai ki yaar ye kya bol raha hai yaar subah uth ke. So, in the morning what I do is when I wake up and I read 99% of my tweets, I read everything and I write only when I feel like writing. Kabhi kabaar kuch kaam ka kisine bol diya.

Shekhar Gupta: You are not very prolific.

Shah Rukh Khan:Na, main aisa nahi hun, kabhi kabaar kisi ne kaam ka bol diya, like I feel happy doing this, I will write about it that I had a chat with you. So, it's something that I want to do. So, 90% of this is what I want to do. Sometime friends will say arey kuch aur daal do. So what I do is in the morning I read the good ones first ki mood jab thik ho jata hai tab, uske baad me jo gaaliyan waaliyan hai wo padhta hun. And phir main unko ignore karta hun, thoda sa kabhi soch bhi leta hun kuch baaten kabhi sahi bhi ho sakti hai gaaliyon ke andar. You know being an actor they tell you this is not right, do this kind of films, like lot of people say do Chak De, do Swadesh. Ye karo. Wo mat karo. So may be there is some truth in it.

Shekhar Gupta: But they are the consumers, they have a point.

Shah Rukh Khan: Haan, they have an opinion.

Shekhar Gupta: But my view is very simple. Say what you want about me but please spell 140 characters right.

Shah Rukh Khan: Otherwise toh gaali bhi nahi padti and otherwise aap bura mat maaniyega is show main wo shabd bol bhi nahi sakte kai baar hindi gaaliyon ki spellings kyunki main Delhi waala hun, main thik karke bahut bhejna chahta hun yaar ya nayi ya baat nahi hai isme

Shekhar Gupta: Haan, phonetically correct nahi hoti.

Shah Rukh Khan:Mazza nahi aaya yaar. Gaali main maza nahi aaya to kya maza aaya. 

Shekhar Gupta: And lagegi kaise?

Shah Rukh Khan:Gaali to sahi do agar de rahe ho to.

Shekhar Gupta: Sending in missiles with wrong coordinates.

Shah Rukh Khan: Wo kya hai Delhi main do chaar gaaliyan hum aisi kamaal ki deta hai jo kuch humaare hi sirf specific hai. So those are the ones I really want to correct but then mujhe lagta hai ki bhar padh rahe honge unko bechaaro ko kya maalum aisi suni hui hai maine.

Shekhar Gupta: Yes, the problem is that everybody will read it.

Shah Rukh Khan: Yes, everybody will read it.

Shekhar Gupta: Including your children.

Shah Rukh Khan: Absolutely, na, unko to main seekha deta hun, unko gaali galat nahi dene deta mian. That's one instruction for my kids, if they ever use, I asked them very young only, mere ladke ko specially, ladki bechaari bahut sharmaati hai. Ladke se main poch liya tha ki gaali boli hai tumne kahi? He said, Papa yes. I said bolo. Nahi nahi  Papa, I can't say. Bahut shareef baccha hai mera, I said nahi nahi bolo. Gaali dena seekh. Kyunki wo gaali main maza nahi aaye na to phir, baaki main nahi padha saka, geography wagarah saatvi aathvi ke baad nahi padha saka. History, science yaaha tak kaafi hai. Gaali main zindagi bhar seekha sakta hun aur sahi waaki. So I opened up with them, actually this was the whole exercise to make sure that they open up with me, talk with me.

Shekhar Gupta: I am glad that Maths you didn't even mention, because I don't think anyone of us have the capability to teach our children Maths beyond class five.

Shah Rukh Khan: I have done my paper in math and I thought I maxed it. Aaj-kal maxed it bolte hai.

Shekhar Gupta: Maxed it bolte hai.

Shah Rukh Khan: Maxed it. Mujhe dhai mile the usme 100 me se. How wrong would I be not only till the time I don't know ki 92 aur 93 aur 98 parts of math. How wrong I knew to think of maths matlab 200% galat tha main us maths main. So then I gave up I never.

Shekhar Gupta: Since then you have been counting crores.

Shah Rukh Khan:Main ek cheez bol sakta hun if young people are listening, as soon as you start counting your income or your daulat or your khazaana, and if you can count them you haven't earned enough. So, I don't count. Ya to gino mat to pata hi nahi hai. Gin liya to gintiyo ki pura...

Shekhar Gupta: The moment you start counting, you are actually looking back.

Shah Rukh Khan: Looking back. And specially if you think you are a creative person and I think I am and so are you, you are a writer, there is some sort of creativity that everyone has and I think if it gets bogged down or bound down by number then it's over. Then there is an end to it. Log mujhse poochte rehte hai ki ab iske baad kya karoge? I really feel I haven't even started. I haven't even started acting or I have been an actor. A lot of people would be thinking, yes that's what we have been saying for five years, that you should not been acting.  I genuinely believe that if I start thinking that ki ghar le lunga, do gaadi le lunga to creativity bandh jaati hai material cheezo main. I really believe that the Lord has been talking to me, may be I can speak like this because now I have enough for my pushtani, Pushto ki Pushto aage chalti rahegi but I have never counted.

Shekhar Gupta: But frankly, if we grow older we need less and less.

Shah Rukh Khan: We actually don't need anything.

Shekhar Gupta: We eat less, we drink less and I know you are drinking coffee, nobody should think it's rum. It's coffee from home. It's coffee from home. Otherwise it will be a high-spirited conversation.

Shah Rukh Khan: No. It's coffee.

Shekhar Gupta: Old Monk nahi hai?

Shah Rukh Khan: Old Monk nahi hai

Shekhar Gupta: We used to call it Buddhas son. When we use to like it.

Shah Rukh Khan: Border pe milta tha.

Shekhar Gupta: Absolutely, so we need less and less, you can travel less, you have less time.

Shah Rukh Khan: I actually have no needs left, to be honest in terms of material. I guess when I was young I wanted all of it as everyone should and I think they should follow that path. For last seven-eight years, I really want nothing. Like even my designer crumbled clothes and I would wear them, I have the same pair of shoes, I wear the same t-shirts, same jeans or mujhe kuch nahi chahiye. Actually, aaj bahut aacha lag raha hai mujhe. I walked in here for the first time when there is no function going on.

Shekhar Gupta: But I tell you, you are exactly walking the patch of real estate which Deepika walked for the Walk The Talk.

Shah Rukh Khan: Oh wow! Fantastic. Dhanya ho gai meri zindagi.

Shekhar Gupta: Bilkul, aur kya.

Shah Rukh Khan: Aur ye bhi accha hai kiiss baar usse god me uthakar main nahi chal raha hun, wo khud hi chal rahi hai.

Shekhar Gupta: Absolutely, that would be hard work.

Shah Rukh Khan: Bahut daategi is baat ke liye mujhe wo.

Shekhar Gupta: So, go back to where we started, giving and taking.

Shah Rukh Khan: I think.

Shekhar Gupta: Define giving and taking.

Shah Rukh Khan: I think if you are going to be working for results you know what happens is, now I have a very big office, I have a fantastic CEO, a manager and everyone looking after the stuff that I do. But they are always, they used to talk about projection, they used to talk about 'hum ye karenge to ye ye hoga', ye target hoga, ye hoga. For two-three years I could not understand and then I explained to them that if we are going to work, whatever work we are doing, not just the money part, as an actor I am going to be a poet, Inshallah I will be. I want to be a writer and I don't want to earn from that book, I just want to give the writing out because I think that my life somehow became important enough to someone to love from. I am not being presumptuous ki meri zindagi se koi sikhega but kahi na kahi kuch ho gaya hoga pandraah-bees saal se acting me lagaatar karien jaa raha hun. I want that book to be a give in ki aap le lijiye yaar, padh lijiye shaayad kuch isme se nikal aaye. Acting has to be like this. At least, in my feel, you just have to go and say, that I am here with my arms open, that's why my arms are always open in the film, I say embrace me. If I act badly and if I act well thapthapa dena lekin don't hold it against me. I am here only to make you smile and there is no other reason. People give me so may....

Shekhar Gupta: So, when you say give in you mean giving in a creative sense not in a literal sense like philanthropy.

Shah Rukh Khan: No, philantrophy 100%, because I am Muslim and do chaar cheese jo maa-baap ki sikhayi hai wo reh gayi ki agar.. ek humaari kahani thi shayd kisiko samajh me aaye ki humaare ek Prophet the, I don't know exactly what the story is about but khuda ke naam pe he was breaking some barrels of alcohol or wo galat hai, kharab hai sharaab acchi nahi hai.so he was doing it and he broke 99 of those barrels and he kept on doing it, in the belief that this is a wrong thing to do and suddenly when he was doing the hundredth one, he said, yaar kya kaam kar raha hun main. Kamaal ka kaam kar raha hun. And he stopped and didn't break any. As soon as anything that you are doing for others become about yourself if you start talking about it.

Shekhar Gupta: So he thought kya kamaal ka kaam kar raha hun means....

Shah Rukh Khan:Abhi mera ho gaya yaar...

Shekhar Gupta:Ego ho gayi.

Shah Rukh Khan: So he said, ye nahi karunga. Ye main uske raah me nahi kar raha hun. Similarly, when I talk about charity, the only thing my mother told me that if you ever want to do it, don't talk about it. And I understand lot of people call me insane and log aware ho jaate hai. Accha kaam tum bologe to chaar aur follow karenge. I really believe that charity comes from inside. Whenever you feel like doing it, you do it and if I meet someone I do talk about work ki asia karte hai.

Shekhar Gupta: That is a Bill and Melinda Gates approach, because in the American system you do charity, but you talk about it.

Shah Rukh Khan: You make people aware of it. I get it lost. But yes you have to be very giving. Humaare main to, hum do tihaai, ek-tihaai apni income dete hai. Jo main deta hun

Shekhar Gupta:Ek-tihaai to sarkaar ko dete ho pehle. Arun Jaitely...

Shah Rukh Khan: Wo discussion bhi karna padega ek baar.

Shekhar Gupta:Kyunki aaj-kal to cash nahi milta hai, aaj-kal to sab kuch contract se.

Shah Rukh Khan: But I do make it a point, I wake up in the morning, I have a very simple system. I wake up in the morning. Chaar ya teen paper aate hai mere ghar me. Main kholta hun to unme kahi pe kuch main padh lun to wo charity shuru ho jaati hai. Ki yaar ye bol dena lekin kisiko pata nahi chalna chahiye. Phir mere ek manager hai, she has been doing this for years ki I will call you, I will give you the case, I will give you the page number of the news paper, so just go and help those people. And help the gullible.

Shekhar Gupta: That's a very good plot for a film. You have got this idea from me. A big super star who reads paper only to look for opportunities to do charity.

Shah Rukh Khan: I read paper for other things also. Sports bhi padh leta hun, thoda sa politics bhi samajh leta hun but I do look for it and I say yaar ye page 3 pe wo dekh lena 4 pe. Pehle unko nahi samajh aata tha but now I just tell her and she understands that and she does it and nobody has to know. They can't be because ek-do baar calls aa gaye.

Shekar Gupta:City supplements main nahi milega. There actually you have to pay to get anything published.

Shah Rukh Khan:Nahi, city supplement me to main dekta hi nahi city supplements yaar. mujhe  samajh hi gaya. Kyunki sabse zyada parties me main jaata hun. Meri hi tasveer nahi hoti. Uski hoti hai jisne paisa diya hotha hai. To mujhe wo bada awkward lagta hai.

Shekhar Gupta: To kanjusi. Just now you said that you believe in giving

Shah Rukh Khan: Charity to city supplements.

Shekhar Gupta: So, what is taking?

Shah Rukh Khan: Taking toh mujhe aisa lagta hai ki bahut selfish hai. I don't want to sound like a...

Shekhar Gupta: But there is nothing wrong in being selfish.

Shah Rukh Khan: The best thing is to be selfish.

Shekhar Gupta: And the most selfish people are the spiritual gurus.

Shah Rukh Khan: You should be selfish because mujhe, abhi aap Dev sahab ki kahani suna rahe the, not because of the word selfish but wo kitna pyaar akrte honge apne aap se,.you were talking about the film he wanted to make on you and he cast himself.

Shekhar Gupta: In fact, he said I will make a film on your life, in his own way. I'd rather not mimic because I would do such a bad job of it. He said, you know I will have a young reporter jo pehle Golden Temple me jaayega jab Bindrwaale wale hoga, fie Lanka me jaayega jaha bomb chal rahe honge, Gulf War me jaayega jab waha bombing ho rhai hogi. Jeruselam me hoga jab waha missile gir rahi hogi aur ye sab ho raha hoga aur uske pehle ek Indian biwi hogi, phir American girl friend hogi jiske saath uska teen saal affair chalega.. Phir maine kaha ki Dev sahab usko koi sun liya to maine kaha Dev sahab ki mera role kaun karega? So he said for the earlier part I'll have to get someone younger. Later on, I'll do it.

Shah Rukh Khan: And how old was he at that time?

Shekhar Gupta: 84.

Shah Rukh Khan: It speaks volumes of what you're looking like now Shekhar Saab. You better start looking after yourself.

Shekhar Gupta: And I do also remember sitting with him somewhere here along that little fortress ruins and I found that as we got talking, Walk The Talk, he kept on moving me and then we sat on the bench and I was to his right, he was to my left, he got up, rudely shifted to me the right and sat on the other side. Later the cameraman told me that he was trying to take the light because he is a star.

Shah Rukh Khan: But having said that, let me take the conversation forward, whatever little I knew of him, my interaction with him, I don't think he ever hurt anybody.

Shekhar Gupta: Never. Never.

Shah Rukh Khan: Because he was so self-involved and I think that is the kind of person one need to be ki hum jo hai apna kaam karke...

Shekhar Gupta: I think he woke up every morning and looked in the mirror and
said, "Wow"

Shah Rukh Khan: Bas! Apne aap se hum khush hai and I think it's a nice way to be and taking as far as you're concerned for yourself without harming anybody else is to be...  Kabhi kabhi log bolte hai ki yaar tum kitne material ho.. but yaar mujhe pasand hai mereko accha lagta hai.. mereko dukaan mein jaaun, dho shirt mein decide karna,, agar muje dhono le saku tho mujhe accha lagta hai. It does not mean that I'm being a capitalist or being wrong about this. It satisfies me. I think that if your material, physical wants are satisfied, tho the way you want aur mein chahtha hoon ki young logo ko bolna, saara kuch satisfy kar lena. Like you said, jaise bade hote jaa rahe hai abhut kum zarrorathey hoti hai. So you become less wanting and taking, as you grow older if you've taken everything in the beginning.

Shekhar Gupta: Except your career, in life, because after number 1, it is number 0 in your business.

Shah Rukh Khan: Yes. Absolutely. There is no way to be, hum tho commentators be nahi ban sakte aur film critic bhi nahi ban sakte.

Shekhar Gupta: That's a tough one.

Shah Rukh Khan: Humara koi choice nahi hai.

Shekhar Gupta: Aapka tho BCCI equivalent nahi hai that will hire you as commentators.

Shah Rukh Khan: Kuch nahi hai.. Ya mujhe coach bana dho. kuch nahi hoga because once a star I think we live as a star, and with due respect and I don't want to sound pompous, you die a star. There is nothing in, if you become a star, there is no other job option.

Shekhar Gupta: And there is that most dubious, the most scary honour, the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Shah Rukh Khan:Haan, aur vo aise award function hai ki bohut saare jab milte hai tho it looks like un log dhakka dere ki "ab tho jaao na yaar, jaao"

Shekhar Gupta: Jaise Lata Mangeshkar syndrome.

Shah Rukh Khan: Actually, you get so many of them. I've had the opportunity to host the screen awards and so often list aati....