Shah Rukh Khan. A name can be a sentence by itself. SRK made a stopover in Chennai for an awards show and chatted with Mrinalini Sundar at midnight.
He received a standing ovation at the Vijay Awards. How does it feel to come back here?
I take it with humility. I have worked with so many people here and I've learned so much. They were Kamal Hasaan, Rajinikanth, daughters (Aishwariya Dhanush and Soundarya). I have worked with Sridhar H, the sound engineer course Rahman. There is a huge amount of talent in the South and work with all these wonderful people was rewarding. They asked me to dance and by chance was Chamak Challo Ra One feels very comfortable being in Chennai.
Have you learned something from Tamil to record for Chennai Express?Yes! The villain says something, so I became a male around to say this dialogue in Tamil, something like a typical dialog when I played Amjad Ali Khan in Hey Ram, I had to speak a line in Tamil and needed 43 shots to do so. Kamal, as usual, was very sweet and said, 'take your time'. But myself, Deepika and Niketan, 99% of people in the sets of EC are Tamils. It is sometimes difficult to communicate because we do not know the language, but wonderful.There was some bad publicity about you mocked the Tamil people in this movieIt was very disappointing that some people thought that I was making fun of South Indians. You know some people well and so you joke with them. What's wrong with eating noodles with dahi? Even my kids know I'm half South Indian, my mother is from Hyderabad and my father from Peshawar. Then I have a good combination of biriyani and haleem. I would not have done 22 years in this industry if you have done films with the intention of making fun of people.All seem to have been bitten by the bug of the remake. Is not it?I think Bollywood is led by South Indian cinema. Many of the stories are told here. If you ask me in remake of movie I like to be part of, say Appu Raja Kamal and Rajini Robot by .. As much as I respect the guys who make remakes, as far as possible, I think people should try to write original scripts. I often tell people, "write me a new script," and I will. In fact, I was asked to do Angur by Rohit Shetty. Then Chennai Express arrived and things took their course.Trains and you seem to have some chemistry, from Chaiyya Chaiyya ...I went from a lower middle class family who traveled only by train. In addition, trains romantic encounter. In fact, we travel by train as aircraft have become common. Chaiyya Chaiyya (Dil Se) was very close to my heart and many people including Baz Luhrmann was inspired by the song. We thought even have a dance in Chennai Express train as well, but said that no one should ever try again again.Anupam Kher and Big B have gone the route of Hollywood. Do your plans?I have a lot more here. There are hits and misses, you have the same actor doing one Paheli and Ra One But I want to be grateful to the people here and leave a legacy. I am able to make films for the next 20 years. If I am recognized in Germany, Peru and Morocco I still keep doing only Indian films.Who is your inspiration?I think all you have seen and what I've experienced is reflected in my films as my inspiration. Even Chak De! India was inspired by my teacher, Mr Neghi.
Have you planned your life at 50?
I think I never planned what I would do in 20, 40 or 50 now. I have 47 years but it seems stupid to limit what you do for the numbers. Even today, when you jump from a building, they ask me, "Will you be able to do", and I say "Why not? "Age means nothing to me ..