Meena Iyer (DNA; December 17, 2018)

It’s 10.45 pm. I’m at Mehboob Studios in Bandra, Mumbai. It’s way past twilight hour, but it is the hour when the Badshah of Bollywood, Shah Rukh Khan, is most awake. He loves the night and follows a clock that is set differently. Animated about his next release Zero, which hits the theatres this Friday, the superstar is game to go on with the promotional interviews all night long. Charming, articulate, candid and funny, he gives us a ringside view of the vertically-challenged character, Bauua Singh, which he plays in his new drama, with the eagerness of a child. That then is SRK; 30 years on, movies continue to make his world go round. And when you’re with him, he beguiles you with answers and anecdotes that make you long for more. Excerpts from our conversation...

You’ve seen the world from a superstar’s perspective. Tell us about a dwarf’s perspective.
Actually, I’ve not seen the world from a superstar’s perspective. I usually see it from the character’s perspective. A couple of weeks ago, I was explaining to my co-stars — Katrina (Kaif) and Anushka (Sharma) — how people perceive someone successful from the outside. But on the inside, the reason we get along — at least I get along with the actors I work with — is because without having to express it, all of us are aware of insecurities, the incompleteness and the consciousness about certain things. In this job, it finally takes a toll when you’ve to express so much of yourself. You defy yourself to the world and it’s difficult. Sometimes, when people such as non-actors are trying to act, it looks weird. Not because they are trying to act, but because they can’t express as openly as actors tend to do.

You are shy, aren’t you?
When you keep on giving so much, obviously all of us have some amount of weirdness and shyness. Like I’m really shy; I don’t wear shorts in public because I’m conscious. Not because I’m conscious of my legs or something, it’s just that I’m a shy person. But then you act in a film and play a character in a kachha-banian. You come on the set and you’re dancing and doing everything. It’s dichotomous, you are living out of yourself.

Similarly, when it came to a character like Bauua, it was his incompleteness, aplomb and coolness that appealed to me. He’s a superstar, a rock star. I remember director Aanand L Rai telling me that Bauua will not be cynical or angry with the world for who he is. He’s going to wear it on his sleeve. His attitude is going to be — if something is wrong with me, it’s wrong with you also. Maybe you are too tall. So, Aanand kept on saying that somewhere at the back of Bauua’s mind, he’s aware that people do take a second look at him.

Go on...
Whether people believe it or not, I’m shy in my personal life. In a public place, I’m like, are people looking at me? Is my hair alright? Not as a star, but as people, we all are. Sometimes, while we’re just sitting, I notice that if someone is feeling a bit conscious of their weight, they will pick up a pillow and keep it to distract themselves from the weight. Someone who is not comfortable with the clothes will keep pulling the shirt down. All the time we believe that someone is looking at us and finding something less in us.

If I’m sitting in a crowded place, I know people are looking at me. So, there is a certain thing, ‘Oh, my God, I hope they don’t realise I’m not as tall as they think I am.’ Of course, I try not to run away with my thought because it doesn’t matter now. I’ve been around too long. To play that character and still have the confidence while retaining the insecurity, I think that’s why it’s exciting for me to play Bauua.

It’s not about the height. It’s not about me alone, but for Anushka, too. Her character (Aafia Bhinder) has cerebral palsy, then there is an emotional issue that Katrina’s character (Babita Kumari) has. So, it’s very interesting that Aanand has touched about incompleteness. And still, all of them are confident. Aafia is one of the most intelligent scientists in the country, perhaps in the world. Babita is beautiful, Bauua is the most confident and cocky person in the world. And all three of them are suffering from a certain kind of complex, which they don’t ask sympathy or empathy for. I think that’s quite interesting.

If I were to tell people that, ‘Yaar, mujhe yeh problem hai,’ they are like, ‘Abey yaar, tere ko kya problem hai! Tu toh Shah Rukh Khan hai.’ That’s how people look at it. But you have your own issues. Sometimes, it’s something that makes you feel cynical and angry, too. But we’ve made a film that is not cynical or angry. We’re just telling people, listen, it’s alright to be less. Actually, less is unique, because we all are less in the film, in different ways.

Both, Anushka and Katrina, say the nice thing about you is that you let the female characters in your film shine.
I find that strange because, for me, it’s a natural progression of a co-actor who is working with me. I’m nobody to give anyone any kind of an upper hand in the film. I just want, as an actor, to be able to give my co-actor space where he/she also shines. And only then together we will shine.

I think it’s also my experience. When I joined the industry, I worked with Sridevi, Madhuri Dixit, Juhi Chawla. These three were the biggest stars this country has ever seen. I remember, the first time I acted with Juhi, after a scene, she turned around and said, ‘I love working with you, it’s exciting and fun.’ For a big star like her to say that to me, who was not even half as good as she was in the films, was a huge thing. One day when Madhuri and I were shooting, her hairdresser came and said, ‘Madhuri ek minute aana chahti hai’. I was like, ‘Haan haan, tell her to come.’ Then she said, ‘Nahin nahin, woh batana nahin chahti. Woh aapko dance karte hue dekhna chahti hai. She loves the way you dance.’ Sridevi used to give me a hug after finishing her shoot. So, all of them have been nice to me and I’ve worked with some of the best actors. Rishi Kapoor saab, Naseeruddin Shah saab, Amrish Puriji... the biggest of stars were so kind to me. They never pointed out any of my weaknesses in a negative way. They helped me out with the scenes in their own way. They didn’t sit me down ki ‘aisa karna hai’, ya ‘waisa karna hai’. And then, I became a star because of how they were to me. So, for me, that learning curve goes to everyone who is new to me now.

Katrina and Anushka are new to me, in terms of I’ve worked many more years. So, it’s not about them being girls only, it’s about them being my co-actors. And if I don’t give it to them, perhaps they will not be able to give it back to me. And also, I’ve a soft corner for women, because I do believe, most of my films which have done well, whether it’s Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995) because of Kajol, Himani Shivpuri, Faridaji (Jalal), Sushmaji (Seth) and all the lovely ladies in the movie, or Chak De! India (2007), in which there are 15 new girls with me, I think they all made me look better than I am. I genuinely believe that. I think I’m nice to my heroines only because they make me look good. It’s as simple as that.

Is there anything at all remotely similar between Bauua Singh and Kamal Haasan’s Appu Raja?
Not at all. This film is not about a vertically-challenged person. It’s about incompleteness. Another thing is that Appu Raja was fantastic. Full marks to Kamal sir to even attempt it. Only he, with his weird, intelligent way of thinking, can do it. One of the other things that we didn’t want to have is that it’s a given, that if you’re vertically challenged, you would be in a circus. We didn’t want that in the film.

Some time ago, after a prominent filmmaker saw the first promo, she sent me a letter stating, ‘You don’t know how people lead their lives in circus’. I wanted to call her up and say, ‘How can you assume?’ and ‘How wrong you are to assume that just because a person is vertically challenged means that he should be in a circus.’ But I didn’t. I don’t think she will still like the film. So, it’s alright. We wanted to break the myth that any kind of incompleteness leads to cynicism and anger. You can celebrate life inspite of being incomplete. So, it’s not about the height.

With Zero you seemed to have fully inhabited the world that Aanand and writer Himanshu Sharma have created. When you say the dialogue — ‘Teer lena hai mujhe’, it appears as if either Aanand or Himanshu was coaching you to say it in a particular manner. Is this correct?
Oh, it’s different. I’m not from this world and I keep joking with them. I call Kandivali as ‘Candivali’. I keep joking with them saying, I’ve never been beyond Switzerland and Zurich and you’ve taken me to Meerut.

But having said that, 90 per cent of how I speak in the film is based on how Himanshu narrates it to me. I don’t think I’ve done a good enough job. And the other person who helped me was Zeeshan Ayyub. Himanshu sat me down with Zeeshan, who is a lovely actor, and said, ‘Sir, yeh jaisa bolega na, waisa bolna hai’. So, the scenes I’m with him, I speak better because I take the cue from him and he helps me out. But on my own, I think I’ve not been able to get the right flavour. I try my best while dubbing, too. But Himanshu is Himanshu. The way he puts it across is very different. And he is kind. The other day, I finished the dubbing and told him, ‘Yaar, waisa nahin ho raha hai’. But he said, ‘Nahin sir, yehi bada achha lag raha hai. Mera wala achha nahin hai.’ But I did copy his ‘Wheelchair toh photo mein dikhi nahin.’

Were you toying with the idea of calling the film Harami?
You know what we thought.. the character we were trying to build is badmaash. So you see all the titles that came in the teaser first.. there’s haram khor, baazigar, aflatoon, kameena.. I think he’s a mixture of all that. Then we thought what is the one thing that can apply to both. When I was growing up, I would often hear harami being used as a term of endearment like ‘tu bada harami hai’. We thought, can we have a term which can say, he’s fun and he’s an idiot, like he’s a complete zero. Yeh bilkul zero hai yaar.

For us, Zero is also a very Buddhist whole. It can be a complete circle or be nothing. We wanted to have a title that signifies both things. It’s not about a zero becoming a hero. It’s about a zero being zero but you seeing it from a different perspective. There’s no underlying meaning and that’s what I love about Aanand and Himanshu.

Was this your most challenging role to date?
It’s a very exciting part. And maybe one of the few roles that I want people to like a lot. I’ve never played a character hoping that people will like it. And I hope I never do that; ki main hero type ka role karunga toh chalega. I’ve just played characters within the parameters of commercial cinema. Maybe that’s also why I’m blamed for not essaying different roles because I don’t do the other kind of cinema, it’s not affordable time-wise and sometimes, filmmaker-wise.

You hear so many people turn around and say, ‘Yeh alag film honi chahiye, content hona chahiye’. I think Zero is such a movie. If it’s liked, it’s nice, if it’s not, then it’s back to the drawing board. I hope people like it. It’s a different movie. A lot of people ask me, do you get nervous or anxious about your film? I don’t think if you’ve been an actor for 30 years and done well, you should make a film that makes you anxious, in a good way. You should not make a movie like, ‘Yeh toh chalega yaar’. My anxiety is like ‘Yaar, yeh kaisa bana hai?’ I still have that excitement.

I asked Aniruddh, the Chief AD who saw some portions, ‘Kaisi lag rahi hai’. And he replied, ‘Bahut achhi lag rahi hai’. When I asked him, ‘Bahut mazaa aaya?’, and he’s like ‘I don’t know about that, but achhi lag rahi hai’. It’s nice to have a set of 300 people working on a film and you don’t know how it’s gone. It’s good art because it’s too much craft if you know exactly where it is going.

You’ve been around for about 30 years, but still no one romances like you. Do you take that as a compliment? Your arms outstretched pose is enough to tell people what romance is all about. There are people who are doing that even on social media.
I don’t know. I think people tend to simplify things. I’m happy to have been simplified to a romantic hero. I don’t take it personally because I know the layers that I bring into my characters. I’m not the best of actors, but I try my best to bring something personal and some public experience and utilise it. I’ve done this in a lot of films.

I don’t have a tendency to describe acting seriously to people. Maybe if I did, they will take me more seriously. But I don’t think you need to take me seriously because if you eat good food, it’s boring to be told how it was made. You taste it, you like the chef, you say he’s got magical fingers. So, I would like to be known as that person. If they think I’m a romantic hero, I fulfill that part of an emotion, I think it’s one of the most beautiful emotions we have. Having said that, personally, I’m weird with romance. Actually, I don’t even like romantic films. It’s strange, jaisa log bolte hain na, if you have plans, God has a way of laughing at you. That’s the only kind of hero I didn’t want to be when I came in. My first five-seven films were anti-hero and different because I was awkward. I said I don’t look good enough and I can’t romance a girl. I remember Yash Chopra ji telling me, ‘If you want to be a legend, you have to be a romantic hero.’ And I was like, ‘Yash ji, yeh kya bol rahe ho?  Mujhe action karne do.’ He’s made films like Deewaar (1975) and Trishul (1978), so he was my go-to action hero. All the tough directors I worked with, they all turned patsy and romantic with me, including Rohit Shetty, with Chennai Express (2013). I think it’s not me, it’s them.