Shah Rukh Khan

TWO Shah Rukhs are certainly better than one. And with the great initial that Duplicate has got, Khan is on Cloud 18.

"Duplicate was a great experience. But then, I was not too sure whether I could play a double role properly, because I do not consider myself as a complete actor like Amitabh Bachchan, Dilip Kumar, Sanjeev Kumar or Kamal Haasan. However, Mahesh Bhatt convinced me that I could," says Khan.

So the team went in for a special effects test. "We shot for that and only after seeing the results we were convinced that we could make the film properly. That's when we went ahead with it."

Khan was initially sceptical about both the characters. "I loved the character of Mannu in the beginning and Mahesh was fond of Babloo. After seeing the film, I am more fond of Babloo now," he smiles, activating the dimple on his cheeks that has floored millions.

On his personal front, Khan had an addition to his family a few months back. If he had twins, would he have called them Babloo and Mannu? "Maybe, but in Duplicate, Babloo and Mannu are not twins. One is a good guy and the other is a bad guy. It just happens that they resemble each other. Mahesh Bhatt is just too good. He directed me as if he were directing two different people and not just characters."

Shah Rukh enjoyed the making of the film. "It was great fun. I love doing stuff for kids. Films like Anjaam and Baazigar were not for the kids. Duplicate is a film ideally meant for children. It has an uncanny sense of humour that would befit children," enthuses Khan.

He seems to be doing pretty well with films now, with Pardes, Yes Boss and Dil To Pagal Hai having done well at the box-office last year and now Duplicate comes as the icing on the cake, reaffirming his status as the numero uno in Hindi films today.

And now he has more reason to be happy. How is the scene at home, how does it feel to be a doting father? "Great. I am also feeling quite responsible. We have called him Aryan, but I will not want to talk about my child for now. I am very superstitious about him. But I will want to make him into a scoundrel."

Reverting to his films, for quite some time Shah Rukh did not have many films in hand. But all of a sudden, it seems that he is having a spate of releases and all of them have set the cash registers ringing. Doesn’t he time his releases properly. "Actually Yes Boss was supposed to hit the marquee much earlier. Maybe these are very simple films and hence take more time in making. However, whatever films that came up for release last year, like Guddu, Zamana Deewana and Oh Darling Yeh Hai India were all old films of mine which needed some patchwork or the other. So I decided to finish all my assignments before signing on new films. Only after I completed Mukesh Bhatt’s Chahat, did I sign Koyla, Pardes, Yes Boss, Dil To Pagal Hai, all of which were released this year."

If that is the case, Khan must be signing very few films in a year.

"One should not do more than three of four films at a time. I really do not know how people manage to do around fifteen films at the same time," he proclaims. "But then one should have at least three films to remain in the running," he adds.

"In Koyla, I did not have much to do, but then action films take a lot of time in the making. In Pardes too, I did not have a big role to boot. In Dil To Pagal Hai, I had a very lengthy role."

The fact is that Shah Rukh believes that an actor cannot give out his best if he is doing a lot of films at once. "If someone has so much work in hand, it does not show how much thinking and work has gone into the performance."

"Such performances will not remain in the minds of the masses at all. It will just come and go. I have never done a film in which I have not paid much attention to the kind of role I am doing. In fact, I pay attention to every dialogue I say and why I am saying that in such a context in that film. I even liked doing the role in Koyla. I am not saying this because the film has become an ‘overflow’ film now. I had to build my body and grow my hair for the same so I kind of fell in love with the character. I want to do some out and out commercial films like those."

But the fact is, many people have felt that Shah Rukh has sold his soul to commercial cinema. "Why shouldn’t I? I want to do films which I like," he retorts.

Yet, he even dropped out of a film like Darmiyaan after he had sent quite a few feelers to Kalpana Lajmi, saying that he wanted to act in her film as the eunuch. "See I did not do the film because the dates clashed. She wanted to shoot with the kid who was doing my younger version. But I did not have dates later. So I dropped out. As simple as that."

Shah Rukh feels that he does roles that he feels are different. "I need to like the role. I did a film like Ram Jaane though I had to ham a lot in the film. But I did not mind doing it. In the last five years I have done 20 films and I feel that every role has been different. The role in Baazigar, Darr and Anjaam were part of one kind of roles. Then Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman, Chamatkaar and Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa were all different films. I like doing films which are kind of middle of the road films. It gives me great pleasure."

Shah Rukh is sceptical about one factor that follows a hit. "Suddenly, I have ten films which are similar to the one that is a hit. When Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge became a hit, many people offered me roles with similar scripts. I refused them all."

Some of the scripts that he had chosen were never made into good films and even if they were, they never ran well at the box office. "That’s true. But then one cannot have anything and everything in life. Kisiko mukammil jahan nahin miltha, kisiko zameen, to kisi ko aasman nahin miltha," says Khan.

But Yash Chopra and Aziz Mirza are people whom he loves to work with. "The best thing about Yash Chopra is that he lets to act the way you want to. He does not interfere in the way you act. I find it very relaxing working with him." Darr was Shah Rukh’s first film with Yash and then followed Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge which Aditya Chopra directed and then it was, Dil To Pagal Hai.

"Aziz is a guy whose mindset is the same like me. We think alike and our treatment of subjects is the same. If I made films, it would be the way Aziz makes them. I know, I will never direct a film, but then, I just want to tell you that we breathe air in the same way," says Shah Rukh who has done Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman and Yes Boss with Aziz.

In fact, the role in Yes Boss is something that a mainstream hero would not prefer to do. "Aziz makes simple films with simple people. In Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman, it was a different experience and now, it was the role of a chamcha. So what if the hero is a chamcha. People still love him for what he does and yes, I love what I do."

Now Shah Rukh has a film with Mani Rathnam called Dil Se apart from having just completed one serious film with Mani Kaul. Also coming up is Karan Johar’s Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and KC Bokadia’s film Aap Mere Hain Sanam with Salman Khan and Madhuri Dixit.

By N Anandhi