King Khan
Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan on his rise to fame
FROM BOLLYWOOD TO THE AMERICAN FILM CHARTS, SHAH RUKH KHAN IS A MAN ON TOP
words: robina dam
WESTERN FILM CRITICS have described Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan as a combination of Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt: he has the same box-office and studio pulling power as Cruise and attracts female fans’ adulation like Pitt. As befits his status, when we meet at London’s Berkeley Hotel in Knightsbridge, you can see the other trappings of superstardom. Huge, burly security men surround the suite and a posse of publicists with walkie-talkies are frantically ensuring that private interviews prior to the press conference are controlled la Hollywood. But the actor himself is charming and at ease.
Khan, 41, who lives in a heritage mansion in Mumbai with his wife Gouri, and two young children, is in London to promote the soundtrack which accompanies his forthcoming blockbuster.
Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (Never Say Goodbye) is a Hindi movie set in New York about two couples who go through complicated relationship breakdowns. His is the lead role in the film, but when it comes to the musical interludes, it’s all about lip-synching. So how come the CD is so important? After the Indian sub-continent, Britain is the biggest market for Bollywood music soundtracks, to the tune of £10 million.
“Music is integral to our culture,” explains Khan, known to his staff and fans as SRK. “So when people describe Bollywood films as ‘musicals’, I correct them. They are dramas or human interest stories, which happen to include song in them in the same way as we include songs in our lives.”
But he resists any attempts to play down these films as ‘lightweight’. Asked if he would ever consider appearing in an art-house flick, he responds: “Including music in films doesn’t make them any less serious. I’ve done a historical epic, Devdas [which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2002], as well as a story about the brain-drain of the younger generation to America [in Swades, We the People]. The sound of buzzing flies isn’t what makes a film art-house.”
In 2004, the Asian edition of the hugely influential Time magazine described Khan as the most influential man in cinema – globally, that is. Their reasoning was that as the ‘King of Bollywood’ he has an audience of 3.6 billion, compared to the Hollywood industry’s 2.6 billion. That, plus the fact he has already made over 40 films since launching his film career in 1992.
“I can’t actually remember if the latest movie is the 42nd or the 43rd I’ve done,” he laughs. What he would prefer us to know is that his recent movie Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham (The Indian Family) became the first Indian movie to enter the American film charts. And that there’s more coming their way.
The soundtrack to Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna is out now (Sony BMG)
