'I Don't Like To Play Characters Which Demean Women'

'I've been a villain, I've been a champ, I've been a superhero, I've been a zero, I've been a rejected fan, and I've been a very, very resilient lover.'

Shah Rukh Khan has been honoured with a Lifetime Achievement award, the Pardo alla Carriera or Career Leopard, at the 77th Locarno Film Festival.

His conversation with Festival Director Giona A Nazzaro won him more hearts, as he opened up about his career and achievements as well as his next film, King, directed by Sujoy Ghosh.

"There are certain kinds of films that I want to do, maybe it's more age-centric," SRK says.

"I want to try something... for six-seven years I've been thinking about it and I mentioned it to Sujoy one day. He works with us at our office, he's made some films for us. He says, Sir, I have a subject."

SRK says he will have to start working on it: "I have to lose some weight, do some stretching."

Reportedly, the film will also star daughter, Suhana Khan.

Shah Rukh, who has done so much action in his career, still finds it challenging and exhausting.

"Action is difficult. You have to practice it, learn it and doubles are doing some of the dangerous stunts. I have some wonderful guys but 80 per cent, you have to finally do it yourself if you have to sell it truthfully. Otherwise, it doesn't look right. It's the worst thing to see me on sets after action," he says.

"I believe cinema has been the most profound and influential artistic medium of our age. I've had the privilege of being part of this for many years, and this journey has taught me a few lessons," SRK says.

"Art is the act of affirming life above all. It goes beyond every man-made boundary into a space of liberation. It need not be political. It need not be polemical. It need not sermonise. It need not be intellectualised. It need not moralise.

"Art and cinema only need to say what it feels from the heart, to express its truth. And that, to me, is the biggest creativity, honestly."

Reflecting on his 35-year career in the film industry, SRK touched on the diverse roles he has played: "I've been a villain, I've been a champ, I've been a superhero, I've been a zero, I've been a rejected fan, and I've been a very, very resilient lover."

"With the promise that awards like this encourage me to keep on trying to embody all the facets of life, to embody all the emotions, and to try to give that one more take, one more shot, one more emotion, and hopefully, a little bit of love, so that all of you feel a little joyful," he says.

As part of the Locarno tribute, the festival is screening Khan's 2002 hit Devdas, directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali.

"It's a very special film," Shah Rukh says.

"Devdas was the movie that mother loved watching, my dad also used to talk about it. It's one of the greatest classic films with Dilip Kumar. It's been remade in the country many times and it's about a guy who's an alcoholic, doesn't commit to a girl, goes away.

"I could not find any essence in it at my age. Many years later, when Mr Sanjay Leela Bansali, who I think is one of the most talented film-makers of our times, he came down and he said, 'I want you to do Devdas'."

SRK revealed that his initial reaction was a no to the role.

"I said, no, he's a loser, an alcoholic. I'm too cool to be Devdas!" he exclaims.

"So it kind of petered out, and then before leaving, he just said one thing, which still sticks with me. He said, 'I'll not make this film if not with you, because your eyes are like Devdas.' So I said, okay.

"He said, 'I would not cast anyone.' And for a year he didn't.

"Then we met again, and I said, 'Okay, if you can't find eyes like mine, I'll do the film. Again, I was privileged to work with Aishwarya Rai and Madhuri Dixit, Jackie Shroff. It was one of the most wonderful experiences of my life to play that character."

Shah Rukh adds that he doesn't want anyone to look up to Devdas, even though the enactment was nice.

"I don't like to play characters which demean women," he explains.

"I'll be honest. I didn't want him to be liked for the reason in the film that he, you know, sort of, this is a woman and doesn't commit to her. I wanted him to come across as a person who's a bit of a spineless person. It's not somebody you should look up to. Yes, enactment might be nice. I think Bhansali made the film really beautifully. You get taken in by the drama and everybody will enjoy it when they see it. I don't think anybody wants to be Devdas. It's enjoyable but it's not the character that you take back home."

Khan shares that it was his mum, who took him to watch his first Hindi film in a theatre: Yash Chopra's 1973 thriller, Joshila.

"In school, Hindi was not my strongest point. My mom said, 'I'll take you to a movie hall to watch a film if you get 10 on 10 in Hindi dictation'. I think I copied one answer from a friend but I did get 10 on 10, and then my mother took me to watch a film in a theatre for the first time.

"It was Joshila, the director of which I did the maximum number of films later on in life: Mr Yash Chopra. I'm sitting here in Locarno, Switzerland because of him, because of that movie I saw," he adds.

SRK shares his earliest memories of cinema: "We had what was known as a video cassette recorder... it was a big thing to own one."

"My mother's sister was very rich, so she gifted us one."

The actor described watching films while 'pressing' his mother's feet.

After his parents died, he decided to leave his hometown Delhi and come to Mumbai.

"I thought I'll get some roles. Then I thought I'll work in front of the television and then come into films... one thing led to the other. I came to Mumbai for a year in 1990 and said, 'I'll work for a year... buy myself a house, and then go back and become a scientist or a mass communication journalist. I haven't gone back yet," he says.

Shah Rukh also shared his thoughts on south cinema.

"If you ask me honestly, to regionalise Indian cinema is wrong," he says.

"It's just that our country is so vast that we don't have different dialects across the nation, we have languages across the nation. So there is Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi, Bengali... there are so many languages. For me, the greatest story-telling parts of India, if I could say this, is South Indian parts. They have some outstanding story-telling.

"Malayalam cinema, Telugu cinema, Tamil cinema have some of the greatest superstars of our country. Recently, some huge hits, including Jawan, RRR and Baahubali, everybody started noticing it. But cinematically and technically, South cinema is really, really fantastic," he states.

King Khan reveals it was his desire to work in the South cinema after working in Mani Ratnam's Dil Se..

"After having worked with Mani Ratnam in Dil Se..., it was a desire to work in a south genre film," he says.

"Each area, every person has a different take on telling a story, South has a specific one, larger-than-life, robust, lots of music going on. They love their heroes to be larger-than-life. I have never done a film like that. I would take my kids and say please see, am I looking okay because I would just be clapping my hands and it would be as if that's the greatest moment in the history of mankind."

Praising his Jawan Director Atlee, SRK shared a sweet moment when the former named his son after Khan's father.

"Atlee, who's a wonderful guy, incidentally had a baby while we were making the film. Meer, whom he named after my father, which very sweet. We made most of the film just shaking our hands and having a great time over idli dosa and some chili chicken. I think it's one of the first fusions of Hindi and South Indian cinema, which transcended all kind of boundaries, did really good business and was really loved across the nation. Jawan was a great experience for me."

SRK spoke about his favourite actor, Jackie Chan and said that when his son Aryan was born, he felt that he looked like the Drunken Master star.

"If I had to count my favourite actors of all time, Mr Jackie Chan will be right up there. He's funny, physically amazing and enacts well. He continues to inspire me. When my son, Aryan, was born, I felt he looked like Jackie Chan," he says.

SRK recalls his meeting with him: "Many years later, like three-four years ago, I had the privilege of meeting him in Saudi Arabia. He was as sweet and humble as I expected him to be. If he ever sees the interview, he promised to open a Chinese restaurant in partnership."

Photographs curated by Manisha Kotian/Rediff.com