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MUMBAI: Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan took centre stage for an in-depth masterclass discussion with festival director Giona A. Nazzaro at the 77th Locarno Film Festival on Sunday.
The extensive conversation addressed Khan's more than thirty-year career, his acting method, and his views on stardom and the film industry. The venue was filled with fans of many nationalities, who punctuated the icon's responses with shouts of "I love you, Shah Rukh!"
Khan started off by describing how his mother, a movie enthusiast, introduced him to the movies when he was little. “We had what was known as a video cassette recorder… it was a big thing to own one,” he said. “My mother’s sister was very rich, so she gifted us one.”
The actor talked about how, as usual in India, he would watch films while giving his mother's feet massages. His mother took him to see Yash Chopra's 'Joshila' on the big screen following his excellent performance in Hindi language class.
Khan stated that he first arrived in Mumbai in 1990 to work for just a year, following a year in theatre in Delhi. “I thought I’d work for a year, earn one lakh rupee (INR100,000, then $5,715), buy myself a house, and then go back and become a scientist or a mass communication journalist,” he said. “And I haven’t gone back yet.”
Khan related a story about his first encounter with a well-known director during his early career days. “He said, the most attractive part of you is that you’re very ugly, you know, because all these heroes, they look really Swiss chocolate-like. I didn’t look like Swiss chocolate. So I said, okay, if I’m ugly, I’ll do bad guy roles.”
This encounter led Khan to initially take on villainous roles, including Yash Chopra’s “Darr,” which was filmed in Switzerland. It was during this time that Chopra approached him for a romantic lead, saying, “I want to cast you in a love story. You don’t look such a bad guy.” That film was the iconic “Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge,” directed by Aditya Chopra. “I’m now the Swiss chocolate boy,” he quipped.
Khan was awarded Locarno’s career achievement honor on Saturday. “For me, it’s like a full circle to have gone from Switzerland to getting the highest award in Switzerland.”
The session was interactive with the audience singing some of the star’s hit numbers and him demonstrating his famous arms outstretched pose, which he explained was a ploy that choreographer Saroj Khan came up with to spare him difficult dance steps.
Discussing his approach to selecting films, Khan spoke about the importance of spending time with directors. “I take a long time because I want to spend a lot of time with the person who’s going to direct me. Why? Because you spend a year of your life with them,” he explained. “I really want to have fun. And when I say fun is not dancing and drinking, it’s just talking about films getting to know each other.”
Khan’s next film, “King,” is an action-drama to be directed by Sujoy Ghosh. The filmmaker had previously directed “Badla” for Khan’s Red Chillies Entertainment. “There’s a certain kind of film I want to do, where maybe it’s more age-centric, and I want to try something, for six, seven years, I’ve been thinking about it, and I mentioned it to Sujoy one day… and he says that I have a subject. So it’s as simple as that.”
The conversation turned to Khan’s 2016 film “Fan,” in which he played dual roles as a superstar and his obsessed fan. “Normally, when you play a superstar in a film, it’s all glory and bigness and people jumping and screaming your name. But I wanted this guy to be scared of his stardom, which is very difficult to do it, because it’s like exposing a part of every star that is in the world.” He added that the process was “very schizophrenic, very strange, very awkward” and that he “actually started feeling like two people.”
The actor also shared a glimpse at the prosthetics utilized in "Fan," pointing out that Brad Pitt had the jaw prosthesis constructed, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.”
Regarding the subject of stardom, Khan provided a unique viewpoint: “I wear stardom like a T-shirt, not like a tuxedo,” he said. “It’s not important, and it’s there. I’m careless about it, and it’s very nice, and I hope it remains.” He emphasized that getting to stardom is a result of his effort rather than his final goal.
The actor discussed his recent venture into South Indian cinema with the film 'Jawan,' directed by Tamil filmmaker Atlee. He praised South Indian cinema’s storytelling and technical prowess, calling it “really, really fantastic.”
In his discussions, Khan emphasized that storytelling should take priority over technology while discussing the development of visual effects in Indian cinema. “I think at the end of it all, technology is going to be the backdrop, not the backbone of filmmaking,” he said. “It will always be the nuances, the emotions, the thoughts, the basic, simple truths of human beings…which are going to mount a film on the back of technology.”
After working in the industry for decades, Khan was asked what motivates him. He said that he aims to keep making people happy. “I think cinema embodies many facets of life, so many emotions that’s very difficult and impossible for one person to be able to express all of them in one lifetime,” he said. “I live with that hope that maybe I can keep on doing different films.”
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Credit- Variety.com
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