‘I get lipstick marks on my face’

Little do they realise that Shah Rukh Khan is not reinventing himself but merely reinventing the wheel. He isn’t attempting anything new or even attempting to repeat the same old trick that got him his first flush of fame. In FAN, he plays the fan as a simpleton who is also the anti-hero, while the character of the superstar serenades girls and also represents a larger than life figure, like Khan himself. Millennium Post caught up with the Superstar on his recent visit to the national Capital. 

On asking whether he thinks, personal space of a star is decreasing day by day with more usage of technology, have they become more approachable… Says Shah Rukh, ‘As the world is progressing, specially our country dealing with technology, so somewhere down the line there is no hierarchy there and everybody is in a horizontal world now. What you need to do with your work, your dignity, and your talent is to show people that you are a little better amongst the simpletons. My talent should make you feel that I am doing something special in the field of entertainment.’  

In this film he brings together all the strands of his career and threads them in one film. FAN, if one looks closely, is a film where Shah Rukh Khan, the man who taught Bollywood to sell anything and everything from washing detergents to luxury watches, is the sum of all the parts he has played so far in his 25-year-long career.

Have you ever encountered any crazy fan who annoyed you? And the answer pops up, ‘No fan has ever annoyed me, yes through technology nowadays people are being more expressive, and they should be because every opinion matters. Well, I have mostly female fans though! So the maximum that can be, is that I get more lipstick marks on my face!’  

On being asked, how is this film different from the other films he has done, Shah Rukh says, ‘I would like to put it as- ‘this film is very unique’.  It is a very Delhi based character, where both Maneesh (Sharma) and I are from. Well there is only one song in the thriller film. The film is not just a story of a fan’s undying love and adulation, it’s about how Gaurav’s admiration towards a superstar slowly turns into a dangerous obsession. People keep saying that I do the same acting for the past 25 years, even the critics say that. But I have tried to be different with this film,’ he said.

Talking about the transformation in the movie, he says, ‘The makeup has been a task for me, which was done by the world famous makeup artist Greg Cannom. Enacting a double role of a superstar and his young admirer in his upcoming film FAN was physically quite challenging. We had to put make-up and initially it used to take six hours. Later, after some practice, it took two-and-half to three hours. My height was shortened, I had to undergo voice modulation which was very difficult to maintain for hours’, he said.

Everyone is indeed excited to see the return of SRK, the anti-hero. The actor, who had charmed audiences in the earliest part of his career with his endearing simpleton act in Chamatkar and in the first half of Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman, had established his position as an actor with negative roles in Baazigar, Darr and Anjaam, before becoming Bollywood’s favourite romantic lead with Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge.