Shah Rukh Khan

Richard Quest: It's not often that I'm downright intimidated by the person I'm about to interview. Kristalina Gheorghiva, eh, easy for lunch. But SRK is a legend, aren't you?

Shah Rukh Khan: You're being very sweet, Richard. Like I told you I'm not a legend. I'm Bond, James Bond.

I told you that at the backstage, yeah. Say Richard Quest: that again. Go on. That'What's, what's your name?

Shah Rukh Khan: Bond. James Bond. Richard Quest: Would you like to play Bond? Shah Rukh Khan: I'd really wanted to, but I think I'm too short. What Richard Quest: about Bond baddie?

Shah Rukh Khan: Baddie, yes, of course. I'm brown enough. Richard Quest: If we look at your career, how many years? Now, Shah Rukh Khan: I think actively including television, 33 years now, I've been actively working as an actor.

But Richard Quest: to have reached the level of stardom that you have reached, and for the length of time, is quite an achievement. It's more than that, it's a huge achievement. But it just, it speaks to more than just the, obviously the raw talent, but it also speaks to perseverance, the ability to keep going, which is something that's so crucial.

Shah Rukh Khan: I yeah, I think it's, you know, perseverance is, I think it happens to some people. You don't have any option but to persevere.

So maybe when I was young, I lost my parents very early, and then you realize that, okay, there's no rewinding this. There's no coming back from death, and you have to continue, make the most of what you have. So I was kind of a youngish orphan, and I had to work my way through it.

Or it could be just part of nature, you know, it's the nature of the beast that you are just, with dogged determination, you keep on working. Where Richard Quest: does that come from? I Shah Rukh Khan: don't know. I've, I always try to analyze it that, you know, why do I do what I do?

Why do I wake up in the morning and just start doing it all over again, even when it's, I think it taught me, you know, the work that I do, making films, you know, the result happens very suddenly.

You think you made the best of films, you think it's the nicest of stories to tell, you think the world is going to love it, and you wake up on a Friday morning and realize it's the biggest flop of your career. And Richard Quest: Which happened. Which Shah Rukh Khan: happens, yeah. Which happens more often than not.

Or sometimes you don't like a film and that becomes the biggest hit of your career, and you say like, "How did this happen?" But what I've realized, and I want to say this to everyone, actually, and I say this to everyone who's working with me or people who know me, that on Thursday evening, because our films release on Fridays, mostly, or Thursday evenings here in Dubai.

So Thursday evening at home in Mumbai, I rinse myself with a two-hour bath and rinse myself of the work that I've done. Because what Richard Quest: Well, hang on. Yeah. Let's, let's talk about that bath.

Shah Rukh Khan: It's, it's a ritual, yeah. Richard Quest: Is it a ritual? I Yeah.

Do you put special oils and scents? Do you have bath salts? Do you prepare with candles?

I'm Shah Rukh Khan: not, I'm not telling you my secret. You come and take a bath with me. Easy. I show.

I'm an actor. I'll show you how to do it. Richard Quest: Should I take him up on his offer? Carry on, sir. Shah Rukh Khan: Okay.

No, but honestly, I do because, you know, I realize when you do a big hit film, it's done well and you're very happy and everybody's jumping around. Friday happens, Saturday happens, Sunday happens, and you realize this is a big blockbuster, but Monday I have to get back to work to make a better film.

You made a flop film, Friday you're sad, Saturday you're crying, Sunday you're moping and you're not waking up from bed. Monday, you have to get back to work and start making a better film. So Mondays are for trying to make better films, always.

So you have to persevere. Richard Quest: Okay, but let me be crude. You don't need the money.

Shah Rukh Khan: No, I need the money. Richard Quest: Oh, you do? Shah Rukh Khan: The bath oils are very expensive. Fine. Richard Quest: What's. If you had to define the quintessential SRK film, what would it be?

Shah Rukh Khan: I've said this before. I was telling you behind. I don't know when it happened, Richard, to be honest.

I didn't realize it. I never wanted to be someone who's, like I say, peddling love or or seller of dreams. I wanted to be an action guy with eight-packs and beat up people, be in a white, vest, girl on my side with a Glock in my hand and speak in baritone, and things like that.

But I never got the opportunity. I don't know. When I started off, suddenly everybody started think of me as someone who's, you know, promising hope, giving hope, and spreading love. Like I spread my arms again and again.

So I think my regular film would be a film that gives you hope, gives you goodness, gives you happiness- Yeah. And at the end of it all, lots of good songs. Richard Quest: Yes, but you've also, if, there's a, there's a great YouTube video, four minutes of your best entrances.

Shah Rukh Khan: Yeah. Richard Quest: And there's a lot of action in them. Shah Rukh Khan: Yeah. Only entries, no exits. I just keep entering again and again.

My kids get very, you know, when I. I have three kids and whenever that video plays. And I have to tell you a secret, we've compiled it from the office.

I think it looks just very cool. It's not made by others. We've made it. So whenever a show like this happens, and if you allow me to show a video here, we'll show you me just entering some places and very dramatically and romantically.

But my kids make a lot of fun of it. You know, whenever I get a little serious with them, they'll just look at me and say, "Oh my God, he's doing those entries from his video. S-R-K." So it does become, Richard Quest: Well, do you want to give us a.

Shah Rukh Khan: Oh, yeah, I can do that. I can do that. Yeah. Do, You want to walk Richard Quest: out?

With your permission, sir. We'll, If Shah Rukh Khan: it's okay, yeah. Yeah. Richard Quest: Go on.

Go on Is there something you would not do? Shah Rukh Khan: Mm. Richard Quest: On screen. Shah Rukh Khan: On screen? I don't know.

I wouldn't be, I'd like to give hope in my films. The stories that I tell, I hope they end with hope.

I know I've done some really sad films also. I've done films where, which are tragedies. But somewhere down the line, I just hope that I can give hope in films.

So I don't like to give hopeless cinema or hopeless stories because I think, in life and in businesses and in jobs and world, there's enough, sadness. Richard Quest: So you're extremely well-known here, obviously because of the Indian population that is here, and elsewhere. But you like it here.

You have, you have a home. You are, you are not a here today, gone tomorrow person for Dubai. Shah Rukh Khan: No.

I spend a lot of time here. I have a beautiful house which has been given to me by Nakheel, and it's one of the nicest places in the world because nobody troubles me, and His Excellency, the Prime Minister, also just told me that he stays next to it. So the next New Year party is with him.

He's a good neighbor. But it's, it's really nice. I really enjoy being in Dubai.

I really love being here. Richard Quest: And you find the juxtaposition with going back to No, Shah Rukh Khan: this is very easy. It's just two and a half hours away.

Right So I keep dropping in. We we come with the kids, and there's so much to do here. I'm sounding like the, tourist ambassador of Dubai suddenly, right?

Everybody Richard Quest: asks about crossover, and I'm no different. Because the more I researched you the more I wondered, I mean, the. All right. Supposedly, 2011, DiCaprio never happened.

Supposedly, allegedly, Slumdog Millionaire you turned down, allegedly. Why hasn't the crossover taken place? I don't see why it should.

You're a big enough name in your own, genre. But why has crossover not taken place? Shah Rukh Khan: I've said this honestly, but nobody believes it, so I'm gonna say it to you very honestly.

Nobody's ever offered me any work, crossover of, substance. I may have had conversations with people. I know lots of lovely people from the West, from the English film industry, from the American film industry, but nobody's offered me, any good work.

You know, I hear actors talk about, "Oh, yes, I want a crossover. I want to take Indian cinema." I think I'm,

I still have to learn how to be able to deliver to the audience that likes me, and you know, instead of spreading myself too thin. And then, yeah, of course, if you've not been offered a job, how do you take it? So really, I've never been offered a film in, Hollywood or in, England.

Yes, Slumdog was there, now that you mention it, and I spent a lot of time with Mr. Boyle. He's very sweet. But I was doing, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire on television.

Richard Quest: Successfully. Shah Rukh Khan: Successfully at that time, and I just felt, in the story that was being told, the guy who was hosting was very mean, in the story that was being told, and I'm like, you know, "I'm here doing, Slumdog Millionaire." And the guys who were producing the show wanted me to do the film. I just found it, you know, this guy is,

I was cheating and being dishonest as the host, so I just found that it's very strange that I'm being a host and I'm cheating in the film. So I explained to Mr. Boyle that I wouldn't like to do it, please, and there are way better actors than me, and I think Mr. Anil Kapoor did it, and he was fantastic as the host.

Richard Quest: When the person's getting close to a million, or the top in, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, that moment, what do you feel? Shah Rukh Khan: Genuinely, when I was hosting it, I would, hope they win it. I really hoped they win it.

But Richard Quest: did, but I've done a quiz show myself, and there comes a point when you think, "How close can I get to getting them to win it without-" Yeah. Do you know what I mean? Shah Rukh Khan: I always did that, you know, when I was,

Because there's so many people from different parts of the country, and I really want them to win, and you yes, you do try to be a little helpful Richard Quest: But you can't. Shah Rukh Khan: But you can't. You can't because the producer keeps shouting in your ears, "Don't. You've said enough. You can't talk about it."

And unfortunately, the last four questions or the last two questions are extremely difficult, you know? Suddenly, they're thrown upon you and you're like, "Oh, my God, this person is not going to get the answer," and I feel really bad, and I try to think, "I wish I had some hint," and I can't mislead the person by trying to give that hint because I also mostly didn't know the answer.

So Richard Quest: in what is left that you have not done that you would like to do? And by that I. That's not a Hollywood question.

That is a general, you know, even within your own, within Indian films, within production, within. What still remains on your list? Shah Rukh Khan: So Richard, when I started off, I just wanted to survive, you know, be able to get a week's work or a month's work or a year's work and say, "Okay, my films should do well."

But as years have gone past, I think, this whole, my whole job has become more and more motivated towards bringing a new one, technology into Indian film industry. I want to end my career, which is far from ending right now. I have another good 35 years to go.

I really want to make that film which is, loved by the whole world, and then nobody on a big stage like this asks me, "Why haven't you crossed over?" That film should cross me over. That's my dream. I'd want you to learn Hindi and Urdu and Arabic to be able to understand that film.

Richard Quest: Did you go on a massive retreat Personal introspection between 2018 and 2023. You just had two or three films that were not as successful. Suddenly he disappears and everybody thinks, "Oh, he's licking his wounds, he's feeling sorry for himself, he's, he whate-" And then he comes back in '23 with three blockbusters.

What was going on in that interim period? Shah Rukh Khan: So you're very kind. Yes, I had, massive flops and they did very badly, and I was doing all of that.

I was licking my wounds. I was, not in. You know what I Yeah.

For four years? Richard Quest: Go on. Shah Rukh Khan: I've never said this to anyone, though I've mentioned it, but today, here, I'll tell everyone. I learned how to make the best pizza in the world.

That's what I did. Honest to God, I stopped listening to stories. I stopped wanting to tell stories.

I found myself and made myself a small kitchen, and I started learning how to make pizzas. And I learned what you asked me, like, to begin with, perseverance. Because to get the perfect pizza, it takes millions of square pizzas before you're able to make it completely round.

So I learned perseverance, and I will make the best pizza in the world. Richard Quest: Can you? No. Shah Rukh Khan: I'm working on it. Next four years when you don't see me.

Richard Quest: No, I was it a difficult moment when your wife and your family and everybody said, "Will you stop making pizza? Go back to work"?

Was it difficult to know now is the time to go back? Shah Rukh Khan: Yeah. Actually, you know, there was always a toss-up. I was very glad my family didn't tell me, "Listen, your pizzas are better than your films.

Stop making films." So I was glad they turned around and said, "No. As good as your pizza is, I think your films are better." They were very encouraging, especially my children, my team, some of them are sitting here.

And they said, "Okay, what you're going to do is, tell stories." And you know, I'd become indulgent. I'd started becoming too innovative.

I was looking for perfection, and I started failing. I needed to look for excellent, I needed to be unique, but I needed to look at the audience, what they want, and I'd stop hearing the crowds. I used to go where there are thousands and lacks of people waving at me, but I wouldn't hear or feel what they wanted to see of me.

You know, I was going there and waving and I'm saying, "Whatever I make, I'll be innovative." So I did a film about a vertically challenged guy. I did a film about a manic psychopathic fan, and I'm like, "No, people just like to see me giving hope and happiness and love, so let's get back to that."

Richard Quest: And as a result, the movies that you came back to make, and there were three of them last year, were huge successes. Therefore, that introspection clearly worked. That clearly did the trick.

Shah Rukh Khan: Yes, Mash'Allah. I think, I think it just helped me, realize that whatever you do, you have to do for the people or your consumers or your audiences. And yeah, it also made me realize, one very main thing, that don't forget to pray. You have to pray and you have to get back to work.

Richard Quest: Sir, I'm gonna leave you with one. I'm sorry, I've forgotten, what was your name again? Your name is. Boh?

Bond. Shah Rukh Khan: James Bond. He's Richard Quest: available for the the offers. Thank you sir. Thank Shah Rukh Khan: you so much, everyone.

Khuda Hafiz.